LOGINElena's Point Of ViewMy eyes widened as the full weight of the situation finally settled into my brain like a stone sinking to the bottom of a dark lake. The sheer horror of it made my stomach drop into a bottomless pit. God, I had been such a complete, utter fool. I had walked straight into the slaughterhouse because I thought, for one single second, that a piece of her might still be human.That somewhere beneath the greed and selfishness, there might be a mother who actually cared about her daughter's wellbeing. She wasn't. She was just a broker, and I was the merchandise. She was selling me out... again. Just like she'd done when she'd pushed me toward Graham in the first place, dazzled by his money and status. "You're a monster," I whispered, the words coming out cold and hollow as I looked at her. I wanted them to hurt, wanted them to cut, but her expression didn't even flicker. There was nothing there to wound… no conscience, no maternal instinct, no love. "I'm a realist, sw
Elena's Point Of ViewI turned my back on her before she could even open her mouth to scream, walking toward the heavy door without a single backward glance. My fingers clamped around the silver handle, cold metal biting into my palm. I pulled. It didn't budge. A sharp spike of irritation pierced my chest as I frowned. I jerked the handle harder, the metal clinking loudly against the frame, but the mechanism remained entirely dead. Someone had locked it from the outside. The realization sent a cold trickle of unease down my spine. "What the hell..." I muttered, my fingers straining against the unyielding handle. The metal bit into my skin as I rattled it again, my heels pivoting on the linoleum as a cold, prickling sensation began to climb up the back of my neck. Nothing. The door might as well have been solid stone. My pulse quickened, a warning bell starting to chime in the back of my mind. I spun around, my eyes flashing as I locked them onto the woman in the bed. Heat flooded
Elena's Point Of ViewMy mother shrugged her thin shoulders, casually wiping a drop of apple juice from her chin with the back of her hand. "Oh, please, Elena. Don't look at me like that," she said, her tone almost cheerful, as if we were old friends catching up over coffee. She took another bite, the crunch echoing in the small room. "You wouldn't see me any other way. I've been calling your office for six months and your little secretary bitch keeps blocking my number." The venom in that word was casual, practiced. "I had to do this. I had to get creative to get my own flesh and blood into the same room as me." I let out a short, hollow scoff, a dry chuckle that didn't reach my eyes. "So you lied. You had your little neighbor friend stage a full medical emergency. Wow." I shook my head slowly, feeling something hard and final settling in my chest like a stone. "Heather was right. She called it down to the exact syllable." Cynthia's face soured instantly, her comfortable demeanor t
Elena's Point Of ViewThe car crawled at a glacial pace down the crumbling street, the uneven pavement jolting me against the plush leather seat. I couldn't stop my eyes from drifting to the left, and then, there it was. The house. The exact peeling, off-white bungalow where my entire childhood had been systematically dismantled, piece by piece. The front porch was rotting even worse than I remembered, the old rusted screen door hanging off its hinges like a broken wing. The paint had faded to a sickly yellow-gray, and weeds choked the small front yard where I'd once tried to plant flowers, desperate to create something beautiful in that place of ugliness. Those flowers had died within a week… I'd been too young to know they needed water, and there had been no one to teach me. A heavy, suffocatingly bitter feeling washed over my chest, hot and thick, choking the air from my lungs. My throat constricted as memories I'd buried deep clawed their way to the surface.I ripped my gaze aw
Elena's Point Of View"Fine," he muttered, adjusting his stance with a lazy, satisfied smirk that made my stomach flip and heat pool between my thighs. "But you are not going there alone. And if she's actually dead, you let me know immediately and I will personally send the cheapest, heaviest pine casket Dallas has to offer." The dark humor was so perfectly Jaxx that I couldn't help but laugh. I burst out laughing, the sound bright against the lingering tension in the room. The absurdity of his grim humor never failed to catch me off guard, to remind me that beneath the violence and the control, there was a man who made me laugh in the darkest moments. Jaxx just shrugged, completely unbothered by his own dark wit, though a small smile played at his lips, softening the hard lines of his face. "But must you even be there personally?" he grumbled, his eyebrows pulling together again as his hand trailed slowly up the spine of my shirt, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Each touch was deli
Elena's Point Of View"I will," I said, my thumb smoothing over the glass screen one last time before dropping the phone onto the desk. The device landed with a hollow thud that seemed to echo in the quiet office, a sound that felt far too final. "I will talk to him, Heather. I promise." "Good," she groaned, her voice still vibrating with that protective, younger-sister fire that had grown sharper since our childhood struggles. The edge in her tone reminded me of the girl who'd once stood between me and our mother's boyfriend with nothing but a kitchen knife and sheer determination. "Because if I find out you snuck down to some sketchy county hospital by yourself, I will personally dig that granite grave for you too. Love you, bye." The line went dead, leaving me in the quiet expanse of my office. I sat there for a moment, staring at the dark screen, wondering how my little sister had become the voice of reason in my life. When had the roles reversed so completely? The following da
Elena’s Point Of ViewFor a second, he didn’t move. He just stared at me, his gaze roaming over my face, my body, like he was memorizing every inch of me.Then… “Are you sure that’s what you want?”His voice was a growl, low and dangerous, like he was holding back something feral. I nodded, my thro
Jaxx’s Point Of ViewThe weight of Roman’s words sat between us like a loaded gun.“It’s about your grandfather,” he’d said, and even now, the echo of it rippled through my skull.I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to roll my eyes so hard they might stick. The old man, always the old man. He neve
Elena’s Point Of ViewFor a split second, the words didn’t feel real. My brain scrambled, tripping over itself, as if reality had bent into some impossible dream. My chest rose and fell, breath trapped halfway between panic and disbelief.This had to be a dream. It had to. My mind grasped for logic
Elena’s Point Of ViewI sat cross-legged on the bed, the duvet a mess beneath me, papers scattered across the sheets like a storm I hadn’t yet cleaned up. Folders stacked half-open, receipts folded into worn envelopes, property documents with my name scrawled on the edges, everything I’d quietly co







