MR.

ACCIDENTAL DADDY

A SECRET BABY ROMANCE

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ARIA R. BLUE

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Copyright © 2020 by Aria R. Blue
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author,
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the
work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or
localities is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language. 18+

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 CONTENTS

1. William
2. William
3. William
4. William
5. Zoey
6. Zoey
7. Zoey
8. Zoey
9. Zoey
10. William
11. William
12. Zoey
13. Zoey
14. Zoey
15. Zoey
16. Zoey
17. William
18. William
19. William
20. William
21. William
22. Zoey
23. Zoey

Also by Aria R. Blue

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 1

WILLIAM

M ine.
That’s the first word that comes to my mind when I see
the girl.
Her lips were God’s own creation, but made for sinning. They were
lusciously full and a dark shade of pink I didn’t even know existed. They
were the only part of her that I could see.
The rest of her face was hidden behind a silver mask.
Her eyes were dark and her hair was darker. The contrast only made
those lips seem even more tantalizing.
The physical allure she had was undebatable, but I was drawn to
something deeper. There was a sense of innocence about her that I was
attracted to. She was pure.
Nobody else had made me feel this way before. No other woman had
ever commanded my full attention like she does.
I need to get to know her.
I need to hear her voice.
But instead of approaching her, I stay rooted to the wall.
It’s my job to keep Inferno, this poker club, safe. I’m the security
bouncer.
It’s part of my job to watch everyone inside the club, and make sure that
there’s no sleight of hand taking place.
Inferno rakes in thousands of dollars every night. If there’s any kind of
deception occurring, it’s my responsibility to notice and report it.
And it’s tricky to study the patrons, as all of them are anonymous. Their
faces are hidden behind masks—all kinds of masks, from simple black ones
to ornate, gem-encrusted ones.
There’s just one thing tying all of the customers together.
Every single one of them are required to carry a small invitation card
with them when they enter. It’s what lets them walk in through the door.
Their masks add a layer of challenge to the game, since half of their
face is hidden while playing. Subtle facial expressions aren’t as obvious as
they would normally be.
But they still wear masks to protect their identities. All because of the
fact that gambling, in all its forms, is frowned upon in Sierran.
That’s why this club is top-secret.
We toe the line between black and white.
So in a place such as this, you can never be too careful.
The security bouncers lining the perimeter are supposed to be scanning
the club, watching everyone.
But ever since the brunette beauty walked through the door, I couldn’t
look anywhere but at her.
It’s highly unprofessional.
I could get fired for ogling at her like this.
But I can’t help myself.
I’m drawn to her in a way that I don’t fully comprehend yet. So I don’t
bother to hide the fact that I’m watching her every move.
I don’t avert my gaze when her brown eyes flicker to me, and then
away.
That’s why I notice it the second some man in a light blue blazer
reaches for her small purse. He pockets it, and draws his lapels together as
he walks away.
Nobody else would have seen a thing. I doubt even the security cameras
would’ve picked it up.
I noticed it only because I was watching her so intently.
One second, her pink purse was on the empty seat next to her, and the
next moment, it wasn’t.
The only variable is the man walking by.
She doesn’t notice that anything’s missing.
She’s playing, and by the looks of it, she’s having more fun than anyone
else seated at the table. She approaches the game with this zest. It’s one in
the morning, but she looks like she’s never felt more alive.
 Don’t get me wrong, she’s not good at the game by any measure. She’s
horrible. Every single move she makes cements her as the underdog.
That’s why it’s so admirable. She’s sinking, but she’s still optimistic
about it.
I force myself to pry my eyes away from the girl and keep track of the
swindler’s movements instead.
All the Inferno security personnel are made to follow the protocol.
We have one rule: Never make a scene.
Everything that needs to be done is done outside and in the most
extreme of cases, it’s taken care of quietly.
I know that in a few minutes, he’s going to try to exit the club with the
stolen wallet and whatever else he managed to swipe.
And I will intercept him when he does.
After that, I can find out his contact and how he got access to the club in
the first place.
The thief spends some time at the bar, nursing his drink. I watch him
patiently, like a predator waiting for his prey.
I’m not in a hurry.
I’ve got all night.
I pass the next two hours with one eye on the thief and the other eye on
my angel.
She smiles through the game, even though she’s losing. Either she’s got
a big ego that she’s trying to salvage, or she really doesn’t mind losing.
The thief makes his move. He strides towards the exit, walking out with
confidence.
Nobody stops him.
Right when he reaches the double doors of the exit, I step away from the
wall and block his path.
“Excuse me,” he says in a timid voice. His eyes are shifty, scanning my
face and the surroundings at once.
He’s a lanky, thin man with an oversized mask. It covers his forehead,
as well as his cheeks.
I hold out my palm. “Your card, please.”
More eyeballs turn our way. Mostly the other bouncers and the staff
who run the place.
“Is that really necessary?” he asks in a hushed voice.
 I patiently bide my time. My stillness makes him uncomfortable. Sweat
beads and rolls down his temples.
“Yes, it’s really necessary. If you’ll step this way,” I gesture towards the
seating area, which is separate from the club.
He raises his voice. “I don’t understand why you’re-“
I grind my teeth together. He’s causing a scene. The exact thing I’m
suppose to avoid.
“It’ll just be a minute.” I force myself to smile, but I’m sure it looks
more like a snarl because he does what I told him to.
He takes a seat on the dark grey couch.
I sit down in front of him. “I have reason to believe that-“
Halfway through my sentence, he leaps up and sprints to the nearest
exit. Double doors are pushed open, and he runs straight into the darkness.
I curse under my breath, and sprint behind him.
But I’m not as fast.
I’m a big man. Brute force is my strength. I can break a man’s neck with
one hand or pin three grown men to the ground.
Chasing after someone who’s half my body weight is not exactly my
forte.
But still, I force myself to keep running.
He stole from my angel, and he won’t be getting away with it.
I scan my surroundings, looking for something that will help me. Maybe
if I throw something heavy in his direction, it will slow him down.
He dashes through the dark night, and turns a corner.
I follow behind him.
This is my neighborhood. I grew up here.
I know every single shortcut, so he sure as hell won’t be
outmaneuvering me.
He keeps glancing behind him as he runs. Clearly, he’s new to this. The
fear in his eyes is as clear as day.
He reaches into his blazer, and throws something on the ground.
Something pink and shiny. The stolen purse.
I come to a halt.
I could chase after him and find out who he is and what he was doing at
Inferno. Or I could take this back to where my angel still is and hand it to
her in person.
Something tugs me back to where she is.
 A possessiveness unlike anything I’ve ever felt drags me back to the
establishment.
The thief was clearly a rookie. He won’t be coming back to the same
place twice.
When I get back, I find her at the head desk.
Seeing her from behind knocks the breath right out of my lungs. She’s
all curves from head to toe. Her body looks especially tantalizing when
she’s leaning over a desk.
I’m rooted to the spot.
It’s like she’s hypnotized me.
There were times in my life when I wondered if I would ever find a
woman for myself. Some nights, I tried to think about what kind of women
I liked. It was always a blur in my imagination.
Now, it’s like someone wiped away the fog from the window.
I see now.
I see what I’ve been waiting my whole life for.
This angel is everything I desire and more. She’s the physical
embodiment of my wildest fantasies.
And yet, I’m skeptical. Surely, there’s a catch.
Something always manages to go wrong just when you think
everything’s perfect. She’s probably stuck-up or worse...claimed by another
man.
My thoughts have me seeing red.
I grind my teeth together and the skin over my knuckles becomes taut as
my fingers curl into a fist.
“Ma’am, I assure you that we’ll do everything in our power to find your
purse,” says Ida, the receptionist seated behind the front desk.
My girl stands up straight, muttering to herself, “I don’t understand.
This is supposed to be one of the safest clubs out there.”
Ida turns towards me, as if I’m the answer to what’s bothering the
young woman.
My angel follows Ida’s gaze.
Those big brown eyes.
If I died right now, I would die a happy man.
I don’t need anything else. As long as the memory of her eyes is painted
behind my eyelids, nothing else matters.
 I realize I’m just openly staring at the girl. I clear my throat, and hand
her the purse.
Her eyes widen when she sees the bubblegum pink clutch. She reaches
for it gingerly, and takes it from my outstretched hand.
Her eyes flicker up to me again.
This time, I notice the eyelashes that frame her pretty eyes. They’re dark
and thick. Completely mesmerizing. I don’t think it’s fair for one person to
look this gorgeous.
When her clutch is in her hands, she fumbles to open it. There’s a
nervous energy about her.
She doesn’t check for credit cards and cash. Instead, she scours through
the contents, and pulls out a long chain with a round pendant attached to it.
She sighs, “I don’t know what I would have done if I lost this.”
My eyes are drawn to her full lips again. The whiskey-smooth voice that
just left that mouth is pure sweetness.
I almost feel bad for all the dirty thoughts I’d been having about her
lips.
Almost.
My fists clench at my sides. Everything inside is screaming at me to
make this girl mine. Some territorial part of me wants to pull her into my
arms, and never let go, but I force myself to behave. That’s not how the real
world works.
There are rules.
You get sent to prison if you break those rules.
I should know. My twin brother, Alexander, has been in prison for
nearly a decade.
A feathery touch brings me back. “Thank you,” says the angel.
I look down at my forearm, where her fingertips had just brushed
against my skin. A calmness floods through me.
My throat is thick, and suddenly, I can’t speak anymore.
I only nod and grunt in reply.
I hope she doesn’t take this as a dismissal. I want her to stay.
She stays.
Her teeth sink into the edge of her lower lip.
Oh my. The sight of it makes my cock swell. My nails dig into my
palms again. If I keep this up, I’m going to draw blood.
 When she looks up at me, there’s moisture glistening in her brown
eyes.
My fists relax.
The only thing I’m concerned about right now is what made this angel
upset.
I bring my hand up to cup her face.
The gentleness with which I do it surprises us both. My palm envelops
the entire side of her face. She leans into it slightly, and looks down at her
feet.
“It belonged to my parents,” she says, clutching the pendant tighter.
“It’s the only thing I have left of them.”
My heart starts to race.
Is she an orphan like me?
She dabs a finger underneath her lash line to wipe away the tears, and
forces out a laugh. She looks at the thick planes of my chest, and then away.
Is she attracted to me like I am to her?
I realize I still haven’t said a word to her.
“I was just doing my job,” I say.
And...I want to take the words back immediately.
“Right,” she nods. Those teeth sink into her lips again.
The right words don’t come to my mind with her standing in front of
me. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to say something that will surely scare
her away.
Because in my mind, she’s already mine.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
“I’m William,” I introduce myself.
Her eyes fly up to mine. They’re brimming with hope. “Zoey,” she
whispers.
“Is it your first time here?” I ask even though I know the answer.
“Is it that obvious?” she laughs softly. The melody of it makes me want
to hear it a thousand times more.
“We don’t get a lot of newcomers,” I say.
Although the customer’s identities are hidden, we know how everyone
generally looks like. And she’s not exactly someone who’s easily
forgettable.
A faint blush hits her cheeks. That’s when I realize that I said the last
part out loud.
 She turns around to leave. I grab her wrist and lock eyes with her. “Let
me drive you home.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” I say.
The crime rate is at an all-time high right now.
Things have changed in Sierran after the King was sent to prison for his
crimes.
He’s an anomaly.
A black mark on the otherwise flawless Harrington family.
Some people have lost their trust on the Crown.
And with our ruler in prison, the troublemakers of the country have let
go of the inhibitions that would have usually held them back.
Riots are breaking out on the streets between those two defend the
Crown and those against it. Stores are being looted. The incidence of
pickpocketing and other petty crimes is soaring.
The police force is working harder than ever to get things under
control.
Something needs to change, and it needs to happen fast.
Zoey lifts a shoulder. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” I say, grabbing my things and leading
her out.
“It’s happening everywhere,” she sighs. And then whispers under her
breath, “I hope things change soon.”
She holds her pink purse close to her chest, and I move closer to her on
instinct.
I’m starkly aware of how small she is next to me. How delicate her
body is next to mine. How easy it would be to overpower her and lay my
claim on her.
I’ve never really noticed my body before. I mean, I took care of myself
by working out every evening before my shift and eating healthy. But I
never thought about how I could use my body to bring someone pleasure.
Right now, it’s all I can think about.
Opening my car door for her, I feel self-conscious for the first time in
my life.
She’s perfection from head to toe, and me?
I have a beat-up, rusty old car and nothing to offer her except for my
arms.
 “So I guess chivalry isn’t dead,” she says, slipping into a seat and
beaming up at me.
She deserves to be treated like a Queen.
I’ll work my ass off until I’m in a position to give her everything she
desires.
Once I’m in the driver’s seat, I glance over at her mask-covered profile.
With only the moonlight to highlight her features, she truly looks
divine.
I keep waiting for a flaw.
I keep waiting to fall out of this trance.
Since a young age, experience had taught me that nothing good lasts
forever.
I’m not a hardened man like my brother, but I’ve grown to be a little
skeptical whenever something good happens to me.
And meeting my dream girl at my place of work? That might be at the
top of the list of wonderful things that never happen to me.
“So are you going to take me home or are you just going to stare at me
all night?” she asks, a soft smile dancing on her lips.
I chuckle. Just getting to look at her makes me feel like I’m the luckiest
man alive. “I’m sorry if I’m making you feel uneasy,” I say.
She bites that damn lower lip again. Would she mind if I chewed it for
her?
“I like having your eyes on me,” she whispers, looking straight ahead.
I clear my throat. “Where do you live?”
“Walnut Street,” she replies.
My brows furrow.
Walnut Street is the center of the city. It’s where the shopping district is
and where all the fanciest restaurants are. I wasn’t aware that it was also a
residential area.
I clear my throat, and start the car.
I’m normally a very impatient driver, but with her in the passenger seat,
I try to drive as slowly as humanly possible.
“So you enjoy gambling?” I ask, turning to face her.
She’s looking out of the window. I keep getting the feeling like she’s
nervous about something.
A corner of her mouth lifts. “It’s okay, you can say it. I’m the worst
player in the history of poker.”
 I shrug. “Probably.”
She nudges my arm, and then stares at it when it doesn’t budge. “It’s
only okay when I say it,” she says playfully.
“Do you enjoy it?” I ask. Most of the people play for the thrill of
winning or for money. She doesn’t seem like she particularly enjoys either
of those things.
She looks straight ahead as she says, “It makes me feel like I’m a part of
something. Like I belong.”
My heart aches for her. I know that feeling a little too well.
“Everyone is welcome there,” she says softly.
It reminds me of something. “You want to know a secret?” I ask her.
She looks at me, and nods.
All of that nervousness from before is gone as she starts to get more
comfortable around me.
“The Princess plays at Inferno too,” I whisper like people can still hear
us or something.
She whispers back, “Victoria Harrington?”
I nod. “The only and only.” I mention this because she’s the baby of the
Harrington family. Everyone in the country adores her.
“How do you know it’s her?” asks Zoey.
“I just do,” I shrug. She wears a wig and Audrey Hepburn sunglasses
everytime she visits, but I would recognize the Harrington family
anywhere.
They gave me a home.
It was a home that I shared with three hundred kids, but the Harrington
Orphanage was a happy place.
We had a warm bed at night, and books to read.
It was Victoria’s grandmother, the late Queen Eleanor, that started the
orphanage. And for that, I would be forever indebted to the family.
“Is the Princess a better player than I am?” asks Zoey, raising a dark
eyebrow.
I press my lips together. “Nobody can come close to your talents.” The
talent to burn hundreds of dollars in a few hours, and laugh while doing so.
I glance at her. A frown mars her face.
“It’s my birthday,” she blurts out.
The admission almost makes me hit the brakes.
 July 28th. My brother and I were born on this same day exactly thirty
years ago.
“That’s why I came to Inferno. It’s my idea of a celebration. Playing
poker with strangers and calling it a night.”
A wheezing sound leaves my lips. It’s so refreshing. I hadn’t laughed in
years. I don’t recall the last time I felt so light.
“What’s so funny?” she asks.
It’s my turn to look away, as I say, “It’s my birthday too.”
I ignore the other thought that comes to my mind. It’s my brother’s
birthday as well.
“Really?” she breathes.
I nod. “Happy birthday to us.”
This might be my best birthday yet. Because this is the day I met Zoey. I
don’t know how, but I already know that she’ll be a part of my future.
“Happy birthday to us,” she repeats, her eyes still wide and wondrous.
“How old are you? I just turned twenty-one.”
All humor leaves my eyes. “I’m thirty-one.”
That makes me a whole decade older than her.
Is that socially acceptable?
Even if it’s not, I’m not about to be deterred from making her mine. I
knew it since the moment I laid eyes on her.
Taboo or not, she will be mine.
“Oh, you can stop here,” she says, pointing towards a luxury hotel to
my right.
“A hotel?” I ask.
She nods, and lets herself out of the car. “I just moved here.” She looks
down at her feet, and then holds up the purse. “Once again, thank you for
helping me out.”
With that, she sashays her curvy ass away from me, and into the
brightly-lit hotel lobby.
It’s not until she’s out of sight that I realize something: All I know about
her is her first name and the shape of her lips.

