Set Me Free

Clair’s POV

I can’t deny the fact that I miss LA so much, and no matter how badly I want to hate my stepmom and Abigail, I just can’t. And Hana? She’s carved all over my heart.

“Are you sure you can do this job?”

The soft tone matched the soft smile spreading across the woman’s lips. I glanced at the badge pinned to her shirt read Kimberly . She nodded gently, like she was nudging me to say yes, like everything was going to be okay.

“Yes, ma’am. I will do my best,”

I replied, knowing I would give it my all. After all I can’t afford to lose a job anymore, not with Mom’s medical bills tying knots around my throat.

“I’ll draft your job offer letter and you can sign it at your convenience,” she said.

“Okay ma’am, thank you,”

I smiled, relieved to finally get a decent job, one that didn’t require serving my looks or my body.

“You can wait at the reception. And please, call me Kimberly,” she added politely.

I nodded and stepped out to wait.

Almost an hour passed. My mind drifted into emptiness, clinging to the hope of that offer letter Kimberly promised. But nothing came. And her office door stayed shut.

“What are you doing?”

One of the receptionists glared at me as I stood up, her eyes sharp and judgmental.

“I’m waiting for Miss Kimberly. She knows I’m here,”

I said softly, startled by the hostility in her stare.

“You know what? I think you should leave now .”

She marched toward me. Embarrassment burned through me, but I stayed put, desperate for Kimberly’s attention.

“I need to see her, please. I think there’s a misunderstanding,”

I insisted, but that only irritated her more. She flicked her hand at me and my purse fell to the floor. Her look was pure condemnation.

“Miss Kimberly said you should leave.”

Her words hit harder than they should have. Everything blurred for a moment.

“She can’t, she told me to wait,”

I whispered, hating how easily tears gathered in my eyes. I sniffed, picked up my bag, and treaded the way out of the company.

“Come in.”

That voice.

I turned sharply and there he was. The most dangerously perfect figure I’ve ever seen. Blue eyes even bluer, suit tailored like it worshipped his body.

“You!”

My throat tightened. I’ve spent days convincing myself to stay far away from him. And yet, here he stands, broad chest and all, pulling me in with nothing but presence.

He moved closer to me and his expensive cologne hit at my nostril, sending uncontrollable jolt across my body.

“I’ve got everything you need, girl. I told you,”

he murmured, eyes locked on mine, reading me too well. My heart raced as memories of him flooded back. His scent addictive and poisonous as well, He is a disaster I must avoid.

I could run.

I could vanish into another city.

But somehow, he would still be there. He’s a shadow tied to my skin.

“You don’t need a job. You’ll never get one anyway.”

He said it so casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Money, influence, he had all of it. But how dare he?

“What?”

I breathed, confusion tightening my chest. I just lost a job for no reason, and now this man, the stain on my white, was taking more than I ever intended to give.

“Clair, right?”

His voice was low, husky, almost gentle when he said my name. I didn’t mean to, but I nodded.

“You can’t escape me anymore.”

He slid into the front seat of his car. A tall man stepped out from the driver’s side and opened the back door for me.

“Get in, ma’am,”

he said kindly. He looked like a genuinely good man, just trapped under the orders of his sick minded boss.

"Ma’am?”

I wondered, he must’ve delusive if he thinks I am going to jump on the bed with him for stalking and sugarcoating me.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,”

I said, stepping back. The idea of being alone with him made my skin tighten, even though curiosity tugged at me cruelly, whispering about what those skilled hands could do.

“I’ll report you to the police the next time you stalk me.”

His eyes darkened. He stepped out of the car, both hands in his pockets, gaze narrowing like he was peeling back the layers of my soul.

“I am going to wait, and it won’t take long “

he growled, a smirk forming and I almost cried. Why is he messing with my head when all I’m trying to do is get my life together?

“And if you need anything, just say it. Anything.”

His voice slid through the air like a blade, quiet, sharp, dangerous. His offer sounded almost like a deceit, yet I knew it wasn’t. He meant every word.

He just never smile, Monsters don’t need to.

“I don’t need your help,”

“Thank you.”

I lied,

Because I did need help, but never his. Never.

Selling my innocence to him was the worst mistake of my life. It emptied me out. It took everything and everyone. But my mother lived because of that money.

Her life revived, mine dying slowly in exchange.

“Let’s see,”

he murmured, the wickedness in his tone curling around my spine like smoke. I wanted to shrink, to vanish, to hide somewhere he could never find me even though I knew he always would.

His latest Bentley glided away, smooth and silent, like the departure of a king who owned everything he touched.

I watched him, watched those deadly calm eyes that held storms and sins and power. Eyes that never shook, never cracked.

He looked peaceful, unbothered and I truly hated how much I envied that, when my own life was nothing but chaos and mess. And he’s a part of the reason why.

“Get lost, stupid!”

Someone shouted too loud, too close. The noise struck through me at the same moment the world tilted, and everything went black.

My knees buckled and I slipped quietly into the darkness that reached out to catch me.