Vector Books

After my mom, Margaret Hale, dies of a heart attack, she starts appearing in my sister Claire Dawson's dreams. In a dream, Mom tells Claire to climb Mount Mistwood before sunrise and burn the entrance ticket for her, or the other ghosts will bully her. Claire doesn't tell me anything. She packs a bag in the middle of the night and forces herself to the summit. While she's gasping her way up that mountain, I'm asleep at home when I suddenly go into cardiac arrest. I wake up in the emergency room with doctors shouting over me. I barely survive before Mom appears in Claire's dreams again. This time, she says skydiving is her last wish. If Claire doesn't do it for her, she won't rest in peace. Claire signs up right away, ignoring everything I say. But then, her parachute refuses to open, and she plummets toward the ground. Luckily, she gets snagged in a tree and walks away without a scratch. Meanwhile, I miss a step going downstairs, tumble to the bottom, end up covered in bruises, and break five ribs. While I'm recovering in the hospital, Mom shows up in Claire's dreams again. Now, she wants Claire to go to the South Pole for her, saying she can finally move on and be reincarnated once Claire completes the trip. Claire doesn't hesitate and books a tour on the spot. While she's taking pictures with penguins, I freeze to death back home during a 104-degree heatwave. Only after I die does it finally hit me that Mom's missions for Claire always end with me on death's doorstep. What I don't understand is how Mom keeps shifting the danger meant for Claire onto me instead. The next time I open my eyes, I'm back on the morning after Mom first appeared in Claire's dream.

Daisy: London's great. It's home. My home is exactly what I wanted it to be. What I wanted all my life. Away from my abusive father and down the road from every bookshop I could imagine. I love romance books like The Next Girl. I love cold nights and sweater weather season which is just around the corner. I love being in my own bubble while working at the library. My life for the past 2 years has been good. Smooth. So when I have my roommate telling me I have a visitor I could only imagine it was my father. I thought it was my father. But you know what thought did? That thought sold me to a sinner. The Don to the Italian Mafia because he owed them a pretty penny. My days are long gone and my nights become more terrifying than ever before. Good job I know how to defend myself against men like him. Antonio: Jerry Harrison. A useless human being who knows no limits. He owed us money and was willing to trade his daughter for his life. I took a gamble on a man who could have been lying to me, but he knew better than to lie to me. I own him the way I now own his daughter. It shouldn't matter to me. I don't feel and I don't love. After a day of travelling and watching my future wife-to-be, I couldn't wait any longer. A simple knock on her shared accommodation would be the end of my life. I didn't want a wife. I enjoy my own space. But one look at my Daisy Soon-to-be-Rosa and I'm done for. Beautiful is what she is. And Mine.