Novel & Cerita The Long Road Home Novel

I was so insistent on holding onto what has never belonged to me. When I came around once more, the narrow road behind me was already filled with traffic. I had no time to lose. I took a deep breath and knelt in front of Francis. "Francis, it's all my fault, but my father is innocent. Can you please clear a path and send him to the hospital?" I prostrated myself and bowed to the ground in front of him, baffling the other surrounding drivers. "My father has lost consciousness due to a cerebral hemorrhage. His life is at stake! I'm begging you, only you have such powers!"

The nanny got to work, collecting every photo album and frame, then stacking them on the lawn. Jessica uncorked several bottles of Anthony's prized red wine, dousing the memories in scarlet. She poured a glass for herself and one for the nanny. Their glasses met with a hollow clink, the echo of a five-year love breaking apart. Jessica flicked the lighter and tossed it into the heap, watching the past go up in flames. Flickering flames cast a warm glow as Jessica tipped back her glass, the last of the wine mingling with the tears that traced a path down her cheeks.

“I’m afraid he does not have any money for the plane fare to send him home, and he’s ashamed to ask for it. So I’ve come to take him home with me.” “Where is home, dear?” “We live an hour away from Chicago in a town you probably never heard of.” “Hmm... that’s a bit far from here. What was your brother doing here, if I may ask?” “He was on a hiking trip to conquer the Great Divide. And he decided to explore Washington while he was around.” “Do you have a picture of your brother I can show around?” “Yeah.” Bree produced a copy of the last photo they took together. Bran had an afternoon shadow, so one could imagine what he would look like with a full-on beard and mustache.

“Now that I think about it, we were planning on finally paying a visit to Center Land. We had things in order and under control enough that we could afford a little time away. We were in the planning stages when chaos within the village between two warring families overwhelmed us. While we were bringing peace back to our little world, the vehicles went down. I was so consumed with the inner turmoil of the village that I forgot about our intended trip until now.” “These warring families,” Olga said as she joined them in the living room area, “are they new to the village?” “One is,” he explained. “The other helped me settle the place.” “You settled this place?” Kendra said with a hint

The man who'd once schemed to kill me for money had been reduced to begging for cigarettes and a decent meal. I smiled and pulled a piece of paper from my bag. It was a copy of the blueprint I'd designed for our dream home all those years ago. The beginning of my nightmare in my past life. "No money. But I can give you this." I took out a lighter and set the blueprint on fire right in front of him, then let it fall to the floor as it burned to ash. Gabriel seemed like he wanted to say something, but he couldn't catch his breath. The heart monitor began to shriek.

Now, all at once, it hit me that everything I had given over the years had been nothing more than a one-sided effort. I was just about to book a flight when I realized I had forgotten my ID and passport, so I had no choice but to return home. The moment I opened the door, I was greeted by a mess all over the floor. Leftover snacks were scattered everywhere, along with half-finished dishes left behind. Right by the bedroom door lay something impossible to miss—a box of levonorgestrel pills and a piece of wine-red lingerie. Willow had never liked being physically intimate with me. Even Naomi's existence had come from a drunken incident.

Meanwhile, on Long Island, New York, at the Vane estate. Outside, a thunderstorm raged. At the far end of the third floor of the estate, in the cramped attic that once belonged to Elara, Dante Rossi sat on the bare floor. It was freezing in here, like an ice cellar. It was hard to believe that in such a luxurious estate, a room could have no heating at all. There was only a thin metal-frame bed and a wardrobe with just two sets of clothes.

[Why don't you believe me? [Joanna, you have been lying to me all along.] [I do not want to love you anymore.] [I hate you.] But every message stayed gray. The pain reached a level I could no longer endure. I drank all the pain medication. The doctor had advised against it, but it hurt too much. It really hurt. Joanna, my heart really hurt. I vomited more and more blood, staining the message where Joanna had once promised to spend her life with me. Snow covered the whole world in cold white.

It was in the way Jade looked at him, in the way Ruan guarded his secrets, and in the way my own heart was starting to break for a man who lived by the code of the road. I stood up and walked back to the trailer, the sound of the Harley engines in the distance a constant reminder that we were never truly safe. The road was our only home, but as I lay down on that moth-eaten sofa, I knew that the road was starting to feel like a dead end. And Ruan Montague was the only one with the key to the way out.

Every sound felt sharp even the revving engines, the scrape of a gravel, my pulse… everything. I rode through the streets with no destination, just trying to breathe. Trying to remember who the hell I was before the blood, before prison, before the bikers. But I barely recognised the shadow I had become. Driving aimlessly, I ended up back at the clinic. I just wanted to see something that wasn’t drowning in violence. Something clean and human. Noah was outside, leaning against the wall, smoking under the flickering streetlight. The glow lit half his face, shadowed the other, and somehow he looked more tired than I remembered.