Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

I wake up to the sound of water running in the shower. I stare at the ceiling for a few seconds, letting the events of last night—erased by sleep—assault me again: Tyra, Mom, the trip to Orlando, Isaac ready to sleep with me against my will, the taste of blood in my mouth, the dark road, the smell of Jaden, his arms around me. I cover my head with the blanket, giving myself time to linger in the final memory before reality kicks in again. In an hour and a half, I need to be at the university. First, though, I have to stop by campus to change clothes. I can't go to class wearing yesterday's evening dress."Good morning," Jaden says as he appears in the bedroom with wet hair and a towel wrapped around him. Despite the chaos in my head, I can't help but stare at his torso. He's so beautiful that he takes my breath away."Hi," I say, giving him a quick smile as I sit down on the bed and dangle my legs on the floor. "My classes start in two hours."“Did you sleep well?” Jaden sits down nex

An unusual silence hangs over the table. Dad is focused on cutting his steak, and Mom, true to her impeccable manners, is elegantly sipping her tea with an impenetrable expression. The threat of conversation hangs in the air, thickening and getting under my skin. Like my parents, I pretend that nothing is happening and that this dinner is no different from many others."I'm going to smoke a cigar," Dad says. He gets up from the table and approaches Mom. Kissing her on the top of her head, as is tradition, he says, "I'll be right back." I get a slight nod.I force myself to finish the last slice of sweet potato, put down my fork, and take a long sip of water. I know Mom is about to speak and that I won't be in the mood to continue the meal after that. I am right."What's going on with you, Tasha?" Keeping her posture at a perfect right angle, Mom focuses her gaze on me. "I'm waiting for your explanation."I mirror her posture, meeting her gaze steadfastly and promising myself that I wi

After dinner at my parents’ house, it felt as though a heavy curtain had dropped in front of me, muffling the laughter and excitement of the Halloween preparations behind it. I moved through the evening in a fog, detached from the carved pumpkins and artificial cobwebs, from the cheerful chaos that usually soothed me. Instead, my thoughts circled relentlessly around the bleak future my mother had painted with such conviction—and around the upcoming trip to Orlando.I had no idea how I was supposed to survive an entire weekend alone with Isaac and his family, pretending that nothing fundamental had shifted between us. The idea of sharing meals, polite smiles, and forced normalcy made my stomach knot. Even worse were the unanswered questions: how Jaden would react if he found out, how much longer I could keep balancing on this fragile edge. Tyra, of course, had already decided to put Isaac and me in the same room. Still, I’d found a solution—one rooted in my mother’s unshakable moral co

A week later, Ruby corners me in the parking lot with the kind of grin that promises trouble.“Will you wear the slutty nurse costume I gave you today?” she asks, clearly delighted with herself. She raises her eyebrows in a suggestive wiggle, puckers her lips into an exaggerated “O” shape, and then repeatedly pushes her cheek out with her tongue in an indecent, juvenile manner. It’s so deliberate it almost feels rehearsed, like she practiced it in the mirror just to annoy me.I frown and slap her hand away, harder than necessary. “Stop it. You’re impossible.”She laughs, unbothered. “Caleb Jenkins’s zipper is about to burst,” I add dryly, flicking my gaze toward the far end of the lot. He’s leaning against his car, pretending to text while stealing shameless glances in our direction. “And no, I’m not going to wear it. Carnival costumes are not my thing. They’re uncomfortable, they smell like cheap fabric, and they make people act even more ridiculous than usual. I’ll just wear a short

JaydenThe windshield wipers can’t keep up with the torrential downpour, even on full blast. They scrape back and forth in a frantic, uneven rhythm, smearing the lights of passing cars into distorted streaks of white and red. Rain pounds the windshield like it’s trying to break through, drowning out everything except the pounding of my own heart. Common sense tells me to pull over, to wait it out until the storm eases, but common sense has never stood a chance where Tasha is concerned.This is Tasha.She hasn’t answered my texts or calls since she ran away from that stupid party—the one where he proposed to her in front of everyone, like some carefully staged spectacle. The silence is unbearable. Every unanswered message tightens something in my chest until it hurts to breathe. I don’t know where she is, what she’s thinking, or whether she’s even safe, and the not knowing is driving me insane. I’m completely lost because I can’t stop thinking about her.I never have.Sometimes, a pers