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 2

WILLIAM

T he sun is high in the sky by the time I throw my bedsheets off

of me.
Those eyes of hers haunt me.
Big brown eyes topped with long lashes.
My feet itch to run towards her. My fingers itch to feel her skin. Would
it be as satiny smooth as it looked?
I’ve had a permanent set of blue balls all my life.
Now that I’ve had a glimpse of my dream girl, I finally have something
to fantasize about.
But I don’t act on it. She’s too innocent.
My body begs me for some relief, but it can never come close to the real
thing.
I want to see her again. My only hope is that she feels for me a fraction
of what I do for her.
I stretch while I gaze out of my window. It’s the best part of my studio
apartment. I might live in a hole in the wall, but the view is worthy of a
five-star hotel.
To my right is the looming building of the Harrington Orphanage. It’s a
grand Victorian-style building with six massive pillars lining its entrance.
It’s a reminder of where I came from.
To my left lies the endless azure ocean in all its mighty glory.
It’s a reminder of how far I can go.
Altogether, it’s a view that pumps hope into my veins every single day.
I look around my apartment. It’s small, but it’s clean.
Except for the unmade bed.
 I walk back to it. I tuck the covers and fold the sheets to perfection.
My Dad was in the army.
His words still make up the foundations on which my life rests.
“Discipline and hard work are all you need in your arsenal, son,” he would
say.
It wasn’t until he was gone that I found out that my brother and I were
adopted. The knowledge of it didn’t bother me much.
I wasn’t curious to find out who my birth parents were. Whoever they
were, they didn’t want my brother and me.
My Mom and Dad were good parents. They gave us a happy childhood
and loved us like we were their own.
Memories wash through me now as I think about the people that are no
longer in my life. My parents died in a car crash and my brother is in
prison.
Alex, my twin brother, is the polar opposite of me.
I took after our Dad, and Alex was more like our Mom. He was wild
from birth, always causing mischief and playing pranks.
It wasn’t until we were in the orphanage that he took on a different
persona.
The dark side of him came out.
He turned ruthless and unforgiving.
By the time he was a man, he had enemies. It’s what landed him in
prison even though he never broke the law.
My brother was framed, and it’s up to me to get him out of prison.
Sooner than later, I will be in a position to see that everyone who did him
wrong will be sorry they ever crossed us.
My stomach rumbles. I need to put fuel into my body.
I go over to the fridge, and open it to find it mostly empty. I’ll need to
go grocery shopping soon.
For breakfast, I have string cheese with sweet grapes and a handful of
almonds. I wash it all down with copious amounts of coffee to get me
through my study session.
Normally, I sit down for three or four hours before I get up for a meal
break. But today is not one of those days.
Meeting Zoey has changed everything. She has me bewitched, and I’m
under her spell.
I have a lot of nervous energy in me. It’s making my muscles tense.
 So I head to the gym instead.
I warm up on the treadmill and pump weights until I can’t see straight.
When my mind is clear enough, I take a shower in the men’s locker
room, and put on some fresh clothes. After a short trip to the grocery store, I
drive straight to Walnut street.
I know she’ll be there.
She didn’t invite me. She didn’t even give me her phone number, but I
know that I’ll do whatever it takes to see her again.
There was desire radiating off of her as she sat next to me last night. I
could smell the musky sweetness of it on the drive back to my apartment.
She likes me too.
And it’s about time we do something about it.
I don’t overthink this. Because I know that waiting for her to come to
me is not an option.
For some reason, she makes me reckless.
I’m acting like my brother. Throwing caution to the wind and going
where life takes me. Approaching everything with a sense of reckless
abandon.
I walk into the fancy hotel like I belong here.
As long as I walk with confidence, I know that nobody can question me.
“How may I help you?” asks the receptionist.
I’m about to make up some bullshit excuse about losing my hotel card
when I hear her smooth voice. “Will?”
I stand up to full height before I turn around. “Zoey.”
She moves closer, and holds my elbow as she guides me towards the
elevators. She doesn’t press the button to open it. Instead, she crosses her
arms and stares up at me, waiting for an explanation.
She’s even more beautiful than I remember.
In the daylight, there’s no mask hiding half of her face.
There’s no distance between us.
I try a direct approach. “It’s your birthday. It’s my birthday. Since we
have nobody else to celebrate with, I thought we’d celebrate together.” I
hold up the cloth bag holding the groceries I just bought.
She peers into the bag, and pulls out a cucumber. Holding it up, she
raises an amused eyebrow. “Is this your idea of a party?”
I tuck the bag under my arm. Her eyes are drawn to my biceps.
 I can feel it. It’s only a flickering ember, but it has the potential to grow
into something life-changing.
The desire in her eyes is apparent, and it makes me wonder how
responsive she’ll be when I’m pleasuring her for real.
She’s wearing a flowy white top with tiny polka dots and a curve-
hugging pair of jeans. Her clothing is modest, but her body is obscenely
sexy.
Would she be cool with me locking her up in my basement? I want her
all to myself. Nobody else can touch or see what’s mine.
Before she can read the dirty thoughts in my mind, I say, “I thought we
could bake together."
Honestly, I would’ve used any excuse to see her again. Our shared
birthday just happens to be the perfect one.
She looks surprised. “You came all the way here because you wanted to
bake with me?”
I nod, and make a show of straining to hold the groceries. They don’t
hurt me in the slightest, but I just want her to decide a little faster.
Some tourist wearing a fedora hat and a neon orange t-shirt passes by.
Written in black on his shirt are the words, ‘If not now, then when?’.
“If not now, then when?” I try.
It fucking works.
“Alright,” she says. “Let me grab my purse from my room.”
A moment later, she’s seated in my car.
I try not to think about her shapely hips, but it’s hard not to when she’s
right next to me.
She’s wearing the kind of jeans that sit high on the waist. I’m pretty
convinced they were designed by the devil himself.
“You never told me what brought you to the city,” I say, trying to
distract myself.
“I’m a writer,” she replies vaguely.
“Oh, are you working on something right now?”
She rubs her palms on her jeans as she says, “You could say that.”
Those pants are going to be the death of me. “So it’s a secret then?”
“Until I’m done with it,” she smiles. “So what kind of cake are we
making?”
She makes me want to tell her everything about my whole life. I’ve
never told anyone any of my secrets, but I want to share it all with her.
 “I have a brother. A twin brother. His name is Alex,” I say, just as we
come to a stop in front of a red light. Pedestrians cross the road, going about
their everyday life. “He really likes lemon cake, so I wanted to make it for
him.”
I turn to her. She’s listening to my every word with bated breath. Do I
burden her with my truth? Can she handle it?
I clear my throat. “He’s in Achilles Prison,” I say, speaking of Sierran’s
infamous island prison.
It houses a limited number of criminals, and they’re all the worst this
country has ever seen. The maximum-security ensures that none of them
would ever escape. It’s surrounded by miles of water on all sides, and even
an Olympic swimmer can’t make it to land without a break.
My brother doesn’t deserve to be there.
There’s absolutely no proof that he’s innocent, except for my belief.
Only I know the kind of man he is. But word of mouth doesn’t constitute as
“evidence” in court apparently.
Even his defense lawyer didn’t really believe that he was innocent. They
were all just concerned about making money. But for me, it’s personal.
That’s why I’m studying law.
I’ve worked my ass off at law school, and honed all of my skills so that
I can defend him when the time comes.
I just need to pass a single exam before I can practice law in Sierran.
It’s the only way to get Alex out.
I’m his only hope.
I tell Zoey all of this, and wait for her to say something or do
something. Half of me was expecting that I would scare her away.
But she just holds my hand, and squeezes it lightly.

T he cake is perfection .
Usually, I just make a simple sheet cake, but Zoey is exceptional at
baking. She insisted on adding a little ‘zing’ to it.
She made me sit down while she prepared everything.
I was more than happy to watch her.
 Her hair was thrown back in a ponytail, and I had a clear view of her
face. I had to grip the kitchen counters when she started twirling her hips to
the soft music she chose for the occasion.
Instead of the plain lemon cake I usually make, we now have a two-
layer cake with tangy cream cheese icing. It’s garnished with lemon zest
that adds to the visual appeal.
“I had fun,” she says, leaning a hip on the counter, and making me
groan inwardly. “It’s been forever since I last baked.”
I think about what she said about the poker club making her feel like
she’s a part of something.
“I don’t have any family either,” she says, looking at the cake. “So this
was a special surprise.”
I vow to myself that she’ll never have a lonely birthday ever again.
She’ll have me, and the family we create together.
I can see us baking together ten, twenty, thirty years from now. She’s the
skilled one, so she’ll be in charge. And I’ll be her sous chef, gathering the
ingredients and following instructions.
I’ll be happy and honored just to be next to her.
“So are we going to dig in or what?” she says, shifting under my gaze,
and picking up a spoon.
“Not yet,” I say. “Close your eyes.”
She obliges me.
I turn all the lights off, and close the window blinds.
We’ve spent two hours inside my apartment. In that time, I’ve tried my
hardest not to look at the bed, but it’s kind of the elephant in the room.
I fumble in the dark until I find what I’m looking for. When I’m done, I
say, “You can open them.”
Twenty-one candles are flickering in front of her. She lets out a gleeful
laugh. “Nobody’s done anything like this for me before.”
I see the smile on her face, and I become convinced that everyone else
in this world are fools.
Can’t they tell that she’s an angel?
Zoey’s face is illuminated by the candlelight. The shadows of the fire
dance across her face. Her brown eyes look like pools of chocolate. I see
streaks of gold in them that I somehow never noticed before.
“Go ahead,” I say, my voice coming out like gravel. “Make a wish.”
She hums, and then closes those eyes and blows out the candles.
 In the sudden darkness, my heart starts to race.
I’m standing so close to her that I can smell the perfume that she must
have spritzed on her neck. I can almost feel her hair tickling my face. Her
face is close enough for me to touch.
But I take a step back.
And then another.
Until I find the light switch, and flick it on.
She avoids looking into my eyes. Instead, she busies her hands and
carves out a giant piece of cake for me.
I fish out two paper plates and two metal forks.
She dips the tongs of her fork into the cake, and brings it to her mouth.
A satisfied grin spreads across her face, and she points to my slice,
gesturing for me to eat it.
I stuff some into my mouth, but each and every one of my five senses
are focused on her. I eat, but I don’t taste anything. I could’ve been eating
the paper plate instead of the cake, and it would’ve made no difference.
I’m sure the cake that’s stuck to the corner of her lips tastes richer.
“You’re doing that thing again,” she says.
“What thing?”
“The thing where you stare at me for minutes on end.”
“Does it bother you?” I ask.
She tilts her head as she considers my question. Her tongue darts out to
lick away the cake crumbs stuck to the corner of her lips before she says,
“You don’t bother me, William. Not one bit.”

