Mag-log in"One year has changed a lot, hasn't it?" I said, the venom dripping from my words as I wiped the wet hair from my face, my eyes locking onto hers with all the unresolved fury of a woman who had never gotten her closure. "Because why is Lucy suddenly trying to help me? Why are you playing the protector now? Does the fact that you’re trapped on this miserable beach suddenly erase everything you did before your death? Does being dead give you a clean slate, Lucy?"Lucy’s jaw tightened, the familiar, stubborn pride I remembered from our university days flaring in her eyes. "I did what I did because I was human, Sarah. I didn't know any better. I was consumed by revenge.""Unbelievable," I breathed, shaking my head, a raw, burning tears stinging my eyes. "You didn't know better? You were my best friend since university! You were like a sister to me.""What do you want from me, Sarah?" Lucy yelled back, her voice finally breaking through that eerie, dead detachment, rising to match the ang
[ Sarah’s POV ] I didn't look back. I turned and sprinted into the blinding white, my heart hammering a frantic, terrifying rhythm against my ribs as the final, long blast of the trumpet echoed through the collapsing clouds.The glass beneath my feet violently ruptured, dissolving into nothing as the floor completely dropped out from under me. The sudden shift in gravity sent my stomach climbing into my throat. I didn’t fall back into my hospital room. I fell through pitch darkness, plunging headfirst into an icy, suffocating void.*SPLASH. SPLASH.* The impact was brutal, a shock of freezing, heavy water slamming into my chest and tearing the remaining air from my lungs. I broke the surface, gasping, coughing violently as brine burned my throat. Angry waves tossing me around like a rag doll.The weight of my clothes was dragging me under. I kicked frantically, my arms flailing against the relentless, rolling tide, trying desperately to keep my chin above the water line. Every time I
[ Sarah’s POV ]I closed my eyes, trying to force my consciousness back through the thick, milky fog of my life before now. I tried to reach past the silence, past the smell of the roses, searching for the last anchor point of my reality. "I was... I was in the car," I murmured, the images returning in broken, violent fragments. "We were on the highway back to the estate. Dex was driving. We were talking about the buildings, about the traffic... and then a car came up behind us. High beams. Blue lights. There was metal... and a man with a mask... and then the world started to spin." I opened my eyes, the terror of the highway reflecting in my pupils. "That's all I can remember. I remember the car rolling." "They want you dead, Sarah," My Mom said, her voice dropping into a hard, protective tone that I recognized from my childhood. "The people in your life who smile at you. The people whose toes you've stepped on. They want you gone, and they think they’ve won." "But you cannot give
[ Sarah’s POV ]One second I was trapped in the suffocating, freezing dark of the woods, the smell of blood and mud thick in my throat, and the next minute, the pain simply stopped.It vanished entirely, leaving behind a lightness that felt unnatural, almost heavy in its absence.I opened my eyes, my boots clean, dry, and entirely devoid of the mud from the ditch... and stepped onto a floor that looked like solid glass, covered in a low, swirling mist that clung to my ankles like milk. The air didn't smelled like lilies and roses.Above me, there was no sky, only vast, towering pillars of white clouds that shifted in slow, silent syn, illuminated by a source of light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once."Dex?" I called out, my voice sounding strangely flat, the echo swallowed instantly by the vastness of the space. "Tyler?"Nobody answered.I started walking, my legs moving without pain. The fractured ankle I had been dragging through the brush just moments ago had
Dark, heavy drops of crimson were smeared across a cluster of wide leaves, followed by a broken branch. She was hurt. She was dragging herself through the woods, and she was bleeding."Sarah! It’s Tyler! Can you hear me?" I shouted, my voice desperate, my eyes scanning every shadow, every root in the thick undergrowth. I walked further into the bush, the silence of the forest heavy and terrifying around me, until my light swept past a massive, ancient tree about fifty yards from the road.Behind the wide trunk, lying face down in the dirt and wet leaves, was a small, pale figure."Sarah!"I dropped to my knees beside her, my hands shaking so violently I could barely function as I reached down and gently rolled her body over. Her face was deathly white, her skin ice cold and stiff from being exposed to the freezing rain for hours. A deep, jagged gash along her hairline was still oozing blood, the dark curls of her hair matted against her forehead. Her lips were blue, her breathing so s
[ Tyler’s POV ]“The recipient you are dialing is not responding. Please try again later.”The automated voice from the server cut through for the fourth time, flat and entirely indifferent to the knot tightening in my chest. Mae had called me from the estate nearly an hour ago. Her voice had been tight, trembling with an anxiety she was trying hard to mask as she asked if Sarah was still at the hospital with me. She said Sarah’s phone was going straight to voicemail, and she hadn't arrived home. It didn't make sense. disappear without checking in with her staff.I was standing near the glass partition of the waiting wing when Skye noticed me pacing."Tyler?" she asked, looking up from her chair, her blue eyes still puffy. She rubbed her arms through her stained white jacket, her voice small. "Why do you look so upset? Is it... did the doctor come out?""No," I said, stopping my pace and running a hand through my hair, my eyes fixed on the blank screen of my phone. "Sarah hasn't got
[Sarah’s POV] I knelt on the damp grass of the private cemetery, the cold seeping through the fabric of my suit pants, but I didn't care. I needed this. I needed to be somewhere where the titles of CEO and Vineyard Queen didn't matter."We did it, Mom," I whispered, my fingers tracing the carved l
[Sarah’s POV]The smell of old wood and lavender usually made the house feel like a sanctuary, but today, the air was sharp with the scent of unwashed rain and expensive soap.I stood by the window of Caleb’s playroom, watching the silver SUV pull to a stop.Tyler stepped out, looking smaller than
[Tyler’s POV]The gravel of the Hale driveway crunched under the tires of the SUV, a sound like grinding teeth. Through the rearview mirror, the house stood tall and defiant against the orange hue of the setting sun. The steering wheel felt cold under my palms. My fingers still carried the faint,
[TYLER’S POV]The penthouse felt different today. Usually, the scent of expensive lilies and floor wax offered a sense of order, but now, the air was stagnant, heavy with the metallic tang of betrayal. The marble floors echoed with a hollow click as the front door swung shut.Silence greeted the fo







