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The Love She Destroyed

The Love She Destroyed

Short Story · Emotional Realism
By:  RaineCompleted
Language: English
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8Chapters
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Synopsis

Face Slapping

Bias

Hypocrisy

Independence

Plot Twists

Feel-Good Story

Three years ago I erased my identity without telling anyone and left Harbor City. I ran into Stella Shaw at St. Auden's. She'd brought her foster brother to the evening service. I was there to light a candle for my mother. Stepping over the threshold, I tripped. She caught me fast, and there was irritation in her voice. "Do you not watch where you're walking?" She didn't recognize me. Leo, at her side, smiled. "Sorry about that. My sister just worries about me. She thought you might knock into me. "There's a service this evening. Are you here for it too?" I paused, and found myself glancing at Stella, whose lips were pressed into a line. "It's the anniversary of my mother's death. I came to light a candle for her. "There's an old injury in my leg. I lost my footing for a second. Sorry." Leo looked at my bad leg and shook his head, sorry for me. "Poor guy." My chest seized. I pulled the mask tighter over my face without thinking and walked away fast. Three years ago, at a banquet, I was drugged and lost consciousness, and woke up lying next to a homeless man. Overnight my photos were on every screen in the country, and I was the degenerate the whole city lined up to condemn. And the drink that put me under, Stella had handed me herself.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I ran to find Stella and demand the truth.

But just as I reached her office door, I heard her assistant, Dana Whitmore, speaking inside.

"Ms. Shaw, the photos have been running on every outlet in Harbor City all day.

"Can we take them down now?"

"Yes."

Stella turned slightly and lit a cigar.

Smoke curled around her face.

Her expression stayed cold.

"And the homeless man?"

Dana nodded.

"Handled. He took the money and boarded a boat for South America.

"He won't be back."

She sounded impressed with her own work.

"That was a masterstroke, Ms. Shaw.

"The moment the story broke, Noah Lane was finished. He lost the Best Actor nomination and turned into the most hated man in the city.

"Let's see how he competes with Leo now."

The words hit me like thunder.

Then Dana pulled out another document.

"The breach penalty is written exactly as you asked. Two hundred and ninety million dollars.

"Repayment due within three months.

"Please confirm."

Stella tapped the contract with one finger.

"Add one more condition.

"He can't hand back jewelry or gifts to offset it. Cash only."

Dana had legal on the phone inside a minute.

"You think of everything, Ms. Shaw.

"You've given Noah a fortune over the years. He could have sold it all and covered a good part of this.

"Now he's carrying two hundred and ninety million and can't liquidate a thing. He'll never be able to touch Leo again."

I started shaking. My fingers dug into the wall.

So all of it — every bit of it — had been for Leo Vance.

Stella's foster brother.

A month earlier she'd forced him into my film as the lead and demoted me to the servant at his side.

During the shoot he had the director add a scene where he slapped me. He did it more than twenty times.

Stella saw my face afterward, swollen and split open.

All she said was, "He's young. Let him have his temper."

She'd forgotten that when I was a kid, people called me a live wire.

That night Leo pulled back his blanket and found the bed crawling with venomous insects.

He screamed himself hoarse.

Stella slapped me for it.

I answered with a blade and took off half her eyebrow.

I can still see the look she gave me then. It goes through me even now.

Inside the office, she spoke again.

"Keep an eye on Noah for the next few days. Don't let him stir anything up.

"Best Actor is Leo's dream. I won't have anyone ruin that ceremony."

I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood, then turned and fled.

My phone rang.

Lucas's voice came through, furious.

"Noah, what are these photos online? My brother would never do something like that.

"Tell me who did this to you. I'll make them pay."

At the sound of his voice, everything in me finally gave.

"Lucas.

"I want to leave Harbor City.

"I don't love her anymore."