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 3

WILLIAM

I have permission to visit my brother once a month for exactly

five minutes.
The judge granted me this only after looking at our record.
Alex and I were inseparable from birth. The only trouble we got into
was by defending each other. The men and women who took care of us at
the Harrington Orphanage testified to that.
The court reluctantly agreed to these monthly visits on the grounds of
mental health.
We couldn’t save him from prison life, but we managed to save his
sanity.
And today is one of those days when I’m reunited with Alex.
I try not to think about the fact that we only have five minutes. Doing so
just sends me down a rabbit hole of guilt and rage that serves absolutely no
one.
Zoey is waiting for me outside the prison gates.
I told her I would come back in a few minutes. She looked concerned
when she saw the frenzy on my face, but agreed to sit tight while I visited
Alex.
My fingers tremble now as I hold on to the little cake box in my hands.
It contains a single slice of lemon cake—his favorite.
Gifts aren’t allowed, but I’m on friendly terms with one of the guards
here. His name is Jeremy, and he’s the one who accompanies me to Alex’s
cell every month.
“Birthday cake is not contraband,” he says now, while taking me
through the multiple security checkpoints.
 Achilles Prison doesn’t get too many visitors. There’s no visiting area.
Instead, the visitors are taken directly to the inmates.
“I’m beyond grateful for your kindness, but you could literally lose your
job over this, Jeremy,” I chide. In fact, he could lose his head over this. He
shouldn’t be so willing to break the prison rules.
Jeremy shrugs. “I don’t mind. And besides, things have been a little
tense here since...you know who.”
I nod. I do know.
The abdicated King of Sierran is one of the eight prisoners in Achilles
Prison. Everyone knows about what he did, but nobody speaks of it. He’s
become a taboo topic overnight.
“Have any fights broken out?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Nobody even looks his way. Not even his
accomplice.”
The King did not commit his crime alone. He had an accomplice who
helped him every step of the way. Some guy named Seth.
Jeremy continues, “It’s been three months, but the thought of it still sits
like a rock in my stomach. If we can’t trust the King to be a good human
being, what pillars does our country even stand on?”
I nod. The man we’ve trusted to lead our country is a lunatic.
A murdering lunatic.
He killed his own mother, the late Eleanor Harrington, our beloved
Queen. His reason for doing so is unknown.
The royal family is yet to speak about this tragedy. They haven’t made a
public appearance after the incident.
Jeremy leads me through another checkpoint. The final one. I show
them my papers and my ID.
And I’m led down a dark hallway.
I’m familiar with these walls. They’re the walls that lead to my brother.
My steps speed up, and I end up sprinting the rest of the way. I don’t
want to waste a second of the five minutes we have.
“Alex,” I breathe, coming to a halt in front of his cell.
A lump forms in my throat.
His back is to me, and the only indication of him even having heard me
is the perking up of his ears.
Usually, he’s clinging to the bars separating us, eager to talk. But today,
he doesn’t even turn around to face me. I realize instantly that it’s one
of those days.
The days when he thinks that all hope is lost. When he really believes
that he’s doomed to live inside the four walls of his prison cell for eternity.
The only source of light in his dingy room is the moonlight from the
large window he’s facing.
“It’s a beautiful night, brother,” says Alex. His voice sounds like he
hasn’t used it for days. Pain laces his every word. “It’s the worst part about
this prison. We’re all offered the most glorious views, but all it does is serve
as a reminder of what we don’t have. They dangle it in front of us, knowing
we can never touch it.”
I bite my tongue to keep from saying something stupid. Something like
‘it could’ve been worse.’
Alex knows that he could’ve had it worse. What makes it unbearable for
him is that he’s not supposed to be here in the first place.
My brother was once a powerful man.
But men like him attract enemies like ants to honey.
His opponents wanted to bring him down. So they set him up.
They pinned a heinous crime on him. It was done so flawlessly that
every piece of evidence was against him.
Even the best defense lawyers in the country couldn’t help him.
I know that he hadn’t done it. But it’s easy for people to point their
fingers at the orphan with the rough childhood.
Psychology experts were brought in. They said that given his bad
temperament and his childhood trauma, it’s likely that he was behind it.
But I know my brother.
He’s more than just innocent. He’s a good person.
He has a heart of gold, and is ruthlessly loyal. He would risk his life to
protect me. I know, because he’s done it countless times.
“Remember when we both turned twenty-one?” I ask.
He turns his head to the side, giving me a glimpse of a face identical to
mine. “If only I knew back then that I was running out of time.”
It was one of the last birthdays we spent together.
He started his company when he turned eighteen. By the time he was
twenty-one, he made the Forbes list of youngest self-made billionaires.
We had everything we could ever desire.
Material things, luxuries, and the kind of comfort only money can buy.
 We were happy, but for a different reason altogether. We were happy
because of how far we had come despite all odds.
We were happy that we would always have each other.
For once, we had something substantial to celebrate.
The night we turned twenty-one, we went to the beach and stayed up the
entire night. We planned for the future and reminisced about the past.
Although we drove to the beach in our Jaguar, we had to walk back
home because neither of us were sober.
It was a ten-minute walk. We sang and laughed the whole way back like
it would be like this for every birthday.
That was when we were young and foolish.
We didn’t know that the careless days were coming to an end.
My brother looks at me now. His face is a mirror of mine. The same
green eyes, the same dark hair.
“I’m going to get you out of here, I promise,” I tell him.
“I’ve been hearing that for a while now,” he says bitterly.
He’s always been a little bit of a pessimist. We might look the same, but
we couldn’t be more different men.
I rake my hand through my hair. “I mean it, Alex.”
“Less talk, more results, William,” he says. The words are spoken
without bite.
We share a smile. Those were our father’s words. From an early age, he
had instilled into us the power of discipline and work ethic.
It’s what made my brother a successful CEO. It’s what made me get
through law school.
It’s almost like our Dad knew what fate awaited us.
Right now, I would give anything to take my brother’s pain, and rest it
on my shoulders. He shouldn’t have to suffer all by himself.
“Don’t you worry about me. I’m doing fine. I’m working out and
reading.” He forces a smile for me. “I’ve been assigned a psychiatrist. She’s
the light of my life. I think I’m in love with her.” He grins again, only this
time it’s genuine.
“Alex,” I laugh. “That’s terrible.”
“All is fair in love and war, little brother,” he says.
“I was born twenty minutes after you were,” I counter.
“That makes me twenty minutes older than you.”
 Jeremy clears his throat. He’s been standing at the end of the corridor,
giving us privacy even though he’s not supposed to.
I look at Alex.
Five minutes is never enough.
The words are on the tip of my tongue. I could tell him that I’m working
on getting him out. I could ask him to believe in me.
But instead, I’ll show him.
We’ll talk when he’s a free man again. It might take months, or it might
take years. The case that he was falsely convicted for is no small one.
But I’ll get him out if it’s the last thing I do.
“Goodbye, William,” he says.
I can’t get myself to say the words out loud to him. Saying goodbye to
him hurts. So I push his cake in through the window with my index finger,
and turn to leave.
I turn around at the last second, and whisper, “Happy birthday, Alex.”
He’s facing the window again.
The glorious window that shows the lush forest around Achilles Prison
and the ocean beyond. The island is postcard-pretty, with its’ deep blue
water and black sand beach.
Whether by design or by coincidence, all the prison cells here have
sweeping views of the island.
If that doesn’t make the rest of the prisoners fill up with remorse, I don’t
know what will. The crimes committed by the other prisoners are heinous in
nature.
Achilles Prison has maximum security, but at least my brother isn’t
starved or under bodily harm.
There are people hunting me in the real world.
It’s part of the reason why I live in near squalor. It will be the end of my
future plans if I make too much noise and draw attention to myself.
My brother’s enemies think I’m harmless. They think I’m in hiding,
trying to save my own skin.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
I’m a deadly force in the making. I’m sharpening my blade while my
enemies sleep. When I resurface, they won’t be shown any mercy.
I won’t rest until every single one of them are occupants of Achilles
Prison. They can spend the rest of their lives looking out through the
windows, wishing they never crossed the two orphan brothers.
 The walk outside is in complete silence.
Jeremy keeps casting worried glances at me, but I look straight ahead.
After we cross the first checkpoint on the way out, I see a cell in front of
us being opened.
A prisoner is being escorted out.
He’s a short man with hunched shoulders. There are shackles on his
wrists.
But even looking at him from behind, I recognize him.
His face is plastered all over newspapers and online articles. He used to
be popular, but his crimes have made him infamous.
George Harrington, the despised king of Sierran.
They call him Crazy George now.
That’s the only explanation that makes sense to the people. Maybe it
makes them feel better about themselves. They made this man their leader,
and he turned out to be a psychopath.
His hair is wild now, and his head is bent low.
But the man straightens to his full height as I look on.
And as if sensing that someone’s eyes are on him, he turns around.
His eyes land straight on me.
The prison guards tug on his shackles, trying to make him move
forward, but the ex-King doesn’t budge.
Jeremy positions himself between the inmate and me as we keep
walking. We cross him.
I hear murmurs behind me. “Who is that boy?” he barks at one of the
guards.
The guard ignores his question. “Keep walking, inmate.”
“I know him,” says the King.
My steps slow, trying to catch the rest of the conversation.
“He’s one of the prisoners,” he continues, louder this time. “Why are
you letting him walk away?”
Everyone ignores him again.
“I demand an answer. I’m the rightful ruler of Sierran and I demand an
explanation,” he says.
His words make me wince. How did we ever think of this man as a
competent ruler?
All of us were fooled.
 I loved Eleanor Harrington. She was like a Grandmother to me. And this
is the man who took her away from the world.
My fingernails dig into my palms. I want to walk back to him, and give
him his explanation using my fists. The only thing holding me back is
Alex.
Our monthly visits aren’t a divine right, they’re a privilege.
If I caused a ruckus inside the prison, it would not go down well. And I
wouldn’t compromise the five minutes I have with Alex for anything.
So I swallow the growing lump in my throat, and keep moving.
Usually, walking away from Alex is too much for me to handle.
We were together since we were in our birth mother’s womb. We stayed
together as we grew up and faced the challenges of the world.
The separation is painful.
But for once, I have something to look forward to outside the prison. I
have hope.
Zoey is waiting for me exactly where I left her.
I want to hold her, and make sure she’s really real.
She has a tender expression on her face as I approach. My brokenness
must be written all over my face because she opens her arms to me.
I crash into her.
Her arms are around my back, and mine are around her waist.
Our bodies weld together, memorizing each other.
Pain turns to longing.
Longing turns to lust.
Neither of us make the move to part. This is it. This is where we start
the journey of the rest of our lives together.
She strokes my hair with trembling fingers. I break away to examine her
face. Her cheeks are moist.
She wipes at her eyes, but the tears still flow. “I’m sorry, William. I’m
so, so sorry.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. My brother and I will get through
this.”
“No, it’s not that-“ she says. Her eyes squeeze shut as tremors wrack
through her.
I hold her head to my chest. That familiar loyalty surges through my
veins.
I protect the people I love.
 I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe and happy.
My Zoey is more delicate than I thought.
On the hour-long boat ride to Achilles island, the land on which Achilles
prison is located, I told her my whole story.
I told her everything.
It was a relief, because I didn’t know I was carrying so much weight on
my shoulders.
She understood. She told me about her own lonely childhood. She’s all
alone in this world.
At least I have Alex as family. Zoey has nobody.
Until now.
She doesn’t know it yet, but if she accepts the love I have for her, she’ll
always have me. She can always count on me.
Her tears wet my shirt, soaking through. “It’s alright, baby. I got you.”
I’ll hold her for as long as she needs me.
Her breathing grows steady and deep. Her ear is pressed up against my
rib-cage.
“I’m sorry, Will,” she says, lifting her head off my chest. “I’m sorry. I’m
so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Zoey.”
She doesn’t need to feel bad for me. I’ve had a decade to get used to
this. It was more than enough time to plan my revenge against the men who
hurt my brother.
She opens her mouth to say something, but a movement catches her eye.
I turn my head to the direction of the interruption.
Jeremy is striding towards us, trying and failing to hide something
underneath his jacket.
“Alex sent a word back,” he whispers, handing me the empty box. “He
says that the cake was the best he ever had.”
“Really?” squeals Zoey.
Jeremy turns to her with a surprised smile, and takes his cap off. “Yes,
Ma’am,” he says, beaming at her.
I like Jeremy. I really do, but in this moment, I want to knock those
perfect teeth right off his face.
I have to force myself to be civil. “Jeremy, this is my girlfriend Zoey.
Zoey, Jeremy,”
 Jeremy smiles knowingly. “Be sure to have the island fruit before you
leave,” he says, throwing me a wink before heading off.
I roll my eyes. According to legend, it’s a fruit that has magical powers.
The island people, families of the guards who work at Achilles Prison,
claim that the fruit is an aphrodisiac.
I’ve never sampled it, but I have a feeling Zoey might appreciate it.
“Girlfriend, huh?” she asks.
“That’s the plan, yes.”
Zoey will just have to get used to my possessive nature. After visiting
Alex, I can’t hide anymore. Visiting him is always a reminder of how
precious the life I have is.
She tips her chin down, so I can’t see her face or gauge her feelings.
After a moment, she looks up at me with her big brown eyes, and asks,
“What island fruit?”
“It grows locally. They say that it’s an aphrodisiac,” I say. “Come on,
I’ll take you.”
Her eyes scan the town. It looks kind of spooky at nighttime.
Instead of heading towards the forest where the fruit grows naturally, I
take Zoey to the small town market. Stalls line the roads. The merchants are
just about to pack up.
We head towards a small stall with giant red fruit. A man stands up from
his perch, and walks towards his stand.
“Two, please,” I say.
He nods, and handpicks two fruit for us from the collection. “Just got
these this morning,” he says, handing them to us with a flourish.
I take both of them from him, and hand it to Zoey. She turns them over
in her hands, not sure what to do with them.
After paying the fruit vendor, I take Zoey to a deserted part of the
island.
It’s a stretch of land on the edge of the dense forest.
“Where are you taking me?” Her voice isn’t anxious like it was last
night. She’s just plain curious now.
“There’s this lagoon I want to show you,” I say.
Without realizing it, our fingers have intertwined. She had laced her
fingers through mine as we walked deeper and deeper into the night.
I’ve already memorized every inch of her small hand. I know the exact
location of the three large grooves that cut across her palm.
The smoothness of her skin stirs something low in my belly.
It makes me wonder if the rest of her is just as soft.

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 4

WILLIAM

T he lagoon is my spot.
It’s always acted as a balm to my frenzied heart, and it’s
the place I visit every time I feel low.
So I come here every month, right after I visit Alex.
The prison is on one end of the island. The small town is nestled in the
middle. And the forest covers the rest of the island.
The lagoon that we’re walking to right now is located near the edge of
the forest.
I don’t think many people know about it, because I’ve never seen
anyone come this way.
Sand sticks to the soles of my feet as I walk along the craggy shore.
Large black stones jut out ominously near the surf.
It looks gloomy, but just beyond this lies the most magnificent place on
Earth. The lagoon.
For perhaps the first time, I’m joyous as I walk towards it.
“Will?” Zoey glances at the shiny dark rocks. “Are you sure this place is
safe?”
I glance at her.
She looks so beautiful in the moonlight. I don’t know how I’ll be able to
behave when we’re in the arms of privacy. “Have a little faith in me,
alright?”
