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JOYFUL PAIN

Penulis: VEEWRITES
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-05-26 16:39:32

Three weeks. Three weeks ago was the last time I had seen Zed.

Not even a text message. Not even a phone call. Nothing.

Silence.

The silence that wasn't just echoing—it tore into my bones, wrapped around my ribs and smashed until I could hardly breathe. I'd been making it through on the spindly strings of denial and false hope, convincing myself that he was busy or that maybe his phone had been stolen—or maybe, hopefully—tomorrow he'd show up with ainine smile and an even stupider excuse.

But never arrived tomorrow.

And my heart? My heart had started to rot with the burden of it. Rejection. Abandonment. Realization.

I did not want Creed.

I needed Zed.

It hit me like a freight train on the second Monday when he disappeared. I was in the middle of scrubbing my kitchen counter when I landed on the ground, crying like a child. All this time I thought I was in some twisted competition between two men—Creed and Zed—some game of power, attention, affection, obsession. But no, it was never Cr
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  • PRETEND PRINCESS   WRECK ME

    Zara's POVZed sat on the couch edge, his bandaged hand loose. I crouched between his knees, glancing over his bruised knuckles. He flinched a little when I ran an antiseptic wipe over a raw scrape."Sorry," I murmured.He smiled softly, that soft smile of his that had started getting a little too familiar lately. "You already apologized. Twice.""Well, I mean it. For everything. For pouring booze on your hand like a psycho. For screaming. For getting you into this.""You didn't get me into it. I went on my own. You know that."I didn't answer. I just held his hand a little less roughly and tried not to let the weight in my chest sink too deeply.A couple of minutes had passed in silence. Zed leaned back on the couch, kicking his legs out and I sat cross-legged on the floor, tracing the rim of the coffee table. The bandaging was done, but I didn't want to stand up yet."You look really tired," he said."I feel hyper. Like my brain is ten tabs open and all of them are loading."He chuc

  • PRETEND PRINCESS   FIX MY SHIT

    Creed's POVI walked away. My breath was ragged. My vision kept blurring and clearing. The crazed rage and disappointment grated down my throat, hot and rough and raw. I couldn't remember the last time I'd ever felt so completely out of control. I could still feel Zara's punch in my stomach, the hurt not just physical but emotional. Her words? Her damn words wouldn't get out of my head. They replayed in my brain like a stuck record.Get your shit together or move on. What the heck was that even supposed to mean? I wanted to scream, to break something, to make this annoying confusion disappear. But I didn't. I just kept on walking, fists clenched, my body trembling under the weight of everything that I couldn't understand.Carrie was waiting in the car for me. Arms folded, head on the seat rest, eyes fixed straight ahead. The streetlight was putting a gold tint on her face, and she looked even angrier than she probably was. I approached the car, and she didn't stir. She just remained

  • PRETEND PRINCESS   PROUD OF YOU

    Zara's POVI had never been this angry. Not ever. Not when my little cousin accidentally dyed blue paint on my white silk gown. Not even when the roommate I loved ghosted me for nothing. This? This was a different kind of anger. A hot, cold, bitter whirlwind of frustration, betrayal, and confusion that made my limbs shake and my chest hollow.Zed yelped as I spilled the clear stuff directly onto his sore knuckles, and a raw oath tore from his lungs."Ow! Sh-- Jesus, Zara! That hurts like hell.""Good," I said. "You had that coming. For fighting with him like some kind of caveman. What were you thinking?"Zed pulled a deep breath as the liquid hissed through his injuries. "He attacked me like a mad dog. What was I to do, sing him a lullaby?" "You were supposed to keep calm. Let me do it. Now your hand's near broken, and the whole restaurant thinks we're a bunch of animals." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, alright? Sorry that I tried to protect you."I sighed, planting a gentle kis

  • PRETEND PRINCESS   SHATTERED

    Creed's POVI should have stayed home. But I didn't.I was now sitting at a posh restaurant with Carrie, smiling and nodding as she went on about birdhouses."You should definitely make one. A birdhouse," she said, stirring her wine, her voice bright with forced happiness. "Your balcony is always covered in birds. I think they like you better.""Yeah," I grumbled. "Maybe."I didn't care. Not about birds. Not about the dumb balcony. About anything, really.It had been seven days. One whole week. Seven days since I kissed Carrie. Since I quit. I hadn't kissed her since. Not once. Not because she repulsed me. No, Carrie was all a guy like me was supposed to want—shiny, beautiful, planned. She looked good on paper. She looked even better on my arm. But she wasn't.She wasn't him.I had not slept. Not actually. I was thinking constantly about Yuki. The way his eyes fluctuated between light and absolute nothingness. The way he moved as though he was always on the edge of exploding but would

  • PRETEND PRINCESS   BURNT BRIDGES AND BLOODIED NOSES

    Yuki's POV"Kim," I croaked into my phone, my words a harsh whisper above the hiss of the line and the deafening staticH. in my ears. "I can't get to a hospital. I. I'm checking out for the rest of my life. Just. come get me. Please."Before long, Kim appeared, panting and white as he ran down the alley behind the wrecked cafe, where I lay like a broken doll. The wounds from the bat throbbed deep in my flesh, and I could sense the slow trickle of blood still leaking from my nose, staining the collar of my shirt."Jesus Christ, Yuki," Kim panted, dropping to his knees beside me. "What the devil happened to you?""Muggers," I groaned, my dry, burning lips. "Teenagers. Took the keys. Smashed everything. I don't even. I don't even remember most of it."Kim spoke no more after that. He simply picked me up, putting one arm around his shoulder, the other over my back as if I was something fragile he didn't want to break further."This is messed up, Yuki. Really messed up," Kim complained as

  • PRETEND PRINCESS   PAIN LIKE NON

    Yuki's POVI never thought I'd actually give a damn this much about keeping a job.Correction. I never thought I'd give a damn about anything again after Creed and working with that monster shenglee.And yet here I was, in the back of the café, sweeping the floor like it was the freaking Louvre, pretending like my life wasn't a broken glass waiting for the next crash. I'd spent the last three weeks trying to fix everything I'd broken when those kids' parents nearly sued the café. Teens, it seems, don't take well to being told to vacate the premises—even when they're being total jerks.I'd messed up. Big time. But I was trying.I'd been working overtime, smiling till my face ached, loading dishes till my bones hated me. The customers had noticed. Heck, even the manager had noticed. He gave me this half-pat on the back last Friday and grunted, "Not bad, Yuki." From him? That was like a love letter.Today had been a long day. I'd worked open to close. I'd taken a break only twice—once to

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