Josh saunter off to Megan’s side and she pulled him down for a kiss.
Audrey swallowed the thick lump in her throat.
She had expected him to be remorseful,even if it was just a little bit.
But instead,they were making out,fervently in a club as if they had been caged before.
Technically,they had been trying to hide their relationship from Audrey and now that it’s been discovered,they were free as a bird to do whatever they wanted.
Audrey blinked back her tears.
It was still very hard to believe that this was the same man who had promised her the world.
“Let’s get out of here.”She turned to leave but Becca stopped her.
“They should be the one leaving.And besides,Tracy reserved this booth that they’re currently been stupid in!”
With that,they moved up to Josh and Megan.
“You two,go find somewhere else to be disgusting.”Tracy ordered.
Megan stood up,furiously.
“What right do you have to ask us to leave?”
“I reserved this booth.”
And then the girls began to argue except Audrey.
She wanted to hide but Tracy and Becca had no plans of backing down.
“Get your cheating asses out of our booth!”Becca yelled.
“Go tell the manager that.”Megan shot back.
“Are you too daft to understand that this booth is already reserved?”
“Isn’t it obvious?She’s too daft to understand anything and that’s why she’s always going after people’s boyfriend.You deserve this sorry excuse of a man.”
“How dare you talk to him like that?!”Megan lashed out and tried to slap Tracy who caught her hand and pushed her away.
The tension mounted as the girls kept cussing at each other.People in the club were watching with rapt attention.A fight was sure to break out any second from now.
Audrey didn’t know what to do.She had only wanted to have fun tonight.
Josh was furious but instead of lashing out on Tracy and Becca,he picked an easy target.
Turning to face Audrey,he yelled;
“Why are you being such a pest?!Following me here to cause a scene.What part ‘I don’t want to be with you’ do you not understand?!”
Audrey was caught off-guard by his words.
Megan being happy that Josh was finally taking sides with her immediately joined in.
“Leave him alone,Audrey!And don’t blame me for taking him away from you.You were a burden for him!I made him happy!”
Becca and Tracy were about to jump in but Audrey held them back.
She’d had enough!
“You two surely have the nerves to ridicule me and please,Josh,stop giving yourself too much credit.I’ll never follow you nor will I fight for you.You’re not worth fighting for!”
“Yeah,just like how I wasn’t worth giving your virginity to?”He sneered.”But I found someone.I found someone who gave me hers because I was worth it.”
Tracy burst out laughing.”Awwn…you’re one of the numerous guys who took Megan’s virginity.”
“Lying slut.”Becca let out.”Just how many guys have you told that lie to?So that’s your strategy.Acting all innocent with them so they would fall for you?”
Audrey shook her head in disbelief.”Josh,so this was about my virginity.If you had felt worthless,you would have told me.You made me think you were okay with us not being intimate.And you had to let Megan fool you.”
More people were watching and pointing at Megan,especially those who knew how promiscuous she was,she felt so embarrassed.
“Josh,let’s just go.”
“Megan never did any of those things people accused her of.Y’all are freaking jealous of her.But I’m sticking by her side because I know her better than anyone.”Josh defended.
And with that,he walked away with Megan.
Audrey sighed,deeply wondering if it was that easy for people to get brainwashed.
“My mood for partying here has been ruined.Let’s just go back home.We could have a small house party there.”Tracy suggested.
“Can I just be alone for a few minutes?”Audrey asked,sadly.
Becca and Tracy nodded.
She slowly walked out of the club and took a deep breath.
“Audrey.”
Hearing that familiar voice,she turned to see Josh walking up to her.
“What is it?”She asked,crossing her arms over her chest.
“I want you to stay away from Megan.”
Audrey was dumbfounded.
Who was this man?
Where was the man she had loved?
How did she waste a year of her life with someone who was this fickle?
She should have seen through him.
“Did you ever loved me?”She probed,curiously.
“I did.I really did at first.And yes,I had told you I was okay with waiting,yes,I had wanted to be your shield to protect you from your family.But you didn’t care about me.”
“I did…”
“No,you didn’t.I was always there whenever you needed me but when I needed you,you would be always caught up in one part time job or the other.You only came to see me when it’s convenient for you.I needed someone who could make time for me.”
“You can’t seriously blame me for that.You know I had to work to take…”
“Take care of your family?I’m sorry,you just have too much baggage,emotionally and financially.Megan’s what I need.”
Audrey glared at him.”Then you shouldn’t have taken this long to tell me that.You shouldn’t have been shagging her behind my back.You shouldn’t have continued acting like you cared about me.And thank God,I found out anyway.I don’t ever want to see you again.”Audrey turned her back on Josh.
She marched back into the club.She wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
Tracy and Becca found her and together they went back to the girls’ apartment.
The girls tried to make sure Audrey had a good time.They joked,laughed,drank,dance and let Audrey cry when she needed to.
************
The ringing of her cellphone woke her up the following morning.
Audrey blindly reached for it and sleepily picked up.
“Hello.”She murmured,her voice hoarse with sleep.
“Audrey,your father…your father is dead.”
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
His life had become a tunnel and the only light at the end of it was the demise of Lucien. It was the driving force in his soul. It was the pulsing his blood. His first meeting with Eugene set his plan back into motion. There was no improvising. Without even realizing, Lucien had been slipping through his fingers like fine sand. Always just beyond his reach. But this time he would get inside of Lucien’s world and destroy him from within.He kept a close watch on Lucien’s personal life. It seemed Mia had run back to marry him as he had anticipated. What he didn’t anticipate was the wrath it fueled in him. It was interesting. It had been so long since he felt any real emotion that it caught him off guard. Ever since he’d killed his father, it was as though he’d murdered his own feelings as well. Other than hate, nothing else lived within him. He often wondered why he even continued to do anything. He did have to admit that he was chasing the thrill of that first kill. Nothing ever seeme
“I told you not to get involved with her. Her father is my rival, and he has been encroaching on our territory. This,” he indicated the dead woman. “is a message.”“I loved her!” he screamed back, cradling her corpse in his arms.“You loved the other one too.”“This was different,” he cried. “She was pregnant! You killed my woman and my baby! We were going to tell you tomorrow night at dinner!”“Then I did you a favor. Children are a weakness, and you aren’t strong enough yet.”“Not strong enough?” he saw red. The vestiges of whatever humanity he had left dissipated. All that was left behind was anger and a thirst for vengeance. All the warmth left his soul. There was nothing left now. Nothing except an abyss with no end. He leveled his own gun at his father. “No one is stronger than me.”“Son, be careful.” His father’s eyes went wide. He dropped his gun and threw up his hands. He walked backwards slowly, like an animal being cornered by a predator. “You’re overly emotional right now.
Once she made the mistake of asking him what he and his father did. He brandished a gun and held it to her chest. To her immense relief, it wasn’t loaded. But she found that out only after he fired it. Bone aching terror was all she knew. Whatever life she had was almost gone. The only thing that was left was the memory of Lucien.Being with him was the last time she felt happy and safe. She clung onto the memories, and they were the only things keeping her afloat. Life was a nightmare and she just wanted to sleep.He knew he should have been treating her better. He knew that, but he just couldn’t seem to care. They were in love once. Or perhaps they just thought they were. The truth was that he was an escape to her. An escape from a life she thought she didn’t want. It was obvious that she wanted out. But his one issue was who she wanted to run to. He’d let her go if he knew that she wasn’t going back to him, back to Lucien.He refused to lose to him. So, as long as he knew she would r