She swallows, but nods as she looks at the ocean in front of us. Even the
water looks inky black this time of the night. But I know that it’ll be a
gorgeous shade of blue come morning.
 We walk away from the majestic rocks, and come to a stop right where
the water kisses the sand.
I shift the weight of the two large fruits under my arm.
Zoey watches the ocean as I watch her. She’s still dressed in her loose
white top and skinny jeans.
“It’s a long walk to the lagoon, so let’s eat these first,” I say, sitting
down in the sand.
She sits down next to me.
I crack open the fruit like I’ve seen the locals do. Its outer husk is red,
but on the inside, it’s a bright pink.
“How do we eat it?” laughs Zoey, leaning into me as she looks at the
gooey insides of the fruit.
“So this is why so many people prefer to throw it in the blender and
drink it instead,” I say, examining the fruit. “It’s my first time having it
too.”
“The guard from the prison, he said that it’s an aphrodisiac?” She’s
facing the ocean as she asks me this.
I look at her. Her ankles are crossed in front of her, and her hair is being
blown back by the crisp island breeze. “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t
want to,” I say.
I don’t want her to feel pressured to try anything she’s not willing to.
Her eyes are on me as she brings the fruit up to her lips, and takes a
sample sip. Her brown eyes widen, and she stares at the fruit incredulously.
“Will, you’ve got to try this.”
I oblige, but just like with the cake, my senses are dulled. When she’s
sitting next to me looking like a whole meal, I lose my appetite for
everything else.
Her enthusiastic slurps have my cock hard as steel in no time. By the
time she’s done, her lips are stained a dark pink.
I’m flooded with dark desire.
What I wouldn’t give to kiss the stain off her lips.
“Let’s get going,” I say, clearing my throat and standing up. Her eyes
flick to my large chest and muscular thighs.
The desire I have for her is reflected back to me in her eyes. She takes
the hand I offer.
Hoisting her up, I stand closer to her than I’ve ever been.
 She doesn’t step away. Instead, she looks up into my eyes. Her lips part,
beckoning me to seal the remaining distance between us.
My hand is on her waist. I don’t move it away. Using the grip I have on
her, I pull her into me. A boldness unlike anything I’ve ever felt before
seizes me.
I’ve tried to take it slow. I really did.
But if she wants me like I want her, it’s foolish to deny the attraction.
It’s foolish to defy the gravity.
I tip my head towards her.
With a shuddering breath, her eyes close.
Right when I’m about to steal a kiss from her lips, a loud ringtone jars
her out of the moment. She pulls her phone out from her back pocket, and
glances at it.
“Ignore it,” I say.
She sighs, and shakes her head, staring at the phone. The second it stops
ringing, she puts it on airplane mode. “Work,” she explains, pocketing the
phone again.
When she looks up at me, the desire that was there before is gone. She
crosses her arms across her chest, and stares out at the ocean.
“Is everything okay?” I ask her gingerly.
It feels like she’s trying to bury something inside herself. Something she
doesn’t want me to know about.
She shakes her head at the question. Her chest is heaving, and her
eyebrows are knitted together.
I cup her face, and turn her gaze towards me. The shimmer in her eyes
punches me low in the gut.
Without another word, I hug her.
It’s instinctive.
I can sense that she needs me. Just like how she opened her arms for me
earlier today.
“This is uncharted territory for me,” I mumble into her hair. “I hope it
doesn’t scare you away, but I promise to always have your back. You can
always lean on me.”
She lifts her head up. I try to ignore the curves of her body pressing into
my muscles. Why does this girl feel so perfect in my arms?
“I wouldn’t have accompanied you into the middle of nowhere if I
didn’t think that you were a good man,” she smiles sadly. “Thank you for
today. It was the best birthday I could’ve ever hoped for.”
“I can think of a hundred different ways to make it better,” I say boldly.
Like birthday sex.
It’s not like me. I don’t take risks or step out of bounds. But for her, I’ll
cross every single line that shouldn’t be crossed.
For her, I’m a different man.
I’m not just William, law school student by day and bouncer by night.
I’m not just the William who’s constantly trying to right the wrongs
committed on his brother.
I’m all of those things, and more.
“Oh?” Zoey smiles sweetly. “Are you finally going to show me your
lagoon?”
I take her hand, and lead the way. I feel like I could spend the rest of my
life walking under the stars with her, and be happy.
Foamy white seawater swirls around our ankles.
We walk down the beach until we reach our destination.
The place I know so well.
The place where the water glows.
It’s like nature itself installed pool lights into the ocean bed.
“I’ve never seen this before,” she marvels at the water. Even in the
midst of all this beauty, my eyes stray to Zoey.
Nothing can compare to the effect she has on me.
It’s deeper than just physical beauty. It’s like a switch in me has been
flicked on, lighting me up from the inside.
I’m like the bioluminescent plankton that light up the water, turning it
bright turquoise blue even in the dead of the night.
As we walk into the water, we leave a brightly illuminated trail behind
us.
Seaspray drenches our clothes.
The water is soon waist-deep.
I’ve walked this path dozens of times so I know my footing. But it’s
Zoey’s first time. She steps on all the places I’ve learned to avoid.
“Certain stones are slick,” I say, lifting her off her feet and carrying her
in my arms the rest of the way.
She protests and blushes, but then just accepts her fate. The ends of her
long dark hair get soaked in the water as I carry her to the sheltered cove.
The shape of the island is what gave birth to this glowing lagoon.
 Edges of land spiral outward like two arms, enclosing the lagoon in the
middle.
Separating the lagoon from the ocean is the cove, which is an enclosed
rock formation that faces inward towards the water. It’s like my own private
beach, and now I have someone to share it with.
I carry her all the way there.
The sand here is softer to the touch. She looks around at the high rocky
ceiling and the glittering blue water in front of us.
“I think I just found my favorite color,” she says. But she’s not looking
at the water. She’s looking into my eyes.
I put her down on her feet, but make no move to let go. She stands up
on my feet and stretches her neck until her lips brush against mine.
I think I just found my favorite person, I think. But I don’t say it out
loud. She’ll know all about how obsessed I am with her soon enough.
Tonight, I just want to make her feel divine.
Her kiss is soft and chaste.
I drag her lower lip in between my teeth, and devour her in my own
version of a kiss. It’s hungry and territorial. I grind my hips into her until
she can feel every inch of my hard cock.
She moans, and the sound is the end to life as I know it.
A primitive beast emerges from within me. All he wants to do is bend
this supple girl over and rut into her until she’s swollen with his child.
My fingers tangle in her silky hair.
It’s as soft as I imagined.
Her drenched clothes certainly don’t help me control my lust either.
They cling to her ample curves like a second skin.
The shirt that was once flowy and innocent is now see-through. I can
see the indentation of her belly button and the rise and fall of her breasts.
My fingers trail across the exposed skin of her belly. The action makes
her shudder.
I lean down for another taste of her honeysuckle lips. She has a nectar
that I’ve been craving since the moment I laid eyes on her.
“Does your pussy taste as good as your lips?” I growl against her lips as
I inch my hands higher up her waist.
I explore her body slowly, like I have a whole lifetime to get to know it.
Whimpers escape her as I get closer and closer to the spot where she
wants me.
 When I close my palms around her full breasts, she sighs. Her pink-
tinted kisses heighten my senses.
I pull the shirt off her, and stand back to admire her. Her physique is out
of this world. Full breasts and large hips, with a nipped-in waist and a
rounded lower belly.
She’s fucking gorgeous.
Which is why I don’t understand why she’s suddenly shy as my gaze
runs all over her body.
She needs to feel for herself how much I desire her.
I take my clothes off and show her.
The way my chest balloons out with every breath I take.
The way my balls clench.
The way my hard cock sticks to my abdomen.
“It’s all for you, baby,” I say. Her eyes are wider than I’ve ever seen
them, and they alternate between my cock and my face.
She gulps as I step closer to her and rest my hands on her hips.
She still has her clothes on. A bra that’s straining to hold in all of her,
and jeans that I want to rip off with my teeth.
I reach behind her back, and undo her bra. It falls to the ground.
When I see her nipples for the first time, it makes me fall down to my
knees.
Literally.
I’m tugging on her jeans. Her G-string comes off along with it.
“You’re an eyeful, aren’t you baby,” I say. I can’t believe that all of this
is mine.
When I have her how I want her, all ripe and naked, I explore the rest of
her with kisses and sharp bites.
Moisture pools and glistens between her thighs as I touch every part of
her except for her pussy.
Her kisses turn hungry as I knead her voluptuous ass.
She’s on fire for me, trying to rub her center against me, seeking
friction.
I’ll give it to her all night, but I want her to say it.
“I need to have you,” she says breathlessly.
“Tell me exactly what you need me to do,” I taunt.
“I need you to touch me,” she says, looking down at my cock. It lurches
under her gaze, and her eyes fly up to meet mine.
 “Touch you where?” I ask.
She swallows visibly, and gets up on her tiptoes. With her lips pressed
up against my ear, she whispers, “Everywhere.”
My hands roam, moving from her collarbone to the sides of her breasts.
I hold her by her waist, before I snake my hands around her and grip her
ass.
The edges of my fingers brush against her dripping pussy, but just
barely.
It elicits a moan from her lips.
This is the first time I’m touching a woman, so I pay attention to what
she likes and how she responds.
So far, I know three things about her body.
One, she likes to be kissed at the sensitive spot where her ribs meet her
lower belly.
Two, her nipples are extremely sensitive.
Three, she can never be kissed enough.
She’s burning from the inside out. Her flame has set us both on fire
now.
I kiss her until she turns breathless. Her thighs part and she tries to rub
her core against me, aching for friction that I’m not giving her. Not yet.
I lift her up off her feet, and lay her down on the smooth ocean-kissed
sand.
“Beautiful,” I say under my breath.
The color of her lips juxtaposed against the black sand underneath
makes for one hell of a sight. Her hair is spread around her like melted
chocolate.
Her creamy skin is already starting to bruise from the kisses I gave her. I
kiss over her collarbone, and down her stomach. My face hovers over her
pretty pussy.
“Smells like a virgin,” I say, dipping my nose into the folds, parting her
thick lips. Her body reveals itself to me, talking to me in a language only I
can understand.
I angle my neck so that it’s my tongue that’s dipping into the sweet spot
between her thighs.
“Will,” she says.
“Yeah, baby?” I speak right against her hot flesh.
 “Will,” she chants my name over and over again. The sound of my name
on her lips bounces off the walls of the cove. It echoes in the air around us.
“Keep saying my name, baby,” I say, realizing that nothing turns me on
more than this girl saying my name. The beast in me resurfaces as her voice
becomes soprano.
When I find something that makes her hips buck, I repeat it over and
over again.
She likes it when I rub slow circles over her clit with my tongue. She
loses it when I grind my jaw against her opening, applying pressure where
she needs it.
Her honey drips down my chin as I continue eating her out like she’s
my last meal.
“Will,” she lets out a finals scream, digging her fingernails into my
shoulders. I lift my head up just in time to watch her body convulse.
“Fucking beautiful,” I whisper. Her lips are parted as she lets out a silent
scream. Ecstasy is painted on her face. Her large breasts quiver with the
pleasure wracking through her body.
No wonder men have declared wars in the name of love.
Everything in me grows and expands as I watch my girl let herself go.
I want to provide for her, and take care of her for the rest of my life. It
makes me want to be a better man. I want to work harder so that she can
live in luxury.
And she’ll be pleasured every single night.
When the whole world is asleep, we’ll be up creating magic.
I sink my fingers into the soft skin of her stomach. She was made for
me. Designed for my pleasure.
Just like how my body is made to pleasure her.
Honey is gushing out of her leaking core. I take my hand to it, and wet
my fingers in her warmth. I bring it to my cock. The crown of it is all
stretched out, dying for a taste for her wet heat.
I position myself over her body, my cock resting on her belly.
Her eyes snap open. “It’s so...” she trails off.
I tuck my cock between her thighs, making her back shoot off the
ground. Her tits spill to the sides, making my mouth water for a taste.
“Finish the sentence, Zoey,” I say, slapping my cock against her cunt.
“It feels so heavy,” she cries out.
 “Now that you mention it, I’m kind of worried about how I’m going to
make it fit. You see, your little hole is tiny. And my cock is so big and
thick,” I tease. Her glistening flesh is ready for me, but will it be able to
take all of me?
“Oh,” she says. I don’t miss the way her nipples harden. Something else
I learned about her body.
My girl likes dirty talk.
I grab her breasts and give them a good squeeze. The act makes her
thighs spread even further, like a book falling open just for my eyes.
My hips grind against her slit.
“But that won’t be a problem. I’ll make it fit. One way or the other,” I
say ominously. Her pussy clenches in approval. I continue, “I’ll just have to
push past your virginity, and then I’ll be seated as deep inside you as I can
get. And once I’m inside you, nothing can stop me. I’ll take you until you’re
begging me to fill you with my cream. Isn’t that right, Zoey?”
“Uh-huh,” she nods breathlessly.
“Good,” I say, rocking my hips so that the tip of my cock is right against
her opening.
Her heat greets me.
I want to plunge into her. But not tonight.
I’ll have plenty of other opportunities to take her like I really want to.
But tonight, I take it slow as I push into her. The walls of her pussy
clench down on me.
I grit my teeth, trying my hardest not to burst already. The only thing
that keeps me from doing so is the thought of coming when I’m nestled
even deeper inside her.
Her breath hitches when I hit her virginity.
My thighs are shaking from the energy it’s taking me to be gentle.
I lean down and pepper kisses on her neck until she relaxes under my
weight. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders, urging me to keep going.
Our lips touch.
Just as I push my tongue past her lips, I break through her final barrier,
plunging all the way into her.
Her scream of pain is soundless, just like her scream of pleasure a
moment later. Breathy moans fill the air as we fumble our way through this
whole ordeal.
 It’s clear that we don’t know what we’re doing, but that’s just an
opportunity for us to explore and grow together.
I keep thrusting into her until I find the pace and angle she’s
comfortable with.
My balls are heavier than they’ve ever been as I take Zoey, impaling her
with my cock.
“Will,” she resumes chanting my name. “Oh my God, I feel like I’m-“
she trails off as I hit the spot inside her that makes her squeeze her eyes
close.
“Reborn?” I grunt, slamming into her over and over again. “Me too,
baby, me too.”
I know that my life will never go back to the way it once was after this.
Now that I’ve had a taste of her nectar, I’ll always be craving more.
The glow of the lagoon is the only light by which I see her face. The
delight on her face goads me on.
The muscles of my thighs flex as I slam into her harder and rougher.
Her fingers dig into the skin of my back, and her mouth forms a perfect
little ‘O.’
I can’t help but lean down to steal another kiss.
Zoey returns my kiss with gusto.
Her soft breasts are flattened against my chest, her nipples dragging up
and down my torso as I continue thrusting into her.
We come together.
She milks out every drop of cum from my balls. I release deep inside
her, filling her up until her body can’t hold anymore.
Her walls clench and unclench, begging me for more. It keeps me hard
throughout the orgasm.
Our hearts beat in sync, louder than the roaring ocean behind us. Sweat
and seawater slick our bodies. I pull out of her with a pop, and lay down
next to her.
She turns to face me.
There’s a sorrow in her eyes that I don’t understand. What is your story,
Zoey? I want to ask.
But not now. Instead, I kiss her sweet lips until her breathing becomes
deep and relaxed.
Her eyelashes flutter close.
She tries to fight it, but my arms and the peaceful night lull her to sleep.
 I cover her body, using my shirt as a makeshift blanket.
As her breathing gets deeper and deeper, my mind is crystal clear.
My whole future is laid out in front of me like a map.
I will start my own law firm.
Zoey will be my wife.
Alex will be freed.
Not necessarily in that order, but all of it will be happening in the
imminent future. I’ve fought for Alex my whole life, but now, I have
something else to fight for.
Happiness.
It makes my heart feel like it’s going to burst any second.
All because of the honor of getting to hold this woman in my arms as
she rests.

