Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Halo is a Lie: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

I push my doors open, and the familiar creak echoes through the apartment. My coat comes off next, but just as I stretch my hands to place it on the hanger, I freeze. Something isn’t right in here. As an Emergency room nurse, I have learned how to pick up even the smallest detail because that might just be the difference between a dead and living patient. Applying it to my everyday life is easy, because I am almost always the only person I let into my space.The coat hits the floor in a whisper as I let it go, then place one foot after the other, pushing further into my apartment. It is a tiny space above a bookstore, so it should take only a few minutes to cover every inch of it.I can smell the perfume, rich and strong, with every step I take.“Who is here?” I call, my heart thumping hard against my chest. “You better run away now while you have the chance. The cops are already on their way.”Silence.With my trembling hands, I pick up the base bat that never leaves the side of th

We hide in the disused water closet, as the second trickle pass. Saint presses a hand over my mouth to keep me from making a sound. It feels like forever, as I listen to my belongings getting thrashed without being able to do a thing about it.Even when I no longer hear them, Saint doesn’t let me move, pushing me hard against him for another couple of minutes. He steps out first, retrieving a gun I hadn’t seen last night when I treated him and covering the space.When he doesn’t return, I get out too, joining him in the middle of my bedroom. My bed has been turned over, and the contents of my wardrobe are all over the floor.I turn to look at him, just as a knock sounds on my door, followed by a sing-song voice. “Stay here!” I instruct with clenched teeth, before walking out of the room, shutting the door behind me. Saint didn’t look like one used to taking instructions, but he brought me here in the first place. The least he can do is listen to me. “Maya!” My best friend’s voice tr

When my eyes fall open, it is hard to make out where I am. The silence stretches on endlessly, and for a few seconds, I just lay on the huge, luxurious bed, letting the memories from last night flood me.Saint Lachlan. “Shit! The hospital!” I sit up with a jolt, feeling dizzy as blood rushes into my head. I give myself one more second before scampering out of bed, heading out through the doors.But I halt the moment I get outside. The hallway is so long and the penthouse so huge that I don't know where to turn to get myself into the living room, or the kitchen.Looking towards my left and right, I decide to go right, fulfilling a part of me that thinks everything has gone left since the night Saint stumbled into my life. My feet take me down the hallway, bathed in the morning light coming in through the tall windows. I see a door slightly open on the left. My curiosity gets the better of me as I take a peek.It looks like a study, with an imposing desk that looks like mahogany. A th

I’m not sure if Saint’s words are still echoing in my head because of their meaning, or because of the way he said them, low, deliberate, like each syllable was meant to stop me in my tracks.Some truths don’t protect you. They bury you.The problem is, I’ve always been the kind of person who digs. I’m not good at leaving questions unanswered, especially when the answers are right in front of me wearing expensive suits and keeping secrets.Saint is gone when I step out of the bedroom, the smell of his cologne still clinging faintly to the air. The apartment feels colder without him in it, not because he’s warm, God, he’s not, but because he’s the kind of presence that fills a room whether you want him to or not.Lucio is waiting in the living room, arms folded across his broad chest. His expression is the same one he’s worn every time I’ve seen him: vaguely irritated, like my existence makes his job harder.“You ready?” he asks.I nod, pulling on my coat. My bag is already slung over

The silence between us is a living, breathing thing. It follows me from the car into the penthouse, clinging to me like a second skin. Saint doesn’t speak a word as he locks the door behind us, and I don’t bother looking back at him. My legs move on their own, carrying me down the hallway, my chest tight with the weight of everything I haven’t said.I want to scream. I want to throw something heavy against the pristine walls just to see if anything in this cold, perfect space can break. I want him to hurt the way he makes me hurt, every time he cuts me off with that voice like steel, every time he feeds me silence instead of the truth.I don’t stop until I’m standing in the middle of the guest room, hands shaking as I clutch the edge of the nightstand. My reflection stares back at me from the mirror above the dresser. My face is pale, my eyes rimmed red, and I hardly recognize myself anymore.The woman in the glass isn’t the nurse who clocked in and out of shifts, who dragged herself