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8 Chapters
Chapter 1
I ran to find Stella and demand the truth.But just as I reached her office door, I heard her assistant, Dana Whitmore, speaking inside."Ms. Shaw, the photos have been running on every outlet in Harbor City all day."Can we take them down now?""Yes."Stella turned slightly and lit a cigar.Smoke curled around her face.Her expression stayed cold."And the homeless man?"Dana nodded."Handled. He took the money and boarded a boat for South America."He won't be back."She sounded impressed with her own work."That was a masterstroke, Ms. Shaw."The moment the story broke, Noah Lane was finished. He lost the Best Actor nomination and turned into the most hated man in the city."Let's see how he competes with Leo now."The words hit me like thunder.Then Dana pulled out another document."The breach penalty is written exactly as you asked. Two hundred and ninety million dollars."Repayment due within three months."Please confirm."Stella tapped the contract with on
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Chapter 2
After I hung up I walked out of the building in a daze and went to file the paperwork to erase my identity.They told me it would take three days.So I tried to book a flight for three days out.Every card in my name had been frozen.I went through a dozen of them. Not one worked.I took a slow breath, swallowed the pressure sitting in my chest, and called Lucas to book the ticket for me.Then I drove to Shaw Group and pushed open the door to Stella's office.Before I could get a word out, she threw the breach agreement at me."Three months to pay it off. Otherwise Starline files a lawsuit."The papers caught me across the face. Something in my chest went cold and stayed cold. I made myself speak anyway."What gives you the right to freeze my accounts? Every dollar in them is money I earned. You don't get to touch it."Stella looked up. Her eyes were ice."Without the agency I built for you, would you be standing where you are?"Don't forget it, Noah. Everything you have,
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Chapter 3
I went back to the villa where Stella and I had lived for ten years, moving like something already dead.Leo was sprawled across the couch. He looked up at me with open challenge and hit the remote.Every station was running the hotel footage. Reporters crowding me in that room, catching me in the act, as they kept putting it."Mr. Lane, that's quite an appetite you've got.""Look at the great Noah Lane. Not so particular when the cameras are off, is he?""Have some shame, would you?"I threw my hands over my face, and it didn't stop a single lens.It didn't matter what I said. Nobody believed a word of it.One of them finally lost patience."Caught in the act and you still want to explain? Just admit it. You're nothing but a man who only thinks with his lower half."They filmed every humiliating second of it and put it everywhere.All of it on Stella's orders.Leo came toward me looking pleased with himself, expensive shoes clicking across the floor."Noah. You looked dis
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Chapter 4
The next morning I started packing, moving on autopilot.I'd barely got a few things into the case when Leo burst in and kicked it over."Stella says everything in this room is mine. You don't take one piece of it."That. That. All of it, out."He directed the staff to carry off my jewelry and my custom pieces.I gave him a cold smile."You really do love picking up other people's secondhand things."His face darkened and his jaw set."Everyone in Harbor City knows exactly what you are now. You can wear whatever you like and they'll still laugh at you."You're a filthy man who'd put his hands on a beggar. Stella says she's sickened just looking at you."He raised a hand and the guards came through the door and shoved me aside. They stripped the room like bailiffs.My lower back caught the corner of a table. I couldn't straighten up for a while.Stella came in and didn't so much as glance at me. She put an arm around Leo and steered him out."Come on. I got you the cake you
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Chapter 5
The next day was the Golden Light Awards.Stella went with Leo on her arm, both of them turned out for the cameras.He took the first Best Actor trophy of his life.The room came apart with applause, and he floated through the congratulations.She let him hold onto her arm while they worked the room, glass to glass, building him a network.And the whole time something uneasy sat under her ribs and wouldn't move.She made an excuse about the restroom, walked out of the ballroom, and called the family doctor."How is Noah? How bad are his injuries?"Dr. Halloran sounded lost."Ms. Shaw, I'm sorry, what? What's happened to Mr. Lane?"Something dropped through her. Her knuckles went white around the phone."I told you to go and treat him.""Nobody told us anything, Ms. Shaw."The panic came up fast. She hung up, got into the car waiting out front, and drove herself home.The villa was empty except for the small sounds of staff moving around.She caught one of them by the arm
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Chapter 6
Noah Lane had disappeared.Stella turned Harbor City upside down and didn't find him.She sat in her office day after day while staff came in with reports and went out again.She barely heard any of it. All she could hear was the last thing he'd said to her.Leo came in one afternoon in tears, wrecked with guilt."Stella, I had someone take him to the hospital that day. He walked out on his own. I don't know where he went."He cried himself breathless, and then dropped to his knees and started slapping himself across the face."It's my fault. All of it. If I'd gone with him and looked after him and apologized, he'd never have walked out like that."Any other time that small broken voice would have had her holding him and talking him down.This time she sat like something carved, staring at the watch in her hand, as though the soul had gone out of her.Leo waited, and when nothing came he wiped at tears that weren't there and got up."Stella..."Then he threw himself into he
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Chapter 7
After Lucas lifted me out of the Shaw villa by helicopter, the blood loss caught up with me and I went under before we landed.The whole way I could hear him beside me, choking on it, blaming himself.He kept telling me not to sleep. He kept saying he was sorry, that he'd come too late.I wanted to tell him it was all right, and my body was too heavy to move. There was something packed into my throat and nothing would come out of it.At some point I lost consciousness altogether.When I woke I was in a warm room done in blue, and there was a family portrait on the wall. The four of us. Dad. Mom. Lucas. Me.My eyes stung at once. I saw a man across the room with his head down in paperwork, and got my mouth open."Lucas. Lucas."My voice was nothing. All rasp.His head came up, and the second our eyes met his went red too."Noah. You're awake."He dropped the file and crossed the room in a few strides."Hey," I said. "It's been a while."Our parents divorced when I was ten.
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Chapter 8
"Noah!"One look was all it took. She knew my eyes.Hers went red at once, and my name came out of her shaking.Everything in me locked up. I stood there a moment, and then I took off the mask anyway."Ms. Shaw. It's been a long time."She came toward me a step at a time and stopped in front of me, staring, not blinking.As if she thought I'd be gone the moment she did."Noah. You came back."Her voice cracked and she put out a hand to hold me.I stepped back out of reach."Please don't, Ms. Shaw."I said it evenly. There wasn't any of the old thing in me. None of the ache you're supposed to feel.She looked at me for a long time, until it started to wear on me."Noah. Have these years been good to you?"I gave her a smile that meant nothing, because I didn't want to answer her."I have somewhere to be."I turned to go, and she came after me and put herself in front of me."Noah. What you said just now. Is it true?"I stopped. "What?"I was frowning by then.Her eye
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