OceanofPDF.com
 5

ZOEY

T he first rays of the sun wake me up.

I stare out at the lagoon, and think about how I need more
moments like this in my life. Times when I feel so at peace.
It’s been a while since I was this happy.
Too bad it can never last.
I look around for him. William isn’t by my side, but his shirt covers my
body.
I bring it up to my nose. It smells like him.
It’s incredibly soft, and the fact that it’s been draped over his barrel-
chest and thick arms makes me tingle as I steal another sniff.
I’ll remember him forever.
He might hate me after he finds out the truth about who I am, but until
then, I’ll live like I have nothing to lose.
The sun is blocked by a shadow.
I turn towards the shadow, sitting up gently. The sweet pang between
my thighs intensifies as I see him.
The man who could’ve been mine.
Maybe in another lifetime.
I let myself believe that everything is as it should be.
I play pretend, thinking I’m a normal girl with nothing to hide and he’s
a normal boy who would love every corner of my soul.
William’s body pushes through the water.
Just last night, the water was glowing. But in the sun, it’s a diamond
blue.
 His tanned body against the water is a real sight to behold. I let myself
enjoy it for a moment.
His green eyes and dark hair.
His large physique and ultra-toned muscles.
I take it all in as he approaches me with a sexy grin on his face. Water
drips down his muscled body. All he has on are his boxers, and just looking
at him in the daylight is enough to make me blush.
“Good morning, sunshine,” he purrs in that throaty voice of his. I can
hear it reverberate all the way to my toes.
“Hey,” I say, trying not to fidget.
If I move even an inch, the shirt I have over me will slip off. And all of
a sudden, I’m feeling naked.
“Did you sleep okay?” he asks, oblivious to the thoughts in my head.
“I slept great,” I smile. With his body curled around me, how could I not
have? My gaze drifts to his hands.
He’s holding something in his palms. I can’t see what it is, but he leans
down and offers it to me.
Wild raspberries.
“I went to get a little snack,” he explains. “I figured you’d be hungry
after last night.”
As if on cue, my stomach rumbles loudly. I clutch the shirt blanket
closer to my body, and say, “How do you always know just what I need?”
“I’m a fast learner when I’m fascinated by something,” he replies
cockily.
He leans down and steals a kiss from me, unexpectedly pressing his soft
lips against mine. I can never see his kisses coming.
But of one thing I’m certain: My world begins and ends with his kiss.
I let myself cherish it for as long as it lasts. Today might be the last day
we have together.
After this, I’ll be on my way and he’ll forget all about me.
And that’s the best-case scenario.
I’m breathless by the time we break apart. I take a berry from his palms,
and pop it into my mouth.
“Oh, this is delicious,” I say, reveling in the burst of tangy sweetness
that floods my mouth.
He looks overjoyed that I like it. He’s the sweet man from the poker
club again. Gone is the man who took me like a beast. Gone is the man with
the filthy mouth.
He’s just William now, grinning from ear to ear because I like the fruit
that he brought for me.
“Our boat is ready,” he says.
“It wasn’t there last night?” I ask through a mouthful of berry juice.
He shakes his head.
“So you just assumed I’d spend the night with you in this romantic
location?”
His smile is unapologetic. “I would’ve asked you out on a date, but I
had a feeling you like surprises.”
He’s right. But he might not like the surprise I have for him.
I swallow, and stand up straighter. The shirt falls down, and pools at my
ankles. I could make a dash for my own clothes, but my limbs are not my
own. They’re rooted to the spot.
His eyes darken, and his mood shifts.
He leisurely looks me over, from my lips to my breasts to my thighs.
Everything he sees, he likes.
He doesn’t have to say a word. I see his desire for me in the way his
boxers are suddenly too tight.
He takes my mouth in another kiss, but there’s nothing sweet about this
one. This kiss is all heated passion. The friction our mouths create makes
me yearn for more friction.
I part my thighs, and try to rub the aching spot against him secretly. But
as always, he notices everything. He hooks my right thigh over his hip, so
I’m falling forward on him. His cock is flush against my slit.
“The-the boat?” I squeak, biting my lips to keep from gasping.
“The boat can wait,” he growls, bucking his hips and wetting himself in
my desire. “Let me get one thing clear. Every time you walk around with
your curves on display, I'm going to come to take a bite of what’s mine.”
His hand runs down my belly, until he’s cupping my mound.
“I bet it’s all sore after last night?” he asks, toying with my clit.
I cling to his strong body, and nod against his chest.
He knows my body inside and out.
If he knew my mind inside and out, he would be disgusted with me.
I knew what I was getting into when I went to that poker club to catch
his eye. But still, I don’t think I can live with William hating me.
He’s coaxing and teasing the orgasm out of me now.
 He doesn’t push even a finger into me, but somehow, he makes it feel as
intense as last night just by playing with my clit.
When I come shuddering, he strokes himself hard and fast and creams
all over my breasts and stomach.
Then, he light-heartedly mutters something about his cum being
“wasted.” Whatever that meant.
After spending a little more time kissing me, he carries me into the
lagoon, and washes off all the stains from my body with the warm water.
He handles me with gentleness and care that one would reserve for an
infant.
That’s the first time I think about what a great father he’d make.

~~~

I around in my hotel room.

pace
William dropped me off here an hour ago.
He asked me out on a ‘real’ date tonight, and I agreed to it. I know I’ll
have to tell him everything soon. Although I don’t know if he’ll still want
me after he finds out that it was all an act.
I lied to him.
I told him I had no family. But I have an older sister, Elena.
I told him I was a writer, but I didn’t tell him what kind of a writer I
was.
I pretended to be a damsel in distress, just so he would have a reason to
approach me. I even went and hired a man to “steal” my pink purse.
All of it was to reel him in.
Including the faint makeup I wore that purposefully drew attention to
my eyes and lips. All of my best features were put on display for him.
I was hoping he’d notice, and he did.
Even though I had no reason to believe it would work, I figured it was
worth a shot.
My plan more than just worked.
It backfired.
Now I’m in deep waters, struggling for air.
 I did something I never planned on doing. I fell in love with William
Harrington.
The pull we had towards each other was irrefutable. Refusing it would
have been like defying gravity. The fall was only a matter of time.
He doesn’t know the real me though, and that’s what scares me the
most.
I’m a journalist.
And I was going to do a story on him.
My boss, Gigi Hathaway, didn’t believe me at first when I told her the
juicy piece of gossip.
But after a little stalking, it was easy to collect a strand of William’s hair
from the jacket he always wore. And a few days later, I had DNA evidence.
I had proof that William was a lost Prince of Sierran.
He was Harrington royalty.
The story would have made headlines.
But this wasn’t just another story for me. This was vengeance.
The Harrington family is the reason my parents are dead. Not the entire
family, but the man behind bars, George Harrington.
I don’t know what I thought. A part of me wanted revenge. But I wanted
to be ethical about it.
I wanted to inform the people of Sierran that they’re being led by
monsters. But this was before everyone found out that Eleanor Harrington,
the greatest Queen to have ever walked this country, was poisoned.
Now, the entire country already knows that George Harrington is a
deranged, power-hungry lunatic.
So I wanted to do a story that exposed the rest of the family. Surely, at
least one of them was like the King.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, after all.
Ignoring the little voice in my head that said that there was surely a
better way to approach this, I went ahead with my plan.
I was going to do a story on one of the Harrington’s, and then let the
people of Sierran decide whether this whole monarchy thing we have going
on is ideal.
All I wanted is for the people to see things differently.
I wanted to give them the power to rewrite the old script and design
their own fate. At the very least, I wanted them to see that they had other
options.
 Sierran could be a democracy. The people could hold power, instead of
letting the royals call all the shots.
It’s true that our country was off to a bad start in the beginning. We had
to fight for what was ours, and the Harrington family played a crucial role.
But things have changed now. It’s not the same as it was a hundred
years ago.
So why do we still hold love for a power-hungry family?
I may be biased for personal reasons, but everyone has already seen the
truth now. The rise and fall of George Harrington was well-documented.
Because of this reason alone, it would only take a nudge and a gentle
push before we were moving towards a better political system.
We need something that serves everyone, not just the Crown.
We need a democracy.
It used to be taboo to even suggest this, but people have seen with their
own eyes how corrupted a person can be.
I had a dream in my heart about what the future could be. I had passion
in my veins from the wrongs that were done to my family. It was all I
needed.
I was ready to make a change.
So two weeks ago, I signed up for a little dance class.
The Princess, Victoria Harrington, has her own dance studio and she
had just started holding classes every Thursday and Saturday.
For each and every class, I was the first to be there and the last to leave.
I knew I would get lucky if I rubbed elbows with the elite. So I
strategically put myself in the right place at the right time.
It was bathroom gossip that gave me the information I needed.
Victoria was talking to her best friend, Gabriella, about some diary.
They thought they were alone in the bathroom.
A rookie mistake.
No secrets should ever be shared in bathrooms, but luckily for me, that’s
where girls like to talk the most.
I heard snippets of their conversation—things about the Harrington
Orphanage, twin boys, and lost Princes.
It was all I needed.
I went hunting, driven by malice for the Harrington family and a
passion to change the way things currently were.
A few days into my adventure, things slowly started to change.
 It started with Victoria Harrington.
She was like a bright sunflower, all beauty and grace. The way she
danced was beyond mesmerizing. You could tell she was in her element
when she was in that dance studio. And her vibrancy rubbed off on
everyone around her.
I was starting to grow a soft spot for her. This shouldn’t have been that
important, but it was.
It made me realize that I was living on top of a tower built of lies.
It made me realize that the Harrington’s weren’t all bad people. They
were human. Sure, they had their flaws but that didn’t mean that they had to
be plucked out and discarded like weeds.
Next was the act of dancing itself.
We had this tradition where at the end of each session, we would break
off into groups of four and freestyle for the whole crowd.
I felt alive in those moments.
Every step and every breath I took was terrifying and liberating at the
same time.
I always believed I had two left feet, but Victoria’s patience and
encouragement made me feel like I belonged. It was an intense feeling, one
I had never experienced before. It was overwhelming to the point of
heartache.
And when I first met William, my tower of lies came crashing and
crumbling down.
He’s the opposite of a monster.
The man has a heart of gold. His loyalty is fierce.
He told me almost everything about his twin brother Alex.
They’re the lost Princes of Sierran. The people of the country don’t
know about this yet, but I have proof of it. I was going to reveal it to the
whole world by writing a story on it.
Only I can’t get myself to do that anymore.
In my search for revenge, I found real happiness. I found home. Being
in his arms was the only peace I ever knew.
But was any of it real?
I can’t just assume that he’ll feel the same way after discovering the
truth about me. And he will. I’m going to tell him. I don’t want to hide
things from him anymore.
 He’ll learn tonight that I’m not just some cute girl who’s terrible at
poker. He’ll learn that I’m a scheming backstabber. And when he does, he
won’t want anything to do with me.
My phone rings from its position on the bed.
My boss is calling me again. I’ve been curving her calls for two whole
days, and I know she’ll be furious if I keep ignoring her.
“Zoey, what do you have?” she barks as soon as I place the phone to my
ear.
“I don’t know if I want to do this, Gigi,” I say, rubbing the bridge of my
nose. A dull headache is starting to creep up from the base of my skull.
There’s a long pause from her end. It almost makes me think I lost her,
but when I check the phone screen, I see that we’re still connected.
Unfortunately.
“Gigi?” I whisper.
“You begged me for this position,” she hisses in a venomous tone.
“You promised me you’d do a good job.”
Words fail me. I feel like I’m going to choke.
She’s right. That’s what hurts the most about all of this. She’s absolutely
right. I was the one who brought the news to her, and then begged her to let
me do the story.
“I’ve gotten to know him,” I say quietly.
“So?” To her, it’s all about just making headlines.
“He’s sweet. Kind. He’s not like his father at all.”
“Excellent,” she yawns. She actually yawns.
“I don’t want to pursue this anymore. It was a mistake. I was acting
selfishly, and it’s not right.”
“Honey,” she says, dragging the word. “That’s not up to you to decide.
We’re doing this story, whether you want to be a part of it or not.”
I shake my head. “It’s not ethical. He’s suffered so much already, and
the last thing he needs is to be scrutinized and picked apart by the media.”
My admission piques Gigi’s interest. “Suffering how?”
I take a deep breath. “He’s a good man.”
“Okay, that’s what we’ll write about then. We’ll write the truth about
who he is,”
“You just care about the story,” I say foolishly. Of course she just cares
about the sensation a story like this could create. It’s fresh. Nobody will see
it coming, not even our competitors.
 “Zoey, we’ve been given a beautiful opportunity to-“
“I was the one who uncovered the truth.”
She ignores my interruption. “Like I was saying, this is a beautiful
opportunity, and it could make your career blossom. Don’t you want that for
yourself?”
“It comes at a cost I’m not willing to pay,” I say. I’ve absolutely made
up my mind about this. William’s life will not be dissected by the vultures I
work for.
It’s scary to admit, but this might be the biggest mistake of my life.
I should have never let my hatred be my guiding force.
Nothing good ever comes out of hate and resentment. Recent events
have proved that. The King thought he was securing his future as a ruler by
murdering his own mother, Eleanor Harrington. But all he did was earn
multiple life sentences.
“Where are you now?” asks Gigi.
“At the hotel.”
“At the hotel I paid for, you mean,” she says. “Enjoy the macarons and
champagne while you can.”
“Gigi, I don’t want to talk about this right now.”
But she hangs up, right after muttering something about knowing better
than to put someone like me on this task.
I hear the unsaid words loud and clear.
What she really meant was that she should’ve given this story to a more
experienced journalist. Or someone who actually went to college.
Thirty minutes later, there’s a knock on my door.
I open it. Gigi pushes past me uninvited and takes a seat on the couch. I
shut the door with a resigned sigh, and lean on it. We study each other.
When I first met her, I thought she was adorable. She’s only five feet
tall and has a round baby face. But I soon learned that looks can be
deceiving.
The woman is ruthless.
“Zoey,” she says in greeting, putting her bag down on the brown coffee
table. So she’ll be staying for a while.
It’s not even lunchtime yet, and the day has gone from the most
beautiful I’ve ever experienced to a total nightmare.
I sit down opposite to her. She’s all relaxed and leaned back on her seat,
while I’m perched on the edge of my own.
 Her A-line bob frames her face as she leans forward, and says, “Tell me
everything you’ve learned so far.”
That’s when I realize that she needs me.
She needs me to get close to him. She needs me to get insider
information that no one else can acquire. Because nobody knows the inside
of his mind like I do.
“You need me,” I say fearlessly. I lean back in my seat, and cross my
legs.
Her lips purse into a thin line, and she looks like she’s about to throw a
tantrum. But instead, she whispers, “What have I not done for you?”
Without waiting for a response, she continues, “I took you under my
wing when you were a broken bird. Everyone advised me not to, but I did
so anyway because I saw potential in you.”
I have to bite the inside of my lips to keep from saying that I was an
unpaid intern for a whole year.
“Give me the recordings and the information you have on him, and we
can pretend this never happened.”
“You see, Gigi, I had a feeling you would do something like this. That’s
why I didn’t tell you anything except that I had proof of his heritage. But
he’s not some prized stallion, he’s a human being.”
“Would’ve saved me a whole lot of time if you thought of that earlier,”
she says.
When I close my eyes, I see stars. She’s raising valid points.
I brought this case to her lap.
And now I’m asking her to step away from something that would bring
her company fame and fortune.
“Okay, sweetie, look-“ She adopts that condescending tone that I’ve
come to hate.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child. You’re only four years older than me,
Gigi,” I say.
“And yet, I have everything you don’t,” she says smoothly. “So listen to
me when I say that I will destroy you if you take this story away from me. I
will not hesitate to make your life miserable.”
I nod, taking deep shuddering breaths in. I would give anything to have
Will by my side right now. Because all of a sudden, I feel small and
vulnerable and…weak.
 “I’ve been trying to be nice to you for so long. But you want me to talk
to you like you’re an adult? Fine.”
She continues to tell me all the different ways she’ll make my life a
living hell.
She brings up Elena, my sister.
That’s low, even for Gigi. She knows my story. She knows I would
never let anyone hurt my sister in any way.
She blackmails me, beats me down, and crushes any hope I have left
until I have no choice but to do as she instructs.
A piece of my soul dies as I’m forced to agree to her demands.

OceanofPDF.com
 6

ZOEY

M y eyelids are a champagne gold.

My heart feels coal black.
Makeup is scattered on the bathroom countertop.
Normally, I clean up after myself, but I don’t bother doing so today. I have
bigger things to worry about.
Like what I’m about to do soon.
William will be here soon to pick me up for our date. Last night, right
after he kissed me for the first time, I promised myself that I would stop
lying to him.
But I’ve been forced to go back on that promise.
Gigi pushed all the right buttons, and now, I’m dancing to her tunes.
Surely, there’s a special place in hell for women who play with a man’s
heartstrings like it’s a guitar.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror.
I look pretty.
Rose pink barely-there lip gloss and shimmery golden dust on my
eyelids. My hair is in bouncy curls, and I’m wearing a pink dress that
makes me look innocent and sexy at the same time.
All in all, it’s a look that screams feminine charm.
Gigi put it together for me. She’s standing behind me now, finishing up
with curling my hair.
“You look like a dream,” she gushes, lifting her little head up to look at
my reflection in the mirror.
I want to crush her like the pest she is, but instead, I grind my teeth and
try to hold it together.
 If there’s anyone to blame for all this, it’s me. I’m the one who got all
emotional when the opportunity presented itself. I acted rashly, and now, I
have to face the consequences.
“Here.” She hands me the pink purse. “Let’s go over it one more time,”
she says, speaking about her sick plan.
“No, I remember it all just fine,” I grit out.
We spent the better part of the afternoon going over our ‘deal’. It’s
really thinly-veiled blackmail, so I don’t have much choice other than to
follow every command that leaves her lips.
“When you feel uncertain, remember what I told you. I’ve been nice to
you all this while, and it’s time for you to prove your worth.”
She’s excellent at manipulating other people, bending and twisting them
until they fall to her feet. I wonder how she sleeps at night after doing the
things she does.
“I know, Gigi. I have to follow through, or you’ll end Elena’s life and
mine.” She didn’t threaten our lives, but she promised that there won’t be a
roof over our heads.
And I believe her. Gigi Hathaway is a woman of influence.
She warned me that I wouldn’t find an apartment to live in or another
job ever again. It might’ve been bearable if the threats ended there, but she
sealed my fate when she said that she would do the same to my sister.
I try to swallow my pride and anger.
As I look at myself in the mirror, I make a silent promise to myself.
You’ll never let another person control you ever again.
Gigi is oblivious to the transformation I’m undergoing.
I’ll just deal with this, give her whatever she wants, and then forget
everything. I’ll pretend it was a bad dream or something. A bad dream that
included a man who’s everything I ever wanted and more.
Love was never supposed to be a part of this equation. It sneaked up on
me when I least expected it.
But maybe, just maybe, I needed to meet him in order to get my
priorities straight.
I was starting to forget the true reason I’ve chosen to become a
journalist in the first place.
It’s to serve other people.
But instead of doing that, I made it all about me and my problems.
 A dramatic sigh interrupts my musings. “Are you just going to stand
there all day or are you going to call him?”
“Here’s already here,” I say. I don’t know how I know this, but I do.
My skin tingles all over and my heart beats a little faster when he’s in
proximity. I think I love him.
