LOGINShare
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Golden cage.
Last Updated:
2025-04-27 01:56:41
Latest chapter
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 37: Clause 13.
The wind curled through the trees, mostly oaks and old maples that lined the edges of Rosedale’s narrow sidewalks. Their bare branches reached out like bone fingers, rattling as the breeze ghosted through them. Streetlights buzzed overhead in yellow halos as they casting long shadows over broken sidewalks and rustling garbage bags that hadn’t been collected since morning. Typical Rosedale. One of those Queens neighborhoods where the porches were too close, the fences were too low, and you could always tell who’d cooked dinner by what wafted in air. Even now, long past midnight, someone’s TV hummed through a half-open window nearby, playing reruns nobody was probably watching. Everyone was as sleep except her.Niya stepped off the stoop and into the cold, her flip-flops slapping lightly against concrete. Her eyes found two black cars parked adjacent her block, and she hugged herself without thinking.Her legs crumpled and her throat went dry.Silas stood next to the first car, as st
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 36: Found ya!
Two weeks laterThe cursor blinked in front of her. She hadn’t written a single word in two days. Although the ideas were crawling up the back of her mind, the second she tried to pin them down, they scattered like cockroaches under light.She rubbed her forehead with the heel of her palm and blew out a long, frustrated breath.The room smelled of lavender, coming from oil diffuser Pony left plugged in near the tiny hallway. Her laptop screen dimmed to gray, but she didn’t move.Niya had taken up a job cashiering at Dôme, a coffee shop close to Bec's, one of those creaky-floored little places with incense burners and wind chimes by the door. It didn’t pay much, but it was under the table and nobody asked questions. She was trying to raise $30,000 before Thanksgiving. It was a ridiculous, delusional number but she clung to it like the breath in her lungs.Whenever she let herself think about her unluckiness, her stomach curled in self-loathing. She never even got the Elvis Group guy’s
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 35: I'm in now.
His smirk didn’t move but his brows did just slightly.She leaned forward before he could speak. “Fake. Marriage. Contract. You pretend to be my husband, you do the husband duties, you smile, hold my waist, act like you like me –”“I already like you.”“Focus,” she snapped her fingers close to his face, and his lids twitched. “You act like you like me, I give you peace of mind, and you get to say you’re not completely miserable. Six months and I'll walk away once I'm free. Also, you don't ask personal questions.”He tilted his head, amused. “And what exactly are my husband duties, Angel?”“Nothing that involves your mouth or your hands.”“You sure? That mouth gave you goosebumps.”Her nose flared.He rested back in the chair with arms folded, giving her a full view of the tattoos under the hem of his sleeve. “So that’s your brilliant plan. You fake love me. I fake like I care. You get out. And you expect me to behave?”“I expect you to keep your hands to yourself.”“I don’t make prom
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 34: Marry Me.
Why the hell did she say that?She could feel the words tattooing themselves onto the inside of her ribs, replaying over and over in her head. He hadn't even asked her to say it. Not really. He’d just waited like he knew she would and he trusted that whatever war was going on inside her head, he’d already won it.Niya swallowed hard and gave a single, stubborn shake of her head.“I didn’t mean that,” she murmured, the lie dragging against her throat.He made a face.“I didn’t.”“You don’t lie well, Angel.”Her voice cracked on instinct. “Don’t call me that.”“You earned it.”“By kissing you?” Her fingers curled at her sides, nails digging crescents groves into her own palms. “Are you that cheap?” For an almost imperceptible second, his brow twitched, a restrained surprise passed through his eyes but she didn’t catch it. She was too wound up in her own defiance to see that her words had moved him, even if only briefly. He was intrigued.“That was—”“Real,” he cut through her protest.
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 33: Run, Angel.
She shivered.His hand slowly slid down her spine, fingertips tracing the dip in her back like a muscle memory.“You’re shaking,” he whispered. “That’s how I know you’re still alive, Angel.”Her eyes trailed the tattoos crawling from beneath his ear and disappearing into the slope of his shoulder. Finally, she found the strength to speak. “What… what are you doing?”His fingers splayed across her lower back and pulled her in as he leaned down until their foreheads nearly touched. She didn’t want this. She wanted him, yes, but not in a way that felt like drowning. His presence was suffocating and he knew exactly how to pull at her dumb strings. This man that doesn't even know a thing about her could control her? No!Yet her traitorous body betrayed her the moment his scent harassed her nose. It ignited something primal and ravenous in her that made her core pulse without permission, the heat unfurling up into her belly like a fever she couldn’t fight, and suddenly she was maddened wi
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion CHAPTER 32: Shattered love.
When he finally turned back to her, his voice was cold and rotting at the core.“I’ve spent months trying to forget you,” his hazel eyes were no longer hazel, but dark and burnt around the edges with whatever hate he’d nursed in her absence. “To forgive what you did. And still, here you are like nothing happened.”Niya’s brows knit together. “Alex, what are you talking about?” Her already unsteady heart gave a confused lurch. “Still pretending?” He let out a brittled, humorless laugh.“I don’t know what you think I did—”“Suck that shit, Niya,” his velvety voice dropped so low it practically rumbled, slamming into her like a truck. “Before your accident... which I’m starting to think might not even be real, since your fucking tongue is wet with lies. Or are you conveniently blanking that part out too?”What is he talking about? she wanted to scream. Her mouth opened but nothing coherent came out. She took a shaky step back. Heat began rising behind her eyes, prickling and desperate f
You may also like
A Life Debt Repaid
Cheng Xiaocheng1.0M viewsI Kissed A CEO And He Liked It!
LiLhyz1.5M viewsTwins in Her Womb: Sir President, Please be Gentle
Heap Heap1.8M viewsBeyond the Divorce
Third Blossom2.3M viewsDIVORCED AND DESIRED: my boss’s obsession
Betty giaus2.2K viewsThe Duchess's Game of Seduction
Gracie623 viewsMine To Claim
essyshee12 416 viewsBillionaire's Revenge: The Ex wife's rise
Esty565 views
