Love Conquers Everything

The next day, Lisa received a call from a strange number."Hello, who is this?" she asked."It's Kendrick," Lisa didn't need to ask further; she already recognized that devilish voice."What do you want? I already said no to you many times. Can you please just leave me alone?" she said angrily."Can you hear me out first?" Kendrick said in a cool voice."Okay, go ahead," she replied."I heard about your mom.""So, what does that have to do with you?""Why can't you calm down first and let me finish?" he said angrily."Okay, go on. I want to know what you are going to say.""Okay, I heard about what happened to your mom, and I want to help. I know what you are worried about, but it's not going to happen. Come to the Westlake clubhouse in Luna hotel. Come over there tonight and have a drink with me. I will give you the money with no conditions." The phone disconnected after that.Lisa stood there, not knowing what to do. She knew it was a trap, but he already threw in an enticement, so

Two days later, Lisa was returning from work, looking worried. The doctor had called yesterday and told her that her mother might not hold on for two weeks. She became worried, unable to think of a solution.Her friend Anna gave her fifty thousand dollars, and with the one she saved, it's only a little over a hundred thousand dollars; it still wasn't enough. Just as she was still thinking, she bumped into someone."Oh, sorry, please. I wasn't looking; it's not intentional," she quickly apologized."It's fine. You don't need to apologize. Actually, I was waiting for you."She looked up surprisingly and saw that it was Williams."Williams, what a pleasant meeting. I thought you traveled," she joked."Nah, I'm still around." The two tactically did not talk about what happened between them last time."I heard about your mom," he said out of the blue. Lisa lowered her head slightly. "Here, take this. Go ahead and pay your mom's hospital bills; her life is too important," he said while hand

Rachel and Harry were the only ones standing in this clearing; after he had made that playful suggestion, the air was electric with tension between them. Her heart leaped into her throat as she looked up at him, uncertain whether he was joking or not. The ritual still buzzed through her mind like energy, exhilarating but baffling. Stronger-that much was obvious-but emotionally speaking, everything felt heavier than before."A kiss?" Rachel repeated, her eyes searching Harry's face for a clue as to whether he meant it.Harry gave a half-smile, still playful, but his eyes flickered; a glimpse of something more shone from those depths. "I mean, it's not compulsory, but I thought it would be a nice way to show appreciation," he teased lightly; his voice softened as he added, "Only if you want to, of course."Rachel bit her lip, feeling this weird mix of emotions. She had known Harry for so long, always seeing him as a close friend, the person who'd always been there for her. But now, with

Chapter Eight Rachel's POVThe heavy feeling of Harry's confession remained in my mind, even after I had closed the door behind him. Somehow, I felt an emptiness within my stomach, as if he'd taken a piece of me with him. His honesty had come right out of the blue, after such a huge day. I had so many questions, yet had absolutely no idea where to begin in finding the answers.I wandered back into the darkened living room, skimming my fingers over an old photo frame on the mantle-my parents. Their faces, frozen in a faded smile, seemed a distant echo of a life I no longer knew. The ritual, Harry's words, the power…all so rapidly changing.Night wore on and my exhaustion tugged at me. I barely made it to my bedroom before collapsing onto the bed, my mind foggy with remnants of my day. The picture of the old man's wrinkled face, his warning cryptic, wouldn't leave my head: "To gain power, you must let go of something precious."What had I lost? Or worse-what was I going to lose?---I

The room was silent except for the ticking of the clock. Williams sat in his study, the report from David lying open in front of him. The truth stared back at him, mocking him with its simplicity.Her cousin. The man in the photographs—the supposed evidence of Lisa’s betrayal—was her cousin, Jason Hart. A name, a history, even a picture of them together at family gatherings filled the file.Williams let out a heavy breath, his head sinking into his hands. How had he let it come to this?It wasn’t the evidence that haunted him the most, though. It was the memory of Lisa’s face the night she left. The pain in her eyes, the tremble in her voice, the way her words had hit him like a physical blow.“I thought we were building something real, Williams. But I can’t keep fighting alone.”He had replayed those words countless times over the past three months, each repetition cutting deeper than the last. He had destroyed the one thing he hadn’t even realized he couldn’t live without—her trust.