“How could you possibly know that?” Gigi narrows her eyes at me.
I turn around, and her eyes go straight to my tits. They look plump and
drool-worthy in this dress. The warmth of satisfaction blooms in my belly. I
may be taking a wrecking ball to everything I ever loved, but at least I look
good while doing it.
“I just do,” I say, stepping out of the bathroom, and heading for the
suite’s door.
I don’t bother to peek out of the windows to see if he’s really here.
This isn’t just because of the bond we share, but because I know what
kind of a man he is. If he promises someone he’ll do something, he’ll do it.
And if he promises the girl he likes that he’ll come to pick her up by six
o’clock, you can bet he’ll arrive on the dot.
Men with integrity.
If I had a type, that’s what it would be. Not tall men or men with six-
pack abs, but men with integrity.
It’s the single most attractive trait to me, and it’s a shame that not
everyone has it.
William’s the kind of man who does what he says he’ll do. He walks his
talk. He goes above and beyond to make a normal girl like me feel like a
Queen.
Tears prick my eyes as I walk down the hotel’s carpeted corridor. I take
the stairs just so I have more time to compose myself.
I left Gigi in my hotel room, but I have no doubt she’ll be watching
from the window that faces Walnut Street.
If I do this now, the damage done will be irreversible.
If I don’t do this now, my sister’s life will be ruined.
How do I choose between them? Should my loyalty be to the sister who
raised me like a mother or should it be to the man who showed me what it
feels like to be loved?
The tears don’t fall.
I’ve put up a wall of ice around my heart. My soul isn’t even mine
anymore.
 I step outside the hotel, and there he is.
Looking at him is like taking a deep, refreshing breath of country air.
I’m instantly comforted.
My heart does a little dance on seeing him again. It tells me that
everything is going to be okay, even though I know it’s not.
He’s almost unrecognizable.
I’ve only seen him in casual wear or without clothes, so the sexy three-
piece suit he has on catches me entirely off guard.
While I check him out, his eyes scan me from head to toe.
The grin he was wearing upon initially seeing me is long gone. His
viridian eyes are scorching with an intensity that makes my knees week.
“You look beautiful,” he says, brushing my cheek with the back of his
hand.
“Right back at you,” I say, offering him a small smile.
Behind him, there’s a black limousine that I haven’t noticed until now. I
look at him questioningly, but he just opens the door for me. There’s a
chauffeur in the driver’s seat.
I slide in.
My thighs sink into the softness of the luxurious seating. The windows
are tinted and the lighting inside the car is warm.
The best part about it is that it smells like him. Like spicy aftershave
and all things male.
I’m taken back to this morning, when I woke up enveloped by his shirt.
It had his essence on him, the only scent that makes my toes curl.
A cold blast of air conditioning makes my nipples pebble. I try crossing
my arms over my chest to hide it, but all that does is push my breasts
higher.
He closes the door, and faces me.
The smooth engine of the vehicle purrs to life, and we’re cruising
through the streets within seconds.
The partition between the driver and us is rolled up.
William takes his time looking down my body now. He scoots closer,
and brings his lips to the base of my ear. “Do you do this on purpose?”
I stiffen at the question. Does he know?
I turn to face him, and find that his eyes are glued on my lips. “You
have no clue, do you? You truly have no clue what it does to a man when
you wear tight little dresses that match your pretty pink lips. Do you have
any idea how fucking irresistible you look tonight?”
I suck in a breath, but it doesn’t reach my lungs.
His hand is on my knee, and his shoulder is flush against mine. The
tension in the limo is tangible.
I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but respond to his needs.
“What does it make you want to do?” I whisper with a bravery I don’t
feel yet.
He doesn’t react much. All he does is rub circles with his thumb on my
bare thigh. It’s enough to make me clench my thighs and bite my lips to
hold back a moan.
“Those lips,” he growls. “They’re made for sinning.”
He grabs my hips, and lifts me up in a flash. Before I know what’s
happening, I’m seated on his lap, facing him.
His fingers claw into the soft flesh of my ass, kneading me roughly. His
mouth brushes against mine with a feathery-soft kiss, which deepens into
something hungrier.
William kisses a trail down my neck, and into my cleavage. The front of
my dress is pushed apart, until my tits are pushed together in front of his
face for his feasting.
They’re heavy and aching. For him. For his touch, for his mouth.
I’m wearing my sexiest pair of lingerie, a sheer black set.
I place both my hands on his chest. He’s such a strong man. The cut
planes of his chest rise and fall as he breathes heavily.
“I thought you liked to wear pink,” he says, gazing hungrily into my
eyes.
I open the clasp at the front of my bra, and let my tits spill out for him.
And then slowly, I lift up the hem of my dress, and push my panties to the
side, showing him all the pink that’s his for the taking.
“Zoey,” he says my name reverently, as if he’s about to fall to his knees
to worship my body with his mouth.
His big hands lower to my mound, and brush against the edge of my
pussy.
He’s such a man.
Everything about him is sexy as hell, from his big fingers to the way he
growls my name territorially.
 His eyes harden when he feels how wet I am for him. The black thong
I’m wearing has an opening in the middle, from where my glistening lips
peek out.
“Do you think this little opening big enough for me?” he says, plunging
a finger into my core, and curling it.
“Why don’t you try it out,” I reply, grinding my wet heat all over his
lap.
His hands travel to my lower back, and he tugs me even closer. When
there’s absolutely no distance between us, he brings his lips down to mine
and kisses me for real.
His hands are knotted in my hair, and our bodies are flush together.
I moan and gasp into his mouth.
He groans into mine.
With our tongues still dancing together, he pulls his cock free. He lets it
rest against my slit. It’s hot, pulsing, and angry. It pushes up against me,
seeking entry.
“I can’t promise you that I’ll be gentle this time,” he warns.
I kiss him harder in reply.
I kiss him like it’s our last kiss ever, because it might as well be.
After I tell him the truth about who I am, he won’t want anything to do
with me. And I’ve decided that I’m laying all of my cards out on the table
tonight.
He senses my discomfort, and breaks free.
Our eyes lock again, and the attraction between us is so fierce that it
takes my breath away. I want to tumble into his heart, and stay there for a
lifetime.
Time freezes as he looks at me.
Each and every time, it’s in wonder, like he can’t believe that I’m in his
arms. But he’s soon going to wish that he never met me.
I’m toxic.
I’m his worst nightmare.
He grabs my wrists, and feels my butterfly heartbeat. It’s racing and
plummeting. “You’re nervous,” he says. “Don’t be.”
His cock is still hot and hard for me. I slide on it, and he reflexively
grips my ass even tighter. “What are you doing?” he hisses.
“Fucking away my feelings,” I whisper, so low that even he doesn’t
hear it.
 His head thumps against the headrest behind him as I continue sliding
my needy cunt up and down his cock.
Will lifts me up by my hips, and positions his cock right near my
entrance.
“I can’t. I can’t wait anymore,” he says. “This pussy is taunting me.”
There’s a loud rip. I look down at my shredded panties. That’s how bad
he wants to take me and own me.
Without warning, he thrusts the entire length of his massive cock into
me.
All the way.
Up to the hilt.
“I knew you’d be a good girl and take it all,” he growls, reaching down
to my clit and strumming it with his strong fingers. “It’s because you and I
were made for each other. And your little pussy was made for taking
whatever I give it. Isn’t that right, angel?”
His filthy words make my body shudder.
My breasts shake with the pleasure radiating from my core. He roughly
massages one, and takes the other one softly in his mouth. He’s pinching
and clawing at one, and blowing gently and using his tongue and lips on the
other.
The contrast drives me crazy.
It’s so him. Sweet and sexy all at once.
My hips buck, but I don’t have the energy to ride him in this moment.
My heart feels too heavy. I should’ve never decided to stoop down to this
level.
His hands slide down my belly and over my hips. He grabs a fistful of
my ass, and starts moving it how he likes me.
Shallow, but powerful thrusts right against that elusive spot inside me.
It’s enough to turn my vision into gold glitter.
I rest my hands against his carved shoulders. They’ve been sculpted
through hours of hard work. His body tells a story. It tells me about the kind
of man he is.
Once he sets his mind to something, he’ll do whatever it takes to make
it his.
I’m afraid that’s what he’s trying to do to me.
He called me his angel.
 Is that how he sees me? Because I don’t want to shatter the version of
me he’s created in his mind.
I want to be his angel.
Bursts of color obstruct my vision as he gives it to me.
I claw his perfect shoulders, and trail my hands down his chest. His
sturdy, solid chest that encases his sturdy, solid heart.
His fingers play with the split of my ass. They wander shamelessly, up
and down my body.
His mouth bites away at my swinging tits, and his tongue is married to
my nipples.
“Come for me, angel,” he grunts, thrusting until he hits the deepest parts
of me.
His leaking crown is nestled right against my womb. I can feel it
dripping heavily with every thrust. He has me coated with his cream,
marking my body as his territory.
Clenching down on his shaft, I follow his order.
I come.
Hard.
A silent scream leaves my lips.
I’m milking his shaft until he coats me with ropes of cum. He fills me
up, and keeps giving it to me.
Our mouths crash in a desperate kiss.
It tastes like forever. It tastes like a promise.
When we break apart, there’s still tension and magic lingering in the air
between us.
When I look at him, I can see my whole life. It flashes before my eyes,
and I know he’ll make me feel like a Queen as long as I’m by his side.
Because I belong with him.
We belong together.
He holds me tight against his chest for the rest of the drive. His face is
hidden in the crook of my neck, where he kisses me softly.
I hug him back, and try to keep my tears from falling.

OceanofPDF.com
 7

ZOEY

“Y ou haven’t touched your food,” he says.

I shake my head, and smile away my broken heart. “It’s
just…I’m not that hungry,” I say. It’s the truth.
My heart is a kaleidoscope of emotions right now. I’ll
have to tell him the truth about me, but that would risk the future we could
have together. My other option is staying silent and hoping he never figures
it out. It would save us both a whole lot of pain.
After all, it’s my mistake. He doesn’t have to suffer because of
something I did.
He clears his throat now. “I thought...well, after last night, I thought you
deserved to be taken out on a proper date.”
“Oh, are you trying to impress me now?” I smile. I’m hurting, but he
manages to make me smile in the midst of my internal chaos.
His composure doesn’t break. He just looks deep into my eyes like he’s
searching for the exact coordinates to the location of my soul.
His gaze is so intense that I’m forced to look away.
“I don’t think I need to impress you,” he says.
“And why is that?”
“I think you know why.”
A soft laugh escapes my lips. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think
you’re trying to make me fall in love with you.”
He cocks his head to the side and whispers, “Well?”
I swallow.
He probes, “Is it working?”
Oh God. My heart leaps and lodges itself in my throat.
 There’s a round table in between us. But I want to crawl over it and sit
in his lap again. Being in his arms feels so right.
Two waiters appear. One clears our table, and the other arranges the
next course with practiced precision. Our desserts are set in front of us, and
they’re paired with a different wine. I take a sip of the new drink, and find
that it’s sweeter.
“How did you-“ I stop mid-way through the sentence, and look around
the French restaurant.
It’s the kind of place that offers seven-course meals that blend luxury
with wellness. I’m also pretty sure it has a wine cellar with antique bottles
that aren’t found anywhere else on Earth.
“How can I afford a place like this?” he chuckles, finishing my
sentence.
My eyes fly back to him.
I nod once.
“I told you about how my brother started a company a decade ago,
right?” he says.
With quivering fingers, I reach into my pink purse and start the recorder.
Gigi will want to have this conversation recorded. Maybe she’ll forget
about the threat she made if I give her more than she asks for.
If she’s pleased with me, she won’t want to hurt my family.
William’s oblivious to all this. “The company was wildly successful
from the get-go. Alex is a hard worker. And he’s passionate. You won’t
believe how passionate he is, Zoey. I hope you get to meet him someday,”
he says.
I reach out to him. Even as I’m stabbing him in the back by recording
this conversation, I can’t help but be the one to soothe him.
Our fingers lace together like two pieces of a puzzle.
He rubs his thumb against the back of my hand.
Even this small act sends a bolt of lightning down my spine. Warmth
pools between my legs.
Stick to the script, Zoey. Just stick to the script.
“I really hope I get to meet him too. I bet he’s a great guy.” My words
come out flat and monotonous. He notices.
I quickly reach for my water, and take a big gulp.
I feel like I’m going to choke. What I’m about to do has me beyond
nauseated. I have two tasks ahead of me.
 First, I need to get as much information as I can out of him.
Next, I need to tell him the truth.
I’ll tell him that I’m a journalist who’s come to investigate him, but only
after getting enough info to get Gigi off my back.
I can’t even bring myself to look at him right now. So I keep my eyes
trained on my plate, and shovel some dessert into my mouth. The chefs
have arranged the plate painstakingly, trying to make their food look as
good as it tastes. But I barely notice any of it.
“Oh, this fruit pie is delicious,” I say to my plate. Although I have a
mouthful of food, I don’t register the taste.
I hear the sound of his own spoon dipping into the dessert.
There’s a pause, before he says, “Zoey, this is chocolate mousse.”
I force out a laugh. It sounds painfully fake. “That’s what I meant.”
He’s quiet for a moment. All evening, he's been asking me if something
was the matter. I'm yet to give him an answer.
It was easier to detach myself from my actions when he was just a
stranger I hadn’t met. There wasn’t a face attached to the name I knew, so it
was easy to convince myself that I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
But I’ve met him now, and I’ve gotten to know him. And I really, really
like the man sitting in front of me.
No, that’s not right. I love him. I love him as a lover would.
Because last night at the lagoon?
We didn’t have sex. We made love.
“Will?” I whisper his name into the space between us. He’s too far
away. I want him to hold me like he did in the car.
“Yeah?” His head whips up.
“I want to know more about you.”
His eyes are amused as he says, “You already know everything there is
to know about me.”
“I know about your dreams and future plans. But tell me about your
past. Your childhood.” I bite my lips sweetly. Just how he likes it.
His eyes darken. For once, it’s with something other than desire. There’s
torment in his green eyes as he stares past me.
I take another sip of water. My throat keeps feeling dry no matter how
much water I drink.
“I see what this is about. You want to know how much damage you’re
dealing with,” he chuckles.
 I shake my head vehemently, but he continues, “Alex and I entered this
world together. From our birth mother’s womb to the final days before his
arrest, we never spent a day apart. We were each other’s greatest strength.
But this was also a weakness. Because you see, we were dependent on each
other.”
I nod slowly. I understand that only too well.
“Our childhood was a happy one. We were adopted. I don’t know who
my birth parents are, and I don’t really care either because the parents that
raised us showered us with love and affection. Our Dad used to be in the
military, and our Mom was the most loving person this world has ever
seen.”
He’s talking about his personal life with me because he trusts me.
Men like him don’t randomly share details of their life with just anyone.
He’s telling me all this because he believes that I’m worthy of his story.
I’m not. I’m not worthy of his trust.
I want to stop recording this conversation. He thinks his words are
private, but really, I’m about to use them to write a story for the whole
country.
Secrets of the lost prince.
My insides twist into knots. I hate myself in this moment.
I should crush the recorder into tiny pieces of metal and plastic, but I
stay frozen. I don’t move a muscle as he tells me things that he’s never
shared with another soul before today.
“We were happy for a while. We really were. Everything was glorious
and as it should be. Our Dad was retired, and spent his days either
gardening under the sun or cooking for us. He was great at baking too. For
every birthday and holiday, he made lemon cake. That’s why I had to keep
the tradition going.” A corner of his mouth tips up in a fond smile.
“He was in the Army so he was strict sometimes, when it came to things
like oversleeping or doing our homework late. But he had a heart of gold.
He loved our Mom dearly, even when her things started to get bad.”
My eyebrows scrunch together.
He takes a deep breath in, and says, “Our Mom was mentally ill. She
had these…episodes. But she hated taking her meds. Said that they made
her feel sleepy and unfocused. Some days, she loved us and laughed with
us. But other days, she was aloof and distant. I later learned that they have a
name for this condition. Bipolar disorder.”
 My heart beats in my throat as he speaks.
“They loved us so much. They taught us values that we carried well into
our adulthood. It’s safe to say that I wouldn’t be half the man I am today
without their influence.” He doesn’t realize this but he’s gripping the table
so hard that his knuckles have turned white. “And you know the rest of the
story.”
“And Alex?” I whisper.
“He blames himself for their death. On the day of the car accident, they
were driving out to the grocery store because Alex wanted a different kind
of cereal for breakfast. They indulged us and spoiled us from time to time
like that. He was the reason they were driving out, but-“
“But that kind of thinking never gets us anywhere,” I finish, blowing
out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“Exactly,” says Will.
I haven’t told him my story, but there were times when I blamed myself
for what happened to my parents. If only this, if only that.
But I’ve learned that obsessing over what had already happened never
changes today’s reality.
Some things are just written in the stars. It’s set in stone.
No matter how much you wish it was otherwise.
“I didn’t know back then that he blamed himself. He never voiced his
worst fears. They grew inside him, and festered in his heart. They poisoned
the boy he was and turned him into a ruthless man. It’s what made him so
great at business. He kept himself detached. Both from people and from
results.”
“The only person he loved was you,” I say.
“Apparently not,” he laughs.
“No?”
“He found someone.”
“In prison?” I ask.
“Yeah.” Will is sitting in front of me, but his mind is in another world. A
happier world.
“Oh,” I say. “Oh. He’s gay?”
Will shakes his head, smiling. “Alex is as straight as an arrow. When I
met him last evening, he said that he was in love with his psychiatrist.”
My blood runs cold.
A doctor/patient relationship?
 I mean, I’m not one to judge, but still. Seriously?
William doesn’t notice that I’m stunned by this news. “He was assigned
one when he went three whole days without sleep. His doctor used to be a
man, but Alex was his usual uncooperative self, so they changed doctors.”
“Is he doing better now?”
Will looks away. “His mind never tires, especially when he’s working
on something. It’s just the way he is. He was the same way when he started
that first business. The world outside the Orphanage was harsh and
unforgiving, but he worked tirelessly. After a year of planning and saving,
he started this modern furniture store. Decor and artsy things. We named it
Eleanor Designs.”
“After the late Queen?”
He blinks in assent. “She was an integral part of our childhood, even
though she probably doesn’t even know our names. It was because of her
that we had a safe place to grow up in.”
I purse my lips. His words are a reminder that the Harrington family has
good people. People who deserve to be left alone in these troubled times.
My palms are slick with sweat. I rub them on my thighs as I mumble,
“May she rest in peace.”
He nods solemnly.
I’m sure Eleanor is rolling over in her grave because of what I’m doing
to her Grandson.
From what I overheard in that studio bathroom, she knew about the Lost
Princes. She kept track of their health and growth all their lives without
them noticing. Up until they left the Orphanage.
After that, it was like they fell off the face of the Earth.
Until now, that is.
“In less than two years after its conception, Eleanor Designs was
thriving. I was by his side every step of the way, but it was really Alex who
was in charge. He was the one with the vision. He was the one who
executed his ideas with ruthless precision.”
“What went wrong?”
Will swallows. “As the company grew, we started to invest. Alex began
buying other businesses. Small, failing ones that he saw potential in. He
breathed life back into them and then sold them for a profit. And then-“ he
pauses, clutching the table even tighter.
 I glance at his hands. I’m afraid he’s going to split the table in half, but I
need to know the whole story. “And then what?”
“One of the companies we bought was a cover for illegal operations.
They were in the jewelry industry, but they didn’t just ship rare rubies and
emeralds from around the world. We didn’t know then that it was really an
intricate smuggling operation.”
“What did they smuggle?” I whisper.
“Humans.”
“H-humans?” I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was so not it.
