Everything That Glitters Isn't Gold Novels & Stories

(OLD PUPPET) “TIME IS GOLD, BUT IRONICALLY WE CAN STILL TURN IT BACK, YET WITH SOME RESTRICTIONS. BUT ALL ELSE, ONE THING WILL ALWAYS REMAIN THE SAME. IF YOU CAN NOT HAVE HIS HEART THEN BETTER YET ONLY DREAM ABOUT HIM UNTIL ETERNITY.”

“A billionaire can't use G****e?” I laughed. “I don't know, is there a gold plated version?” “Platinum.” He put on a straight face, but his eyes twinkled as he teased me. “Gold is for mere millionaires.” I giggled and he grinned. His smile had the same warmth as it did at sunrise and the beauty of it made my heart flutter. When he smiled, the world lit up.

“Do you know how unsettling it is to see you ogling my son and wondering about his ‘front’? I didn’t take you for a pervert.” Oh, God. “I wasn’t ogling him!” I blurted out, desperate for a cover. “I was, uh, admiring the golden... goose near his feet!” There was a golden decor piece beside him—thankfully, one I could use as an excuse. “What’s with all the gold everywhere, anyway?” I added, feigning innocence.

They are rotten to their cores. “Do not pretend as if this hurts you. I know gold diggers of your kind. You can even sell your soul to the devil to get what you want. You were just playing hard to get.” She scoffs, and I shock her with a bright smirk that is enough to light up the whole world.

I said, gesturing vaguely toward the now-black screen, “is what every man who’s lost something comes in here to sell you. Safety. Predictability. A promise that he’s learned his lesson.” I stepped closer to the table. “But none of you built your fortunes on safety.” Laurent’s mouth twitched. I reached into my briefcase and pulled out what I’d brought with me, not documents, not projections, but a velvet-lined case. I opened it slowly. Inside lay a single piece of jewelry. Raw. Unapologetic. Gold left intentionally imperfect, stones set to honor their natural fracture lines instead of hiding them. A piece that didn’t beg for approval.

This was the stillness of a dog that has bitten before and knows it doesn’t need to bark every time. “Well,” he said. “Sleeping Beauty lives.” My mouth was dry enough that speaking hurt a little. “I try not to disappoint.” His eyes stayed on me a second longer than I liked. Then he tilted his head slightly, and the moonlight slipping through the high broken windows caught at his eyes. Gold. Not bright. Not theatrical. Not some glowing fairytale nonsense. Just a faint wrong gleam where human eyes should only have reflected and let go of the light. Here it caught and stayed a fraction too long, dull and predatory, like an ember buried under flesh.

"Get the money first. Then we’ll pick a fight and force her to sign the divorce papers." "What about those gold bangles?" Rosalie suddenly asked. "From the look of them, even if you said they’re fake, what if they’re real? Should we get them checked?" "Checked for what?" Diana scoffed. "With how poor she looks, could she afford the real thing? I already looked. The clasp is worn. Definitely gold-plated junk. Keeping them is just taking up space. When the divorce happens, we’ll toss them back to her as bus fare so she can’t say we took advantage of her."

When he looked up and saw her, something unreadable crossed his face. A challenge. Nyx walked straight to him and sat. The room shifted. Conversations faltered. “You enjoy this,” he said calmly. “I enjoy watching them panic,” she replied. “They’re not panicking.” “They’re adapting,” she corrected. “Which is worse.” He studied her. “You want disruption.” “I want honesty,” she said. “Disruption is just what happens when honesty walks into a room Briarcrest built on lies.” His mouth twitched. “You rehearse these speeches?”

"Babe, come back to my furs tonight. My room is cold without you." The blue diamond glittered in the dim light, a silent reminder of the danger we lived in. "Why didn't you tell me, Logan? I’ve been treating this like a piece of polished glass. What if I’d lost it in the brush or chipped it during a hunt? I would have been devastated."

I write not only for myself, but for you too! To continue Hollis and Whitney's adventure through life, be sure to check out "Not All Who Wander Are Lost", the sequel to "Not All That Glitters."