Wilson House
"Audrey, don't hold off! Go and pack your things, your husband will come to pick you up tomorrow." The person speaking was Matilda, Audrey Wilson's stepmother. They were blocking the doorway to keep Audrey out.
Audrey glares angrily at the old woman in front of her and replies, "I'll say it for the last time, I'm not going to be that old bald fat man's fourth wife!"
Talia, who is beside her, sees her mother being chastised and mischievously gets up from the couch and rushes over to Audrey and slaps her without saying a word.
Slap-
Talia raises her head and yells, " Do you think you have a choice? It's all about paying off your father's debt!"
The fiery pain on her face causes Audrey to instantly burst into tears, but she still replies firmly without showing any weakness, "My father? You're not his daughter at this point, are you?!"
Audrey's questioning fails to make the mother and daughter in front of her feel any guilt, they just order Audrey as a matter of course, "Aren't you working as a whore for the rich man's son? You tell him to give us a hundred thousand dollars and you don't have to marry!"
The rich man's son they're talking about is Josh, Audrey's boyfriend. "Josh and I are a couple! Not the kind of relationship you're talking about!"
Talia said with a mocking smile, "Who cares?"
No one would believe that Audrey and Josh had been dating for three years, but they had never had sex, and the closest they had gotten was a kiss.
Audrey's mother had become a whore after her divorce. At the time Audrey followed her mother around and witnessed so many men how they roughed up her mother that she grew up afraid of sex.
Audrey was 16 when her mother died. She came to her father's side. But she also entered another hell. Only Josh, healed the wound inside her. He was like an angel, never forcing her to do anything she didn't want to do, including sex.
Audrey wouldn't allow anyone to denigrate Josh, and with that she yelled, "I told you he wasn't like that!"
Talia was going to continue to say something when Matilda stepped aside and stopped her, she turned around with a fake smile and said, "Yes, you are a couple. I assume he can give you that $100,000, I don't think he'd want you to marry someone else, would he?"
Audrey glanced up at her stepmother, thinking seriously about the question. As much as she was fighting it tooth and nail, she knew that this family never respected her ideas and she simply couldn't resist. Perhaps asking Josh for a loan was indeed the best way to go.
Matilda, seeing that Audrey is a bit shaken, smoothly picks up the cake she grabbed earlier and hands it to Audrey to remind her, "You're going to Josh for your birthday, right? That's just right then, you go ask him for it."
Audrey took the cake. Yes, it was her 21st birthday, and she had prepared an elaborate cake and wanted to spend it sweetly with Josh. But now, it was all getting complicated.
Matilda pulled Talia out of the way through the doorway and Audrey didn't hesitate to head out. Behind her came Matilda's voice, "You have to get the money by tomorrow morning!"
***
Josh did come from a wealthy family, so he never lived on campus, but had a fancy apartment off campus. He gave her the key to this apartment, but Audrey actually rarely just opened the door and went in, she always thought it was rude.
But today, she came early because she planned to dedicate her first night to him today.
Audrey had just opened the door before she even entered when she saw some men's and women's clothes scattered on the living room floor.
"Josh...oh Josh!" A loud scream came from the bedroom.
Of course Audrey knew what such screams and moans meant, not to mention the fact that it was her boyfriend that this woman was calling for. For a split second she froze in place.
Her eyes widened as she wondered if she should go up to check on him, the voices in the room got louder, "Oh fuck me...fuck me,Josh!"
This time she recognized the woman's voice, her friend Megan.
Audrey's breathing became rapid as she hung her head and forced herself to calm down. The house echoed with the moans of those two men and all sorts of lewd conversations that could not be described.
Scenes of her mother having sex with her john in her house flooded her brain like waves. Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes.
Pa...
That elaborate cake finally fell to the floor smashing into oblivion. Audrey crouched down holding her head in restrained agony.
But the sound of the cake hitting the floor was still heard by the two people having sex in the room, and soon Josh opened the door and came out. He didn't expect to see Audrey, who was holding her head and crying, and was a little startled for a moment.
"Audrey..." said he as he made to approach Audrey.
Audrey jerked her head up reaching out to stop the naked man in front of her, "Stay back!" , quickly she vomited with red eyes. Scenes like this made her sick to her stomach.
But Josh didn't give up and casually picked up a shirt and put it on trying to explain, "Audrey, I can explain."
At that moment Megan came out of the room and shouted, "Audrey! You're in no position to blame Josh, you're the one who can't satisfy him!"
Audrey looked at her best friend in front of her with disbelief as Megan continued, "You're in no position to blame me either! I'm doing you a favor!"
Audrey laughs mockingly and turns her head to look at Josh and asks him, "So you can't accept me at all, and all your promises were just lies to me?"
Josh just looks embarrassed and emphasizes, "It was just an accident, we can pretend it didn't happen-"
Snap-
Audrey didn't hesitate to pick up the cake on the floor and smash it at Josh.
" Listen, we're done."
