Swallowing Bleach

At nineteen, Elise Jones failed her ninety-ninth attempt to escape an arranged marriage. On the eve of being forced to wed an older man, she ran into the arms of Merrick Grant, the once-promising heir who had exiled himself from Crown City to a forgotten border town. Elise knew another woman had once held his heart, but it didn’t matter to her. She only wanted a way out—someone strong enough to pull her from the life that was swallowing her whole. What began as raw survival turned into months spent wrapped in each other’s lives. When the time came, he brought her back to Crown City, the glittering, intoxicating world he’d once abandoned. No one knew that the polished, silver-spoon heir of the Grant family had spent month after month living with her in a shabby rental apartment, worlds away from the life that once revolved around him. Elise retook her exams, reclaimed her top-student title, and began rebuilding the future she once dreamed of. But the night before Merrick and his first love were set to announce their engagement, Elise was forced out of Crown City and stripped of everything she had fought so hard to earn. Years later, they crossed paths again in New Harbor. She walked past him with another man’s hand in hers. That night, a Maybach stood parked beneath her apartment until dawn, while message after message lit up her phone. He wrote: “Elise, it was only ever you.” Elise had grown up with nothing, yet she never bowed to fate. She seized every chance to change her destiny with both hands. From the moment they met, Merrick was drawn to that fierce, unyielding spark—an instinct that pulled him in and a clarity that undid him. She was a cactus rising through desert sand, a wild rose he nurtured with his own hands, and the woman who had always lived at the center of his heart.

The cold seawater engulfs me, its relentless pull dragging me into the abyss. I kick desperately, my lungs burning, but the surface drifts farther and farther away. "Save me, Kane… save our child…" Pain lances through my body as I clutch my stomach, shielding the fragile life within me. The child I never thought I'd have, the child who was supposed to be our blessing. Through the watery haze, I see Kane Porter standing on the jagged cliffs above the shore. His tall, commanding figure is framed by the moonlight, his golden eyes burning with hatred. The alpha of the Nightfall Pack, the man who once whispered my name with reverence, now looks at me like I'm filth beneath his feet. His voice cuts through the roaring waves, sharp and merciless. "Don't think I don't know what you've done, Selene." The currents tug me deeper. My strength wanes, but his words stab deeper than the water ever could. "You drugged me with a philter, hoping to make me mark you—hoping to force your way into the position of my Luna. Because of your selfishness, Arya is gone. You destroyed her mind, pushed her into madness!" A shadow of despair twists across his face, but it vanishes beneath pure fury. "She fell from that cliff because of you." I shake my head, but I can’t speak. The sea is swallowing my voice. "Do you know what it’s like to wake up every day in torment? To live knowing the woman I loved died because of you?" His eyes glint like a wolf ready to tear out his prey's throat. "I want you to feel every ounce of that pain. I want you and your cursed child to die with her." The waves crash above me, and darkness claws at the edges of my vision. When I open my eyes again, I'm taken back to the day Kane's philter takes effect. He approaches me, his face flushed and his breathing rapid. He's already undone his buttons. "Hang on, Kane. Arya will be here soon!" I back away and open the door behind me. Then, I run off.