登入KIESHA“I have mixed feelings about Lacey,” I whispered through the phone. Lacey was in the next room with Jada, and I didn’t want her to hear me. “She comes home in the middle of the night with that damn bag. It makes me wonder if she killed someone before lying next to me.”“Any chance it might be something else in that bag?” Laura asked in the most uninterested tone I’d ever heard. But I was panicking and had no time to care.“Zero chance, Laura. Zero,” I repeated firmly.“I don’t know, Kiesha. You knew what she was and chose to be with her. You’re supposed to love her against the odds.”“I do. But when you’re born from violence and have lived through it all your life, you kind of wish for the total opposite for yourself.” I sighed. “It just bothers my mind that I’m choosing it. Consciously.”“You don’t consciously choose matters of the heart,” she added weakly. “Besides, you said Jada is happy. She has her dream room, and she can finally go to school.”I paused. “You sound like yo
LAURA I sat all night, unable to process what I heard. Damon was the one who kidnapped my mother? How so? I probably heard wrong. He saved my mother. He saved us, I thought refusing to believe the level of betrayal. “Dove?” I jolted in my seat. “Hey,” I greeted nervously. “You’re awake.” He smiled. “Let me guess. I was sedated. The old man does that once in a while so I can rest.” “You needed to. You’ve been stressed lately.” He nodded softly. “I’m always defiant at first, but I end up being grateful afterwards. Haven’t had such a good rest in a long time.” I kept my forced smile on. “Are you okay, dove?” he asked. “I swear something about you feels off.” “What?” I asked, shocked that he’d seen through me. “It’s probably the hair.” He chuckled. “Probably. But I think not. You still look painfully beautiful.” His gaze softened on me. “One day, when this is all over, let’s have a daughter with your beautiful eyes.” I panicked. “What?” He tilted his head. “Let’s
LAURA “I’m so sorry,” I said, panicking. “It’s fine, dove. This is too much for you. I get it.” I retched again. I couldn’t control myself. “Let’s get you out of here.” “Please do,” I pleaded in a whisper. “God, I’m so sorry,” I continued to apologize as he unbuttoned his shirt carefully. He threw the shirt over the heap of bodies, and I retched again. “Hey, hey. I’m sorry. We are leaving.” I nodded in acceptance. He lent me his hand when I suddenly noticed the knife cut at the side of his waist. “Oh my God!” I shrieked. I rushed to his side immediately. He held me together and closed the door behind us. “It’s okay, Laura. It’s just a flesh wound.” My sirens were blaring so loudly that I couldn’t hear him. I searched his body frantically, my heart breaking a little more with each scratch I found. “Why’d you let them do that to you?” He chuckled. “I didn’t let them.” “Are you laughing?” He stopped. “Were you laughing?” I screamed angrily. “I’m not,” he
LAURA “You caused this,” my mother cursed through the phone. “You weak little thing. I told you what kind of man he was and what to do to let his guard down. You did what you wanted. Now look at what it got us.” “It was impossible to make him fall for me. It never would’ve worked. The man doesn’t have a heart.” “I saw the way he looked at you, Laura. It was already in motion. All you had to do was give in.” “God, I’m not about to have this conversation with you. It’s pointless.” “I had to watch you get stolen by that bastard and watch you beg him to keep me alive in the same lifetime.” “I wasn’t stolen. I’m not a thing. There was a deal that I agreed to. To save you.” “Oh, so it’s my fault? You got bewitched, Laura. Admit it. He was so unreal, and you were intoxicated by the idea of him. A man, wild, handsome, protective.” “Fine, Pen!” I screamed. I’d had enough. Nothing I did was enough. “Fine. You win,” I said, each word interrupted by a shaky breath. “Can you say you
LAURA I can go on my own, Camila.“No, you can’t. That should be pretty clear by now.”“God, I’m not running, I promise. I just don’t want to ride with Damon. Maybe I can join you.”“It’s not my call, Laura. It’s the boss’s order.”Her tone had changed, clearly from disappointment or something else. Everyone seemed to hold a grudge against me for some reason.With trembling fingers, I opened the car door. Damon’s eyes were fixed on me. I shook when I saw the weight of his stare. I sat down quietly and leaned into the door on my end, putting as much distance between us as possible as the car drove off steadily.I folded my arms nervously on my thighs and looked out the window.“Anything you want to tell me?” he asked.At first, I pretended not to hear him, but then I decided there was no need to hold back.“How did you find out?”He slouched. “I’ve got eyes on you, Laura. You underestimated me with your stupid, cheeky plan.”Shame crawled over my face, burning my cheeks red.“So you l
LAURA“What now?” She stared at the floor of the ambulance, ignoring me.“Kiesha, is something wrong?”“For fuck’s sake, shut up! I need to think.”“Don’t talk to me like that. I might be quiet and mostly ignorant about stuff like this, but I’m still an adult.”She grabbed her head. “Fine! There’s someone else. And your mother just called me to tell me there was a fucking but in her plan. A but!”“You’re going to have to say more because I don’t understand shit that’s coming out of your mouth.”“God, Laura. I agreed to this stupid game because I had someone I wanted to protect. And your mother said she could help me.”I arched my brows.“Don’t give me that look. You think I’m doing this so I can run away with you because we’re besties? You saw my house. So why would I want to run away with you because you’re mad that a madman wouldn’t fall in love with you?”“Whoa. Calm down, Kiesha. I know that you think I’m stupid, but it’s heartbreaking that I have to constantly remind you that I’m