NEARLY TEN YEARS LATER….Lucien came to a halt in front of a school,he sometimes come to get the kids from school,sometimes Audrey does that or their driver.He got down from his car and saw them approaching,all three of them.Louis ran up to him excitedly.Lucien caught him and carried him on his arms.“How was school today?”Lucien asked.“It was fine.”His eldest child,Bella replied with a broad smile.He gave Braylon,his second child who was seven years old a fist bump as they got into the car.***********Lucien hurried around the kitchen,Audrey was busy with work today so he had wanted to take care of the children,feed them and put them to sleep before she comes back home so that when she gets back,she can have a good rest…well a good rest after they finish making love.He was preparing pasta for the kids and he knew he had to make it perfect,otherwise,Braylon would complain and tease him for days.Audrey has been busy these past couple of days but she promised to make it up to him
“What does that even mean?”“He had a strange obsession with Lucien. Everything Lucien did, he wanted to do. Everything Lucien had, he wanted to have. There was one year that he intentionally matched everything Lucien wore. He used to tell everyone that they had the same middle name. He even started talking to another girl in our class named Mia just because that was Lucien’s girlfriend’s name. I never liked him.”“Lucien never noticed this?”Mark let out a long, heavy sigh.“What you need to understand about Lucien, especially at that age, is that he was hungry for validation. Starving for it. If anything, all that strange attention made him feel important. To be perfectly honest, there may even be a good chance he didn’t even notice it. He was so wrapped up in Mia… his world didn’t have capacity for anything else.”Audrey felt small for a moment.“He really loved her, didn’t he?”Mark glanced at her for a moment and noted the sadness in her eyes.“He thinks he did. That wasn’t love,
“We saw that sexy ass car out here, and Nathan got the keys to go move it,” another young officer explained with tears in eyes and panic in his voice. “We all wanted… we all wanted to see. But when he turned the key… when he turned the key…” the young man sobbed. “Some people were too close and got caught in the explosion.”Captain Whitlock looked over at Lucien.“I think you were already bait and didn’t even know.”It was as though he was moving through sand. Nothing registered. Nothing clicked. Not the unnatural metal of the handcuffs as they tightened around his wrists. Not the officers’ angry voices as the read him his rights, or the rough hands that pushed and shoved him into a cell. Not when those cell doors slid home with a loud, echoing clang. Captain Whitlock tried to stop the way they were mishandling him. But they had lost one of their own. A young man who was vibrant and full of life, at the beginning of his career.Another one. Because of me?“I get one phone call. I need
Lucien’s eyes flashed up at the captain, filled with anger and anguish.“She contacted me while I was in Italy,” he almost snarled.“After you and Audrey had just been married?” Captain Whitlock raised an eyebrow.“Don’t judge me. There were… circumstances about that marriage. Either way, I didn’t want to see her. But she said that she needed someone to keep her from… Hurting herself.”The irony. She had run to him once to prevent that. But in the end, she had forced him to witness it. His eyes were dark and stony as he fought to keep his emotions in check. Part of him wanted to give in. To breakdown and just give in to himself. Anything to make these feelings go away forever.Captain Whitlock softened as he realized what was going on in Lucien’s mind.“Sorry. Why was she seeking such an intense escape?”“She was running from him. She said their marriage was in shambles and that things had gone horribly wrong, that he was cheating on her.”“That was it? He wasn’t hurting her?”“She sa
“Philip Carson”The name hung in the air between them, like a two-ton brick. After all this time, Ghost had a name. Now the hunter, could become the hunted.“Holy shit,” the captain fell back into his chair. All the air left his lungs. “That punk? That punk is Ghost?”“You know him?” Lucien’s eyes almost fell from his head.“I had him. Right here in this office years ago,” Captain Whitlock seethed. “Right there!” he shouted and kicked his chair across the room. “Ghost was right there!”“What the hell for?”“That piece of shit kid was always getting into trouble. Vandalism, petty theft, property theft, arson… all kinds of stuff. Typical spoiled rich boy shit. No offense. I always knew that kid was disturbed. He had no remorse for anything. The only thing he ever regretted was getting caught”“This was before he became Ghost obviously.”“Well, yes. But do you know that this means?”“What?”“It’s insanity. It’s the most oversimplification of anything that has ever happened.”“What?” Luci
He began spending most of his time at the building. “Command” they’d been calling it. Eugene and Mia couldn’t be trusted. The first prisoner,Racheal…Rebecca … whatever her name was, was being beaten even though he had given explicit instructions that she was not to be touched. And Mia could not at all be trusted with the other one. God, what was that one’s name? Ava? Avery? It was something with an “A”he was certain. Either way, it didn’t matter. They had to keep them both alive and the two overly emotional idiots he was working with were going to mess it up.Lucien was supposed to do a press conference and announce that he was relinquishing the company over to his cousin. The press conference was Eugene’s idea. He wanted a public take down and humiliation of his cousin. He was all for anything that made Lucien suffer. This plan wasn’t going to work. But he was interested to see how it would unfold.They planned to watch the press conference together. After it, his plan was to slink