“Yes, human trafficking. Men and women and children. They were
lured in with false promises of a better life and better jobs. These victims
were given a free ride to their destination. Once they were in a foreign
country where they didn’t know anybody or even speak the language, the
traffickers trapped them.”
I feel like I’m about to throw up.
I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste metal. My heart reaches out
for those unfortunate souls. My head brims with anger towards the people
who did them wrong.
I’m also upset with myself.
As a journalist, my stories shouldn’t be gossip about royal children.
They should deal with things of importance. Things like human lives being
sold.
“Couldn’t they escape?” I ask in a small voice.
My hands are shaky. I’ve never felt more unstable before. I want to do
something to help them and make their lives better.
“Angel,” rasps William.
We’re in the middle of a crowded restaurant, but when I hear him call
for me with such tenderness and love, I have to run to him.
I get off my seat, and accept his open arms.
He’s such a big man.
In all the years of my life, I never felt delicate. But that’s how I feel
when he holds me. He makes me feel small and delicate and cherished.
He holds me tightly now, and kisses my cheek. “Are you sure you want
to hear the rest of it?”
I nod against his chest.
His heartbeat is steady and robust. It comforts me instantly.
 He puffs out a breath, and says, “They couldn’t escape. Because the trip
and the fake paperwork was paid for by the traffickers, the victims were
made to feel like they had to work to pay back their debt. They were
threatened with violence, and held back by shame and guilt. It’s a terrible
cocktail.”
“What...what kind of work were they made to do?” I swallow.
“Mostly sex work,” he says. “But the men and the children were put in
labor. Construction, mines, factories.” I can tell that he’s holding back the
worst of it.
My whole body tenses as I think about the kind of psychological trauma
it causes to a person when treated like this.
He rubs his hand on my bare arm, and squeezes my hand comfortingly.
“Good news is, there was a prosecution. All the victims were saved and
sent back to their homelands where they were given shelter and jobs.
They’re all back with their families and are as happy as they can ever be.”
It’s him who tenses now.
I lift my head and see a frown marring his handsome features.
His jaw distracts me every time. It’s square and rock-hard, covered with
sexy stubble.
I reach up, and touch the underside of it gently. He blinks back into
focus, relaxing under my touch.
Oh God.
We’re so fucked.
If we need each other to feel calm, then who’s going to save us when
we’re apart?
I can envision our doom. The end of us. It’s inevitable.
Some things aren’t meant to last. We’re on the edge of love, and it could
grow into something beautiful, but it won’t.
This thing we have between us will be slain before it reaches its full
potential. When William finds out the truth, he might do the honors of
killing it.
“And the bad news is that all of it was traced back to my brother. He
was innocent, but nobody believed him. Because technically, it was he who
owned that jewelry company. He was framed for that heinous crime, while
the people who were actually responsible walked free.”
I rest my hand on his chest. The rise and fall of his pecs give away the
anger that he’s trying so hard to control.
 “That’s why you’re studying law,” I say.
He looks at me, and nods. “I can’t lose a battle when Alex is involved.
I’ll fight on his behalf, and do whatever it takes to make him a free man
again.”
“I know you will,” I say, caressing his ear with the back of my hand.
He smiles down at me, but a movement catches his eye. He looks up at
something, and freezes.
I follow his line of sight.
Two tables over, there is a group of four watching us quietly. Not just
any people.
Royalty.
Prince Brody and his wife, Violet.
Princess Victoria and her best friend, Gabby.
Everyone else in the restaurant is looking at them, while they’re looking
at us.
They’re magnetic as individuals, but together, their aura is radiant.
It’s not just the fact that everyone knows who they are. It’s the way they
carry themselves.
Like the whole world belongs to them.
There’s my bias creeping through again.
It’s like I’ve been wearing a pair of dark sunglasses my whole life, one
which tinted the way I looked at the Harrington family.
I had my reasons.
But now that William had taken the sunglasses off of me, I see them for
what they really are.
People. They’re regular people with the same problems as everyone
else. The only difference is that they have George Harrington as their
father.
He was evil.
But evil isn’t inherited. His children aren’t like him at all. Some of them
have sweet, tender hearts. Like the one beating underneath my fingertips
right now.
William holds me tighter, like the royal family is here to take me away
from him.
Gabby whispers something in Victoria’s ear that makes her nod sharply.
They must recognize me from the dance group.
 “The Harrington family,” Will says reverently. “Why are they staring at
us?”
As if they heard the question, one of them stands up. Victoria.
She’s dressed in a crisp white shirt and a forest green satin miniskirt that
sits snug against her round hips. As always, she looks stunning.
Her eyes are trained straight on me.
So this is what it comes down to.
I’ll be defeated by the Harrington family, just like my parents were.
I move to stand up, but William’s hand is wrapped around my waist. It’s
like he can sense that something’s wrong.
Vicky doesn’t even look at him. When she reaches our table, she
addresses me breezily. “Hi, Zoey.”
Her face is angelic, but her smile is quick to disappear.
“Victoria,” I nod my head cautiously.
William’s grip on me loosens. I guess I should be a little ashamed that
I’m sitting on his lap in the middle of a restaurant.
But I’m not.
It’s the way he makes me feel. Like nothing else matters but us.
“Can I sit down?” she asks. But she’s not looking at me anymore.
She’s looking at William. The brother she never met. The man with eyes
that are the exact same shade of green as her own.
How does he not see it?
Maybe the truth is more obvious once you learn of it.
“Of course,” he says.
Victoria flicks her wrist, and there’s a chair being pulled up. She orders
some white wine and chocolate cake.
I want to get back in my own chair, but it would be an act of defeat to
walk around the table all the way to my seat.
So I stay put, even as I start to get uncomfortable.
Of course, William senses this. He always does. He reads people’s body
language like a pro. He slips out from underneath me, and with an assured
smile at me, he walks to my chair.
Vicky watches all of this with cool eyes.
Her big slice of chocolate cake and wine of choice arrive. She digs into
it ravenously.
I look at the other table where the rest of them are still watching us. I
see Gabby roll her eyes at her best friend’s antics.
 It’s always cake first, business later with Vicky.
Violet and Brody are sitting next to each other holding hands like two
virgins. Even though it’s no secret that they’re expecting a baby. Violet’s
stomach is rounded, and it looks like she’s going to drop any minute now.
The whole restaurant is holding its breath. There’s no murmured
conversation or the clatter of plates being taken away.
It’s total radio silence.
Vicky eats half of the cake like a starving wolf, and then dabs at the
corners of her lips with a napkin like a total lady.
We’re still waiting for her to speak.
She takes a sip of her drink, and says to me, “I’m giving you the benefit
of the doubt, Zoey. Explain yourself.”
“What’s this about?” asks William, instantly defensive.
“I’ll get to that soon,” she says. Her eyes are warm as she looks at her
lost brother, but harden when they turn to me. “Do you have anything to say
for yourself?” Her voice drips with authority.
She knows.
I don’t know how, but she knows all about my little scheme.
“I never meant to hurt anyone,” I say in a low voice.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
I was supposed to be the one to tell William the truth. But this is
happening, whether I like it or not.
She nods, and goes back to devour the rest of her cake.
William tries to make eye contact with me, but my eyes are fixed on my
purse.
The recorder is still on.
“I got a call an hour ago,” says Victoria, when she finishes eating. She
takes her time with her words, enunciating each word carefully. “It was
from a woman named Gigi.”
I suck in a breath through my teeth.
That little bitch. She double-crossed me.
“And what did she say?”
“A lot,” Victoria says vaguely.
She opens her purse, and pulls something out.
An antique-looking notebook. It takes me a fraction of a second to
realize what it is. It’s the diary.
She slides it towards William. “You should catch up.”
 I notice that some of the pages have little post-it notes jutting out of
them. She has bookmarked the important pages. The pages that reveal the
truth about William’s birth parents.
Causing a scene about this now would make me look guilty. So I turn to
Vicky instead, and say, “Care to elaborate?”
She sits back in her chair, and studies me.
“In a minute,” she replies, tipping her head towards William.
William’s preoccupied with the diary. He looks like he knows who it
belongs to.
I can hear the rustle of the worn pages as he flips them slowly. I can feel
the quickening of his heartbeat even though I’m not touching him.
This is the moment.
The moment where it all ends.
It’s going to be even worse than I imagined it would be.
Victoria is watching me with a neutral, but bold expression, as if she’s
daring me to get up and leave.
She knows I won’t. I can’t.
I have to be here to make sure William believes the truth, not the
fabricated version I’m sure Gigi has spun for Victoria.
When he’s done, he closes the book and looks at the Princess. “What
does all of this mean?”
“It means that you’re a Harrington,” she replies. And then in a softer
voice, she adds, “It means you’re my brother.”
William lets out a laugh. “You have the wrong person. It can’t be-“
I squeeze my eyes shut. “She’s right, William.”
In my head, the words that just left my mouth morph into bullets before
they lodge themselves in his heart.
He’s going to be scarred forever. All because of me.
When I open my eyes, I find both of them staring at me. I turn to
Victoria. “Let me explain. Please.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but something on my face makes her
change her mind. She nods once.
“What’s going on, Zoey?” he asks. For the first time, there’s uncertainty
in his voice as he says my name.
Where do I even start?
“I was going to tell you tonight,” I say. “I swear I was. Because I didn’t
plan on falling in love with you. It was never my intention to get close to
you.”
“What are you saying?” he says incredulously.
He’s starting to suspect that something’s fishy, but he doesn’t want to
believe it. He wants to be in denial for a little longer.
“My love for you is real. I love you, William.” Damn, this really wasn’t
how I expected to say the words to him.
The man is good at reading body language, so I look into his eyes as I
say the words. I try to convey to him how sincere I am.
But he doesn’t reciprocate the three words.
I continue, “My love is real, but I haven’t been honest with you.”
Once again, he doesn’t say a word.
He just sits there like a statue of marble waiting for me to explain.
I do.
I tell him everything.
About the story I was going to write, about my profession, about the
DNA test. And yes, even about the way I set him up when we first met.
He’s stoic as he hears me out.
When I finish speaking, he gets up, and puts a couple of hundred-dollar
bills at the center of the table.
Vicky and I exchange a glance.
Without another word to either of us, he walks out of the restaurant.
I watch his retreating form.
His shoulders are as broad as ever, and his spine is straight. The only
thing different about him are his clenched fists.
Victoria stands up.
I touch the edge of her wrist, and say, “Gigi Hathaway is a liar and a
manipulator.”
“And you work for her, so what does that make you?” With that, she
walks towards the exit. The people she came with follow her out.
I clutch my elbow, and bite the inside of my cheek.
How did I become the bad guy?

OceanofPDF.com
 8

ZOEY

T he night is cold.
Or maybe I’m slowly freezing up without his love.
“Will?” I try to sound strong and confident, but my voice
breaks and the tears spill.
He turns to face me.
Deep in his green irises, I see a flash of something.
Compassion. Love. Trust. It’s all there.
But it’s gone as soon as it appeared.
He still hasn’t said a word to me after my confession. I spilled my
secrets and showed him my true self. He turned the other way.
Is the real me really that ugly?
“Can I talk to you in private?” I ask.
He just stands there, aloof and unforgiving.
His arms are crossed over his broad chest. The same arms with which he
held me so possessively.
He made me feel like nothing could touch us or come in between us. I
almost bought into that delusion for a moment.
But I should’ve known.
The hope in my chest is slowly flickering out.
I’ll give it one last shot. Maybe if I explain everything clearly, he’ll see
why I had to do what I did. He doesn’t know that I lost everything because
of the Harrington family.
So I’ll tell him the truth and see if he has it in him to give me another
chance.
We could start over. From scratch.
 I could make it up to him.
“William, you know me.” I hang my head.
This is the man who insisted that I blow out my birthday candles in the
dark. He’s the same man who took me to an otherworldly place where the
water glows.
I let him in.
He was the first person to ever love me.
I gave him my body and my heart. Is my mind really too much for him
to handle?
“You know me,” I whisper.
“Do I?” he says.
At least he’s speaking to me. I’ll take all the scraps he throws at me. I
have no pride left. None at all.
My voice is hoarse when I speak. “It’s true that I have hidden some
things from you. But I was going to tell you everything tonight.”
“Why tonight? What made you change your mind?” His words come
out as sharp as a whip.
“After last night,” I start. I glance at the royals. They’re standing close
enough to hear our private conversation. “Everything shifted for me when
you kissed me under the stars.”
Let the others be uncomfortable. I don’t care.
All I’m concerned about is this man thinking that what we had between
us was a lie. It might have started as one, but I knew from the moment I
first saw him that he was special.
“What you need to understand is that…” I tell him the part I left out
initially. The part about George Harrington being responsible for my
parent’s demise.
They were in his way, so he stripped them down until they were nothing
and had nothing. When they were at his mercy, he finished them off.
“Yep, sounds about right,” says Victoria, curling her lips in a sick smile.
When she realizes that everyone is looking at her, she explains, “What?
Even I didn’t know about this pastime of his until recently.”
William looks away from her, and then at me, “So you thought you’d
get vengeance by digging up dirt on this family.” He doesn’t call the family
his. But I know that it won’t be long until he accepts it.
“Yes.”
 “And I was your target, even though you knew about my twin brother
being in Achilles Prison?”
“What’s that now?” says Victoria. Until now, she was listening to us talk
like we’re her new favorite tv show. But suddenly, she looks all indignant.
We both ignore her again.
“Yes,” I repeat, looking into William’s eyes.
It’s not all black and white. My moral reasoning was more in the grey
area.
I was in extenuating circumstances.
I just hope that somehow, he understands that I had no choice.
But that’s not right, is it?
There’s always a choice.
I could’ve chosen to tell him everything at the lagoon right after he
kissed me.
I could’ve chosen to defy Gigi in the hotel room.
I could’ve chosen to switch off the recorder when William started
sharing private details of his life.
Instead of doing the right thing, I decided to ignore my problems and
hoped they would go away on their own.
But the truth remains that in most cases, there’s always a choice.
“You made me fall in love with you just so you could get a story out of
it?” There’s no emotion on his face as he says this.
“No,” I sob. “William, you have to understand that I never meant to hurt
you. I’m ashamed of the things I did. And I wanted to tell you, but-“
“You had plenty of opportunities. Why didn’t you?”
“I told you,” I fling my arms desperately. “My boss threatened my
family.”
“I thought you didn’t have a family.”
“I have a sister. Elena. She means the world to me.” I let go of the
remaining hope I’ve been gripping on to. There’s no reversing this type of
damage. “And I don’t let anyone touch my family.”
“Glad we have something in common,” mutters Victoria, flipping her
shiny blonde locks behind her shoulder.
William’s eyes are tormented. “I shared everything with you, Zoey. I
thought you were the beginning of the rest of my life. I finally thought I
found something to be happy about, and now I learn that it’s all a lie?”
A whimper escapes me.
 It’s happening. He’s losing his faith in me, in us.
“My love for you isn’t a lie. It’s the best thing to-“
“Her purse,” interrupts Prince Brody. He somehow manages to look
away from his pregnant wife long enough to speak up.
“What?” I squeak.
“Check her purse,” he orders Victoria. And then he goes back to fussing
over his wife, mumbling something about his ‘bellissima’ standing for too
long.
“Let me see your purse,” says Victoria, holding out her hand.
It’s the one the “thief” stole the night William and I met.
It’s the one that holds my mother’s necklace, and the recorder that still
hasn’t been turned off.
I hold it behind me, and grip it with both hands.
“No.” Not like this.
Victoria raises her eyebrows at Gabby, who blinks slowly in approval. A
whole conversation just passed without any words spoken.
Gabby approaches me, and jerks her chin in a direction away from the
group.
I follow her, while still clutching my pink purse like it’s about to be
snatched away from me.
I like Gabby.
Everyone from our dance club does. She owns the café right next to the
Princess’s dance studio, and she always comes by with snacks for
everyone.
The best part about the food she brings is that they’re guilt-free. They
taste good and they’re nutritious.
Gabby is big on things like that. She’s the kind of person who watches
what she eats for health reasons. I’ve never come across a person like her
before.
“I guess it’s safe to say that this is a little overwhelming,” she starts.
“For all of us.”
My chest feels a little lighter as we talk.
I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to sweet-talk me into showing
them my purse.
I have no doubt that Gigi was the one who gave them the heads up
about it in the first place.
 “You say that you want us to trust you,” she says softly. “How can we
when you’re still hiding things? I’m sorry that your boss threatened your
family, but it’s safe to talk to us.”
As she says these words, it reminds me of the human trafficking victims
who were made to feel like they had no choice. Even if they didn’t like their
lives, they were held back by ugly emotions like fear and shame.
Gigi blackmailed me the same way.
She knows that Elena is everything to me. She knows that the only
person I have in this world is my sister.
And she threatened me by threatening Elena. If it was just my life she
was going to destroy, I would’ve been fine with that.
I look at William.
His profile is stunning. Sharp cheekbones, burning green eyes, and a
straight nose.
My regal prince.
Fear can’t control me for the rest of my life.
It’s no way to live.
So I stride over to them, and give my purse to Victoria.
She takes it from me after shooting a grateful glance at her best friend.
They can think what they want, but I didn’t give it to them because Gabby
convinced me.
Although having her talk to me definitely eased up my panicking, it was
I who decided I wouldn’t be controlled like this any longer.
Earlier this evening, I made a promise to myself.
You’ll never let another person control you ever again.
My promise to myself starts right now.
No matter how much pressure I’m under, I can keep my calm by
reminding myself of this.
“She’s been recording this conversation,” says Victoria, pulling out the
audio recorder.
It’s small and sleek. It auto-saves the audio files to my computer every
five seconds. Even if she destroys this now, I’ll still have a copy of this
evening’s conversation.
But I don’t plan to use it.
And yet, as Victoria holds up the recorder for everyone to see, shame
blooms on my skin. It’s right under the surface, coursing through my veins.
 Vicky hands my purse back to me, and I take it from her, wishing I
could make it disappear.
I can’t bring myself to look at William.
“Why?” he ask softly. It’s almost tender.
I look up. He’s waiting for an answer. I want to tell him, but the words
don’t leave my lips.
My fight is about a house.
The house that I grew up in.
It will be sold to someone else if I don’t do something about it first. Gigi
knew this too, and she said that she’d buy the house for herself if I refused
her demands.
I don’t really hold material things close to my heart, but the house is a
fond memory. My only fond memory. Is it so bad that I want to hold on to it
a little while longer?
My fight is about my sister.
She has student loans to pay, and she’s working her ass off right now to
clear the debt. Gigi threatened to have her fired.
My fight is about my past.
My family was wronged by George Harrington. I could’ve had a normal
life, but because of the ruthless King, I had to struggle every step of the
way.
But no amount of revenge can reverse what had happened.
My Mom and Dad are a part of the stars now.
I was six years old when my goldfish, Cheeto, died. He was my first pet
ever and I was heartbroken.
While I was crying in bed that night, my Mom came to me and said,
“The people you love don’t ever leave you. They become a star, so they’re
always watching down on you.” And then she pointed out of my bedroom
window from where I could see an uninterrupted expanse of the starry night
sky, and she said, “See? You can look at them whenever you want to.”
For an embarrassingly long time, I really believed that Cheeto was part
of the night sky.
It’s a beautiful thought that I still want to believe. It’s beautiful to think
