Taking Her Novels & Stories

She leans closely, and pecks me on my cheek. My body goes rigid all of a sudden from the softness, and I can't breathe properly any longer. Then she whispers, “Take me away from here.”

She waited until the storm passed, then rushed in, fake panic on full display. "Hector! What happened?" She threw herself into his arms. "Don't do this to me. Seeing you like this—it kills me." She eased him onto the couch, grabbed a broom, and started cleaning the wreckage. By the time she was done, she was shaking. Curling up beside him, she whispered, "I know you're under a lot of pressure. But I'm not going anywhere. Whatever you want—wherever—we go together." "Yeah... I still have you. I still have you."

What do I say when even I didn’t know if she would be okay? I smoothed his cheek with my thumb and gave him the only answer I could. “We’re going to do everything we can to make her better. Dr. Kendra is helping her.” He seemed to consider this, then nodded slowly, satisfied for now. “Okay. Can I take my car to her? Maybe she’ll like to hold it.” Tears pricked the back of my eyes, but I forced them down with a steady breath. “Yes, sweetheart. I’m sure she’ll like that very much.”

She wants to take me away from you. A small smile pulls at my lips. She's pouting, eyes wide and playful as she suddenly leaps at me. I catch her mid-air without hesitation, holding her against my chest. "Don't let her take me," she whispers, her face full of mock sadness, though her smile is bright and teasing. "It's just today and tomorrow," I whisper back. "After tomorrow night, she won't be able to take you away again. You'll be mine fully." "Are you sure?" she asks, her voice soft.

she said quietly. “They’ve spent decades building an entire system around controlling me.” Her eyes hardened. “So let them come collect the damn key, Axel.”

To hold someone again. I take a breath. “Let’s see what we can rustle up.” She follows me downstairs with bouncy steps, and her feet barely make a sound on the wooden floor as I lead her through to the kitchen. I pat one of the stools at the breakfast bar and she hitches herself up, adjusting her pink robe with a delightful little hint of self-consciousness that makes my mouth water.

"You were involved with both of them, too! What right do you have to judge me?!" With that, she picked up a gun loaded with silver bullets and aimed it straight at me. "Stop!" Evan and Oliver burst through the door. "You're here!" Harriet was delighted at first, believing they'd come for her. She even had the audacity to propose an absurd arrangement in which she'd spend Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with Evan and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays with Oliver. But to her surprise, their eyes were fixed entirely on me.

She scrambled toward the doorway and picked up the plate of spaghetti, now long since cold. She laughed and cried at the same time as she brought the plate to my lips. "Eat up, Ed. I made this for you. You'll live a long life once you eat it. Everything will be okay. You'll be fine…" The spaghetti had gone cold and sticky, and the sauce dripped onto my pale face, mixed with Mom's tears.

TARA "Who do we have here?" A sly chuckle escaped his lips as he took a step forward, making his presence fully known. "My stepsister in a motel? What are you doing here, Tara?" He questioned, slipping both hands into his pocket, tilting his head slightly to the side. I couldn't speak because my whole body was shivering with fear. "She said he's with her at the bar. How the hell is he in the room?" That question bugged me like crazy.

My fiancé Adrian had picked out my wedding dress a year in advance. But now he was asking me to take off my ring. He said it would upset Ava. She'd feel like I, the adopted daughter, had stolen the man she loved. "Just let her have this for now. I'll make it all up to you later." I'd been hearing that sentence since I was eighteen. I was twenty-one now. Later, I went home to get my passport and heard my mother asking him in the study: "Claire still doesn't know she's our biological daughter. Just humor her a little more." He said he knew. He'd already picked out our wedding home for me— the top-floor apartment with my favorite terrace, the one with the view of the bay. My brother said once A