Collateral

Tiara“What happened to you?” I ask her.Ciara has gone unnaturally silent in the few minutes after she whacked me across the face and I don’t want her to entertain anymore riling thoughts in her head.“Talk to me, Ciara,” I almost cannot recognize my own voice. Blood is spilling from my lips and from a cut in my forehead. My eyes are dazed but I don’t have the time anymore to register my pain and put all these in thoughts.I watch as her lips shift into an unamused smile, “You stole from me, Tee. You’ve been doing it for a long time now you are quite good at it.”“But we can fix—” she snorts, “listen to me, Ciara. Let’s fix this. We can turn this all around. Untie me, let’s go home. We’ll talk about this around a hot cup of coffee and we will forget that this ever happened.”She makes a short barking sound that is between a laugh and a short ‘ha’ sound. “You’d want that don’t you? You’d want all that and more.”“What are you talking about? We can talk about this. And Ryan? He can—”A

Last Updated : 2025-04-29

Jackson's Guilt

TiaraHis eyes bore into Ciara’s as he steps further inside.“Jackson?” I call.“You fucking tricked me!” he spits out, his eyes on Ciara.Why isn’t he looking at me?!Ciara blinks at him. Then at me. Mirroring the same confused expression on my face.“What are you doing here?”“What the fuck do you mean?”“I mean, you’re supposed to be one state away, back in New York.”“Well, change of plans. They are on their way to Connecticut.”Wait . . . what?!“What?” Ciara voices my thought.Jackson looks exasperated when he says, “Your father. He told them about his properties in Connecticut. You didn’t foresee him ruining our plans when you made this hell of a plan?”Our plan?“What are you talking abou – Jackson?” Confusion is eating away at me and his ignoring me isn’t doing anything to help my state, “What do you mean our plan?”As expected, he ignores me again. “You said YOU WERE FUCKING PREGNANT!” he barks instead, spit flying everywhere.“A slip,” Ciara shrugs, “so what?”“Yeah?” the l

Last Updated : 2025-04-29

Beep

TiaraBeep. Beep. Beep.The sounds are faint, distorted, like somehow, my head is dunked underwater and I am listening to the dim sounds from above.I listen as the time slips by because really I do not have a choice, it is all I can do anyway. My limbs are stiff, my whole body feels numb and my ears seem to be the only thing that is working.At first, I can’t make out the words, it is more like a blur, a light buzz in my state. But as time goes on the words drifts to me, clear as a dream.Hence, I listen to the occasional tearful, “Is she going to be okay?”And the hundreds of masculine, “I’m not leaving her side, you’re gonna have to fucking drag me out and put me on a fucking wheelchair.”And the usual, “If you think I’m gonna let the stupid authorities handle this you must be joking.”And the sporadic, “You’ve got to get up, Tiara. The sunset is wasting every single day.”It takes me a while to figure out the voices and at first it comes as a kind of disturb to my otherwise peacef

Last Updated : 2025-05-02

Love

TiaraHe tugs at my hand, “Listen to me, Tiara,” he manages to sound firm, “what happened wasn’t your fault. If you’re looking for someone to put the blame on, put it on me. It was all me. I told Ciara about the child I was stupid enough to do that”I shake my head, “She was bound to know eventually. Which means this was bound to happen.”“I brought you into this, I orchestrated the whole thing with Ciara. Blame me, Tiara, don’t for one second think it was your fault.”“No,” I whisper against his neck, “no, Ryan. Everything was worth it because of you.”He kisses my hand, “when I found you there, lying at the bottom of that hill,” his voices catches and the tear in his eyes drops, “I thought I was too late, it was over, I thought I lost you… I thought…”I raise my head and caress his cheeks softly with the tip of my fingers. He holds my hand to his face, his voice cracking, “The doctors said you might never wake up. I was so fucking scared, Tee. I was … I couldn’t bring myself to leav

Last Updated : 2025-05-08

Epilogue

Tiara“You may say your vows,” the priest’s voice bounces across the garden, loud and clear for all to hear.I have never been so happy in my life.As I look across to the groom, watching his face light up, my heart swells with pride, joy and love.My father recites his vows just the way we practiced, without all the nervous glances and anxiety sputters he sported during the rehearsal. His voice is loud, sure and as bold as a voice can get.He is staring deeply into my mother’s eyes as he says the words, and I have to stop myself in time before a tear escapes my lids and ruins my makeup.Across from me, directly behind my father, Ryan gives me an obnoxious wink that somehow threatens my ability to keep a straight face and still sends shivers down my spine.“I totally saw that,” Melody whispers from behind me and for the first time I regret my decision of letting my mom choose Melody to be something like an assistant maid of honor.It’s almost a whole year after I woke up from coma in t