Lock Me Up, But Not My Heart Novels & Stories

As the only child born after Mom and Dad's remarriage, everyone says that I'm the most obedient and well-behaved one. I'm also the best role model for my older half-brother, Matt Hammond, and my older half-sister, Carrie Hammond. Matt is a troublemaker who loves getting into trouble. He once stole Mom's diamond necklace and sold it to buy skins for his online games. But as Mom is his stepmother, she finds disciplining him hard and therefore only lashes out at me when she catches me eating tortilla chips and gives me a good beating. "Were you the one who bought these chips? How dare you eat them without asking permission first? That's stealing! You're behaving like a thief!" Meanwhile, C

"Lock you in? What are you talking about? You just need time to think. I did the same thing with your sister when she acted up. Now go!" "No…" "Dad, you can't…!" Judy rushed over. "You want to start, too? None of you ever make things easy for me!" He shoved Judy aside with one hand and pushed me forward with the other. "Dad…" I stumbled inside, my shoulder hitting a stack of boxes. The door slammed shut behind me, and the lock clicked. Darkness swallowed everything. "No… Don't lock it!" Everything fell away. All that was left were flashes of fear. The whip with barbs. The clamps biting into skin. Men laughing as they closed in, hands already at their belts.

Storm, Storm in my heart, can you stop scaring me hard, loom not above my head, let me be tucked cozy in my bed, All Hearts !!

"But when I flirted with another man for an ice cream, he got jealous and broke my leg. Isn't he so possessive?" My gaze caught on the bedsheet—crusty splotches blooming like fungal rot. Having long since shed any naivety, I instantly recognized what it was. I retched, my fingers scrabbling at the cage bars. "What are you doing?" Chiara shrieked suddenly, cradling the padlock like a lover's face. "Don't you dare ruin the home Ethan built for me!" I flinched, and she murmured, "This is a golden lock, made with all of Ethan's love. What will happen if you break it? He'll be so angry."

explaining without taking a breath I closed my eyes with fear. “Katie! What happened?” asked Sister Maya while catching her breath. Still catching my breath, I hold Sister Maya with my shaky hands. “There’s a man outside who is trying to get in the orphanage! Sister Maya we need to call the police quick!” “A man?” asked Sister Maya. She looked at me with full of concern and looked at the gate. When she took my hands off of her, I panicked and hid at her back. She opened the gate with no fear and I peeked at her shoulder.

To think that I once looked up to the man does bring a slight sting to a heart that has grown completely cold. After it takes a cold heart to lock up the woman you love. Now do not get me wrong, I do feel remorse, and I know what I am doing is wrong on so many levels. The point being, and the fact which I shall keep on repeating. I cannot lose Trinity. Yet, have I not lost her now. I cannot see how the woman will love me after me doing this, and doing this, FUCK, she is still tied up. So it is with absolute haste that I reach for the key that is firmly tucked in my pocket; with a few wiggles, my trembling hands finally have the door open. And as I step inside, there she is, well, not like sh

Next unheard was the clinking of the lock as he locked me in. He fucking locked me in! I banged on the door repeatedly, calling out to him and trying to explain. But I could as well be talking to the damn door because he is not standing outside that door, and even if he was, he won’t respond to me. After all, he thinks I’m lying to him about my relationship with Brian. How can he think that I love that asshole, how can I love such a monster?

The room was soundproofed and untraceable, a deliberate fortress. He slammed the door shut, and the click of the deadbolt sounded like a final, absolute sentence. He leaned against the wood, his eyes scanning the windows, his body rigid. The tuxedo was a pathetic joke now, stained with grime and sweat, a ridiculous uniform for this new, brutal reality. I sank onto an old military-style cot, my muscles screaming in protest. The throbbing wasn't just a headache; it was focused on my ribs where he'd shielded me. I remembered the sickening impact.

I kept my hand where it was. “You said a small part.” “That is the small part.” His mouth twitched, not a smile. “The large part is what it feels like when it wakes. Fire under the breastbone. A voice that is mine and not mine telling me to unmake whatever I love so it cannot be used against me. I have held that voice down for ten years. I came for you because your blood is the only lock that fits. I stayed because I looked at you in a ravine and the voice went quiet for the first time in a decade.”

Finn Lawson thought his struggles were over when he returned to his biological family after eighteen years, only to find himself in a different type of hell—abusive parents, resentful sisters, and his impostor who rubbed salt into his wounds every chance he got! He could only laugh when he somehow traveled back in time and was left staring at his cancer diagnosis. But then again, would there be disappointment if there was no hope? As he grew distant, his childhood friend snapped, "Be nice to me like you always have been, or you won't get a second chance!" His sisters were bewildered to see him disown them. "Are you crazy?! Just give in, and you're still family!" Seeing that he was deter