All Chapters of I Tried To Be A Good Girl, But My Past Won’t Stay Burried: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The tea was lukewarm by the time I lifted the porcelain cup again, its faint steam curling in the stale pressurized air of my private jet. France shrank behind me in silence. The stewardess wheeled in a rack of clothes—black, sleek, expensive. My colors, my style, my armor. None of it would do. I set the cup down, dabbed my mouth with a napkin, then turned sharply toward her. My finger cut through the air like a blade. "Give me your spare clothing," I ordered. Her eyes widened. "Mine?" "Problem?" I tilted my head, calm but sharp. She knew who I was, or at least enough. The leader of an empire doesn't stroll through an airport looking like herself. "Not at all!" She scrambled out, heels clicking frantically as if her life depended on it. Which, for all she knew, it did. I leaned back into the leather seat, nausea creeping up—not from the flight, but from the sheer humiliation of being forced out of Paris like some petty criminal. Worse, I had stumbled into my birth parents. Weal

The view of the siblings from the second floor was pretty interesting. When my father told me he'd made a deal with the Belle family to marry me off to one of their kids if they had a daughter, I nearly disowned him on the spot. I didn't want to meet her at all. I'd actually been perfectly content with the arrangement being nothing more than ink on paper, her lost somewhere in France. I was planning on never seeing her in my life. But then the old man said she was suddenly coming to America. And apparently, I had to meet her before another man got to her. The Belle family. Spineless idealists. The type to talk about saving the world while ignoring the ones they trampled over in the process which was many. How else do you get so rich? A family of useful idiots at best. And if Naomi Belle was anything like the rest of them, I'd make it very clear: we were never going to happen. She better fuck off back to France. The hospital should've proven me right. She barely glanced at me befo

"Did you hear? The guy that tried hitting on you last night," Pierre said the second I stepped out of my room that morning. He looked grim, voice hushed like he was carrying state secrets. "They found his body mangled by the river this morning. Looks like that guy offended someone he shouldn't have. Let's not go back there again, it's too dangerous. We're not cold-blooded and cruel like those people. I swear, there's zero humanity." Well then, wait until you find out who I am, brother dear. "Ok," I said lightly, pretending not to care. "I'm going to get dressed and ready for the day." "Of course! Sorry to bother you." He gave me one of his warm smiles and headed down the hall. I smiled back sweetly, closing the door behind me. Then I went straight for my laptop, slid on my headphones, and connected the call. "Colin?" His video popped up instantly. Colin's smug grin filled the screen. "Hé, la patronne, I see you've slept well. How does it feel being recognized by a rich family li

Motherfucker. So what if I can't swim? That doesn't make me weak—it makes me more dangerous. Because anyone who knows that now is on my kill list. Smith should already be dead. And my cigarettes were ruined. That, more than drowning, pissed me off. After this is over, I'll kill him. "Hey, Naomi, I'm here to play with you," a voice slithered from behind me, followed by the click of the door locking. I turned. Zack. In my room. Good. Perfect, actually. If he wanted to play at being me, then he could handle being the target of my frustration. He could bleed for it. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. I smirked, rolling my shoulders, irritation sizzling through me like static. "You're a lot more fucking stupid than I originally thought." I chuckled, sharp and humorless. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" Zack froze, his dumb grin faltering. I should've had a cigarette in my hand, but instead I had my fists ready. "Wait—what the hell?" "You said you're Colin's boss, co

I walked out of the Belle mansion with a grin I couldn't hold down, the night air cooler on my face than it had any right to be. My chest felt lighter, like I'd swallowed smoke and it turned to champagne somewhere inside me. If I'd stayed in that room a second longer, I might have exploded outright. She said yes. Naomi Belle—if that was even her real name—had agreed to get to know me. Of course, it wasn't affection. I wasn't delusional. She was weighing her options right there in front of me, calculating like the hidden genius she was, and I could almost hear the gears in her head grinding against one another. Which meant something big. And she thought I was useful. Good. That was the first step. A step closer to peeling back the mask and seeing the monster—or goddess—behind it. No normal woman had a background sealed that tightly. She wasn't just someone. She was something. And I'd have her admit it to me herself. "I can't believe she actually said yes after the way she glare