End Me, Mend Me
After going bankrupt, I do the unthinkable for my gravely ill younger brother, Ricky Ashford, and climb into the bed of Damien Blackwood, the notorious mafia boss.
When his smoldering gaze sweeps over my shirtless body, I stay perfectly still. The reason is that I'm afraid to set off this infamous man in front of me. However, the next instant, his lips are everywhere on my skin, and the night dissolves into a wild, reckless blur.
For three years, I endure every torment in his bed. Thoughts of escape and even suicide cross my mind, but the fact that my brother is fighting for his life in the ICU keeps me going.
One day, I accidentally overhear him speaking with his childhood friend, Chloe Sterling.
"How long do you plan to toy with your enemy's daughter? You're not falling for her, are you?"
"Don't be absurd."
"And what about her sickly brother?"
"He died long ago."
The last thread holding me together snaps. Now, there is no reason left to live.
As I prepare to end my life by burning charcoal, tears well up in his eyes as he pleads for me not to leave.