At All Cost Book Novels & Stories

ELIAS Aaron was becoming a thorn planted too deeply in my side. His men were gouging into my businesses, milking profits, and trying to buy out my suppliers. His actions weren’t really significant. They were petty things that weren’t meant to put a dent in my business. But even a small infection can rot if you don't cut it out before it's too late. And he was a boil that was beginning to fester. I leaned back in the leather seat of my blacked-out SUV, my fingers drumming an uneven rhythm on my thigh. Next to me, Cathan sat with hard, assessing eyes.

After ten years studying interior design overseas, I came back to my hometown to do work that mattered to the people who raised me. I offered the full package, from site survey to soft furnishings. The materials were chosen by hand. The price was fair to the bone. The town had just gone through a redevelopment. Everyone was getting new units. With the new family policy, every family wanted a third bedroom too. My business was good. Customers from the next county were driving in. Then a girl just back from a city college kicked open my studio with her phone on a livestream and her neighbors at her shoulder. "This is the dishonest one. Look at her. She has been ripping the village off." "

I saw a watch I liked at the counter, and the luminova on the dial illuminated straight into my heart. I wanted it desperately, but it cost eight hundred dollars. Bianca said it was just brand markup and that anyone who bought it was an idiot. However, she secretly signed up as a test subject for a medical research facility's drug trials behind my back. She earned one thousand dollars from that and bought me the watch. That became Bianca's get out of jail free card. Because of this watch, I forgave Bianca for being inconsiderate, forgave her for loving research more than me, and forgave her absurd demand that she would only marry me once I had one hundred thousand dollars ready.

Self care was a high priority in her book. Speaking of books, she wondered how her new, beautiful blonde friend was getting on with her manual covering the basics of art. If Hollis hadn’t shown so much interest in their doodling, Whitney would’ve sworn she’d only jumped at the chance to borrow the book so they could see each other again. The idea alone had her heart racing as she carefully stepped out of the stand up shower and onto a freshly washed sunflower printed bath mat. Recalling how giddy she’d felt when Hollis disclosed her sexuality at the bar made Whitney cringe for a second.

His face lit with hope. “But let me make one thing clear…” I leaned in closer, my voice like ice, “ I do not need your money. And I would never sell my happiness for it." The collective gasp from the room was deafening. I glanced at Damien, who looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole. “Myla,” Damien hissed, stepping forward. “What’s gotten into you? You’re acting crazy!” “One more word from you," I said, my voice sharp, “ I’ll squeeze those tiny balls of yours so hard you’ll never have kids. Do you understand me?”

Step by step, their greed, selfishness, ingratitude, and betrayal drive them to the edge. Kindness was a choice, a virtue. It was not an obligation, especially not for those who don’t deserve it. I often thought that if I hadn’t had that car, that office building, those connections like Mr. Parker, maybe the person digging through trash under the bridge that night would have been me. This world is never gentle. Sometimes, it’s cruel. This was my final lesson for Winnie and Noah. However, the tuition was steep. Too steep that they would pay for it with their lives.

CHAPTER ONE Switching on the shower, I let the water to hit my head, dripping down from my shoulders to the rest of my body. My eyes closed, hoping the water would wash away my sorrows. I dropped to the floor; my legs couldn’t carry me any further as I felt the whole world crumbling down on me. I could still feel my tears dropping down my cheeks even though the water came down on my face at full force. How could this happen to me? Why would this happen to me? Why would she leave at this most important time of our lives? The world is indeed a cruel place to live in if all it does is to take away the people which we hold dear to our hearts at the time their present matters most to us? I couldn

Nyra’s POV I sat on the bed and placed Elaine’s book in front of me. For a moment I did nothing else. I just looked at it properly. In the library it had felt old and important. Here, on my bed, in this room, it felt stranger than that. More private. More dangerous. Like it did not want to be mistaken for a random old text preserved for curiosity’s sake. It was thick and heavy, yes, but now that I was alone with it I noticed more. The cover was not ordinary leather at all. Up close, the texture was wrong in a way that raised the hair on my arms. It had a faint pattern under the dark surface, not visible at first glance but there when the light caught it sideways. Not wolf hide. Not cow leath

"If it is the only way to keep everyone safe, yes." The air seemed to disappear. It was not just the threat. It was the certainty that he could fulfill. Casper was always more rational, more calculating. If you decided to destroy me, I would find the means. "Do you really think you can take me away from her with words?" My voice was low and hoarse. "You can try, Casper. But I won’t give up. I will not spare her. Nor the children." "You don’t understand." He spoke between his teeth. "It’s not about wanting or not wanting. It’s about survival. You’re a risk. And I’ll prove it if I have to."

Everything I’d owned was gone. I sat there with that envelope in my lap, my fingers digging into it like it might bleed if I squeezed hard enough. It wasn’t just money. It was a coffin. A box to bury whatever pieces of me still believed in something better. But I also knew this: survival wasn’t noble. It was ugly and it was selfish, and it didn’t wait for the perfect moment. “I’ll take it,” I said, my voice low, because if I spoke any louder, the fury would spill over and I’d lose what little control I had left. His smile was small, satisfied, like a man closing a deal he’d known he’d win.