of things like these.
Magic.
Unicorns.
Fairy tales.
 True love.
Happy endings.
A sharp inhale of breath brings me back to the present.
William.
The hurt in his eyes is fading, and it’s starting to be replaced by anger.
He asked me why.
I have all these explanations at the tip of my tongue, but they don’t
mean anything. They don’t justify what I was about to do.
What it really comes down to is that I've ensured my sister's safety by
gambling on William’s life.
Even though I know about how important it is for him to remain
anonymous.
The same people who put his brother in prison might be looking for
him. That’s why he lives in a small studio apartment and drives a
forgettable car even though he has millions to his name.
Even after having knowledge of all this, I let my boss bully me into
doing something I know isn’t right.
I shake my head at William. “I don’t have an answer for you.”
I look at the people behind him. The people who have come to take
William away from me.
“Okay,” he swallows. “I don’t even get an explanation. Great.”
“It’s not that. I don’t want to make excuses. I brought this on myself, on
us. It’s my fault.”
“Give me an explanation. Let me hear what you have to say.” He’s still
fighting for the good he saw in me. He doesn’t want to accept me as the girl
I truly am.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t justify what I did.”
Come to think of it, I don’t deserve to be with an honest man like him.
I’m a crook and a backstabber. He deserves someone much, much better
than me.
So I rub the salt on my own wound. “I was going to use everything you
told me and sell the information, Will. I lied to you from the beginning. You
trusted me, and I let you down. I’m not the girl you think I am.”
Do you hate me yet? I want to ask him.
The pain and anger are no longer there on his face. A new emotion
surfaces.
Detachment.
 He turns to Victoria. “That name,” he says. “Gigi, was it? Is that her real
name?”
“Imogen,” I offer for him. He doesn’t turn to me, but his ears perk up.
“Her full name is Imogen Hathaway.”
There’s a flicker of recognition in his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Do you...” I lick my dry lips. “Do you know her?”
There’s a tic in his jaw as he stares at my dewy lips. “I think you’ve
asked enough questions for one day.”
He takes one long stride until he’s standing right in front of me. We’re
so close that I can count every single one of his long lashes. His lips curl
back in a snarl. “You and I? We’re done.”
My heart squeezes in my chest.
I knew it’d be coming, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the
hostility in his eyes. The same eyes that looked at me last night like I was a
divine being. Like the secrets of the universe were hidden right behind my
lips.
Last night, he worshipped me.
Tonight, he can’t even look at me without his lips twisting in disgust.
I can’t help it. I reach up to touch his lips.
He grabs my wrist, stopping me before I can.
“Zoey Winters, you lost the right to touch me the second you switched
that recorder on tonight. I thought you were an angel, but I should have
known you’d be my worst nightmare. People like you make me sick. I don’t
want to deal with you ever again. So please, do me this one favor and leave
me and my family alone.”
There it is. He said it. Leave me and my family alone.
His callous words hurt more than that grip he has on me. My hand goes
lax, and he drops it like he can’t bear to touch me for another second.
I force myself to turn away.
Sometimes in arguments, things are said that can’t be taken back.
Hurtful words fly out in the heat of the moment.
But this is not like that.
He means every single word.
Every. Single. Word.
So I force myself to keep walking. Away from the only love I ever
knew, and the only man I ever loved.
I walk away, but I leave a piece of myself behind with him.
 Just in case he decides he wants me.
I can feel his eyes digging into my back. Firecrackers are going off
again where his gaze touches my skin. I felt the same way when he was
checking me out at the poker club.
But I don’t turn around. I can’t.
I pull out my phone, and book the first flight out of this country.
Away.
I need to get away.

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 9

ZOEY

“W oah, woah, woah. Slow down. What happened?” Elena’s

concerned voice comes through the phone. I had dialed
her number as soon as I could.
I didn’t break down in front of William, but now that I’m on my own, I
feel like the whole world is sitting on my chest.
I feel so alone, driving away from him, and not knowing when I’ll see
him again.
And in the comfort of the back seat of the taxicab, I’m a sobbing,
blubbering, snotty mess.
“Zoey, honey, talk to me,” says my sister.
I force myself to take deep breaths. “I was on assignment, and I…I got
attached to this man,” I say finally.
Only with Elena would I ever let myself be weak. The rest of the world
would judge me and rip me apart if they even sniffed my vulnerability.
There’s a silence from her end. And then she says, “Is this about that
Harrington case? The one I warned you was your worst idea ever?”
“Yes,” I hiccup.
“Wait a second. Is this why you blew me off on your birthday?”
“Maybe,” I say, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Why would you go and do the very thing I asked you not to?”
“It’s why I became a journalist in the first place, Elena,” I say
defensively.
I know what she’s thinking. I’m thinking the same thing.
I wanted to change the way Sierran worked. Doing a piece for the
biggest magazine in the country was my best bet. Was.
 How wrong and stupid of me.
“Those people are dangerous,” chides my sister. “Why did you have to
go and get yourself involved with the Harrington’s?”
“They’re not, Elena. They weren’t all in it together. It was only the King
who was rotten, and he’s behind bars now. Not all of them are bad. Some of
them are good and kind.”
I think about Brody and Vicky, who came to defend the brother they
never even knew.
I think about William, who puts everyone else first.
“You said you got attached to someone,” she says, bringing up my point
from earlier. “Who is it?”
I fill her in on the story.
She listens patiently and then asks, “Where are you now?” she asks.
“At the airport,” I say, biting down hard on my lip before the tears spill
again. I arrived while I was still on the phone with her.
And I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.
There’s a click at her end. She cut the call.
I’m not surprised.
A minute later, I get an incoming call from her.
“Hey.” I smile despite everything. She’s someone I can always count
on.
“I’m on my way,” she says, her muffled voice coming through. I can tell
she’s driving. “Zoey, is this boy really that important?”
He’s no boy.
William Harrington is all man.
The memory of his growly voice and big hands still makes my toes curl.
My thighs are still sticky with his cum. I can feel it against my thighs as I
walk.
He made his mark on me.
And now, he wants nothing to do with me.
The worst part about all this is that I don’t even get to be mad at him.
I did this. I took one stupid decision after another. It’s what led to our
demise.
“Laney?” I ask softly.
“Yeah, Zoey?”
“He’s more than important. I feel like I need him.” I feel like I can’t live
without him.
 My legs feel like two strands of spaghetti as I say this. I look around
until I find somewhere to sit.
There’s an outdoor café close to my airport terminal.
Elena starts her lecture. About how I don’t need a man and stuff.
She’s always been the super independent type. Even though my sister is
five years older than me, she’s never been in love. I don’t expect her to
understand this.
But I entertain her anyway. I listen to whatever it is she has to say. I
even try to wrap my mind around it.
She says that all my dreams can be achieved without a man, and that I
can be happy without one.
It might be true.
But there’s a small whisper at the back of my mind that keeps chanting
his name.
William.
Somehow I’ve come to think of him as my man.
I’ve come to think of us as indestructible.
Like nothing could ever break us.
My sister’s voice is comforting. Just listening to her speak eases up
some of the knots inside me.
Talking to her is like playing with a dog.
No matter how horrible my day has been so far, I can always turn to her
for a dose of happiness.
“You haven’t listened to a word I just said, have you?” she says now.
“No, but I heard you. I’m glad you’re coming to say goodbye.”
That was the wrong thing to say. My sister promptly freaks out using
phrases that would make a sailor blush.
I try not to smile as I take her verbal storm.
“I’m here,” she huffs.
I give her the details of my whereabouts, and a moment later, she drops
herself down into the seat in front of me.
She looks at me like she wants to grab hold of my head and shake some
sense into me.
“Where is this boy who’s slowly killing all your brain cells?” she says
as greeting.
Her hair is thrown up in her signature bun, and her skin is glowing. She
must have applied her night serum already.
 “You were getting ready for bed,” I observe.
Her bright blue eyes narrow at me.
I sigh. “I told you. We broke up. That’s why I’m leaving Sierran.”
She purses her lips, and nods repeatedly. Her fingers drum on the small
round table in between us.
“Does he know that your bitch boss blackmailed you into it?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know that his family is the reason our parents are dead?”
“Sort of.”
“Does he know that we had to jump from foster home to foster home
because nobody wanted to deal with two teenage girls?”
“Well, not exactly-“
“And there you have it. All the reasons you should forget about him and
find yourself someone brand new.”
I blow my cheeks out in exasperation.
There’s no point in explaining it to her. I can’t just go and get myself
someone ‘brand new’.
My heart aches for him.
My body yearns for him.
Somehow, I already know that he’ll forever be the one that got away.
There’s no getting over a man like William.
“Laney,” I say, using her nickname.
It always seems to calm her down. Maybe it’s because that’s how our
parents called her. It works even after all these years.
“Don’t you Laney me,” she snaps, folding her arms over her chest and
leaning back in her seat. Her blue eyes are shimmering. She turns her head
away.
No.
I can’t have her upset with me.
I care about exactly two people in this world. Him. And her. I can’t
afford to alienate both of them in a single night.
“Listen, I won’t be gone forever. I just need time to...heal. And find
myself and that kind of stuff, you know?”
I can’t bring myself to tell her the real reason I’m going away.
It’s half embarrassment. And half knowing that he doesn’t want to see
me ever again.
 I can’t live in the same city as him, and watch as he moves on with
someone else. Even the thought of this fictional woman by William’s side
makes me want to grow claws.
I hope I’ll always be the one that got away for him too.
I hope he’ll catch himself thinking about me as he goes through his day.
I want to be permanently tattooed inside his mind.
Does that make me selfish?
“So, what?” my sister huffs. “You’ll go to Bali and become a yoga
teacher and then change your name to Dandelion? Is that your grand plan?”
I shrug. “I could.”
She reaches for a tissue and blows her nose. “You haven’t even told me
where you’re going,” she says.
“New York City,” I say.
That’s where everyone with a dream and a broken heart seems to go,
right?
Except I just have a broken heart. My dream of becoming a journalist
broke it.
“I don’t want to be the kind of sister to hold you back and say things
like ’This is super dumb’ or ‘We’ve never been apart for longer than a
weekend’ or ‘I’ll freak out without having you in the same city as me’. I
want to be supportive of your choices, even if they don’t make sense to
me.”
I fight to hide my smile. She just said everything she wanted to without
really saying it.
“When will I see you again?” she asks.
I look at the small suitcase I’m taking with me. I’m starting over. And
that means not looking back no matter how tempting it is.
“You can visit. We’ll spend the holidays together. You can even come
live with me whenever you want to.”
We both know that her life is in Sierran.
Unlike me, she has friends here. She has a career.
But we make plans like none of that matters.
I check the time. I need to get inside soon or I’ll miss my flight.
“If I ever find that boy, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind,” she
warns. “No one can stop me.”
“Laney.” I squeeze her in a hug.
 People find it hard to believe that we’re sisters. I’m all small and curvy,
whereas she’s lithe and willowy. The only thing we have in common is our
dark brown hair.
She squeezes me back, and starts cursing William’s name.
When we break apart, she dabs underneath her lower lashes. “I won’t
try to understand this, Zoey. I’ve never been in love. But I hope you’re
starting over like you said and not running away.”
It’s a little bit of both, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from
blurting that out.
“I’m going to miss you,” I say.
We hug it out one last time, and I’m off.
I walk away from the little café, and towards the entry point.
This time, I turn around.
Twice.
Elena waves goodbye, all enthusiastic like I’m just off on some
vacation. I wave back, and fight the urge to run back to what I know is a
safe place.
My sister will always have my back.
But these emotions that are clawing at my heart are something I need to
figure out on my own.
I’ll come back to Sierran one day.
And when I do, I’ll be a badder and cooler version of myself.

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 10

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 WILLIAM

“I ’m sorry you had to deal with a person like her,” says

Victoria.
We’re all seated in a limo—the state car.
I clear my throat, and lie. “Yeah, me too.”
Truth is, I’m not that sorry. I’m angry that she lied to me, but I still love
her.
“I can’t believe the guts of that gold-digging bit-“
“I love her,” I say, interrupting Vicky. “I never told her this, but I love
her.”
The corners of Vicky’s mouth turn down slightly. Her lower lip wobbles
a little before she throws herself into my arms. Her head is pressed up
against my chest, and I slowly pat her head. I’m coming to realize that she’s
a very delicate person emotionally.
My…sister.
They’re my family, if Eleanor’s diary is anything to go by.
The late Queen apparently knew all about me. She knew that Alex and I
were her Grandchildren. She built the orphanage in our honor.
These people are related to me by blood. I might even come to like
them, if I gave them a chance.
But they can never replace the family I lost.
My Mom and Dad. They’ll always be my real parents, no matter whose
blood runs through my veins.
Vicky lifts her head up. “Where did you guys meet?” she asks, wiping
away at her cheeks.
“Inferno.”
 Her eyes widen. “The poker club?”
“Your favorite one,” I say.
The rest of them smirk. Her love for gambling is no secret.
“H-how did you know? I wear a disguise and everything,” says Vicky,
sneaking a glance at an older man who’s grinning at her.
He’s been waiting inside the limo all this while.
When I first got into the car, he offered me his hand and introduced
himself as Gideon Payne.
The first thing you notice about him is his size. He’s twice the size of
regular people, and has to hunch his shoulders just to fit in the limo.
The second thing you notice about him is the way he looks at Victoria.
It’s like she’s the only thing that exists in his world.
And when Victoria was distressed, he was too.
She notices me looking at him.
“Oh, I don’t think I mentioned it before. Gideon is my husband,” she
says, smiling up at the giant.
“You got married?”
Royal weddings are events that the whole country takes a part in.
Privacy isn’t something the Harrington’s usually have.
“It was a small ceremony by the estate.” She’s glowing from within as
she looks at him. It’s the kind of glow you get when you’re in love.
I have to tear my eyes away from them.
They’re a painful reminder of what I almost had.
I never thought I would know what it felt like to be in love. All my life,
I’ve been focused on just surviving and fighting for my brother.
I freeze. Alex.
Maybe the Harrington’s can use their power to free him.
“Can you do something about Alex?” The words come out excited and
rushed.
Victoria stops making gooey eyes at her husband, and snaps to attention.
“You said he was in Achilles Prison, correct?”
“Yes, he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit.” I won’t get into the
details with them, but I want to know if they can help me.
“What kind of crime was he convicted for?” Brody’s wife asks
suspiciously.
My hands ball into fists.
 These people call themselves my family, but there’s nothing comforting
about their presence.
Although it’s true that I always had a soft spot for the Harrington’s,
that’s only because of Eleanor Harrington’s kindness.
Without her, I would be nothing.
It’s as simple as that.
But the people in this limo claim that I’m their lost brother. They say
I’m a Prince. But none of it means anything to me.
I don’t feel like I owe them anything, even an answer to a question I
don’t particularly care about.
Victoria has been watching me closely.
She’s a great poker player for a reason. She’s good at reading people.
She says to me, “You know what? You don’t have to tell us anything you
don’t want to. If you say Alex is innocent, we believe you.”
She shoots her sister-in-law a soft smile, one that says ‘I believe him’.
She turns to me, and continues, “I’m sorry that someone you loved let
you down. I can’t even imagine what you must be going through.”
I study her eyes. They’re a bright emerald green that seem to glow on
their own. Eyes so similar to the ones I see when I look into a mirror.
“Maybe you do know,” I say.
“Pardon?”
“Your father.” The two words seem to visibly shatter her.
Gideon’s body becomes tense, and his jaw hardens.
Her husband doesn’t intimidate me. I’ve pinned down bigger men to the
ground.
I don’t want it to come to blows, but I’m feeling a little crazy tonight
after everything that happened.
“It feels uncomfortable, doesn’t it?” I say to the girl who’s been nothing
but kind to me.
There are beasts inside me.
Monsters.
They’ve been kept under control and tamed all their lives, but tonight,
their chains have broken free.
They’re howling and raging now, right under the surface of my sanity.
“I may be biologically related to you, but that doesn’t make us family.
I’m sorry that I’m not jumping up and down with excitement. You were
probably expecting someone who would hop and skip back to the royal
palace with you, but that’s not me. Stop the car,” I say, loud enough for the
chauffeur to hear.
The car screeches to a halt.
I step out, and leave without a goodbye.
I don’t feel sorry for saying the things I said. I don’t feel sorry for
leaving.
A tiny voice tells me that I’m being irrational.
But I’ve been rational all my life, and look where that has that gotten
me.
My brother always told me I was too trusting of people. It will bite you
in the ass one day, were his exact words.
And that’s precisely what happened.
I’m filled with disgust right now.
Disgust for trusting another person so blindly. Disgust for being so
naive, and believing everything she told me. She had me eating out of her
hands.
But more than anything else, I’m disgusted that even after everything
that had happened, I still want her.
I still want her to stand in front of me and apologize. I want her to look
into my eyes when she tells me that what we had was real.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
When I open them, I’m still in the dark alley I was in before. The roads
that I grew up on. The roads that my brother grew up on.
I don’t have him.
I don’t have her.
My heart is a shriveling under the weight of this.
I used to think that I was a strong person. Someone who could get
through anything life threw at him.
For the first time, doubt is beginning to take root.
It’s a poisonous vine that’s crawling up my calves, twisting around my
knees. It grows and grows until it makes contact with my heart.
It coils itself around my lungs twice, and squeezes.
What if I don’t get through this?
What if she’s left me broken for life?
When she walked away from me, I wanted her to turn back to look at
me. At least once.
 I wanted her to crack and break and apologize. I wanted to see if she
really felt bad about what she did.
But she didn’t. She didn’t do any of it. She just walked away without
looking back even once.
It made me shatter.
It let my beasts out.
Thunderous dark grey clouds gather in the sky above. I look up at the
dense mass.
There’s that windy breeze that comes right before the storm. A moment
later, I’m being pelted by fat raindrops.
I turn my face up towards the heavens.
I let the rain soak through my shirt and touch my skin. I let it wash away
all the emotions that are taking up space inside my body.
Lightning flashes.
It’s in the shape of a ring.
It’s urging me to make up my mind. It’s telling me that I’m running out
of time.
Because not too far away from where I’m standing, my brother is
staring out of his prison window, probably wondering if he’s doomed to
spend an eternity looking out at the same view.
I can’t let him suffer.
If our roles were reversed, and I was the one behind bars, he’d put his
head down and do everything in his power to free me. No matter what kind
of curveball life threw at him.
So I take a deep breath of the fresh night air.
Air that smells like wet earth and pure oxygen.
I can somehow breathe easier. I can feel it touch every corner of my
lungs with every inhale before rushing out.
I’ve made my decision.
I’ll continue what I’ve been doing for the past decade.
My beasts are now tattooed on my skin. They’re a part of my body,
daring anyone to come too close.
Their snarl is vicious, and their bite is lethal. I’ll see how many people
think about messing with me now.
First, it was my brother’s enemies.
Second, it was Imogen. She goes by Gigi now.
 I haven’t forgotten about her. Although I haven’t heard from her in over
a decade, I was expecting her to come back and fuck something up.
And then there’s Zoey.
I still can’t bring myself to believe that Zoey’s love wasn’t real.
I can still feel it. The way she quivered under my touch. The way her
lips were so pliant to my kisses.
Without meaning to, both of us opened our hearts to each other.
But for now, I’ll put all thoughts of her on the back burner.
If I overthink about Zoey and what her intentions were, I might lose
myself in my own mind.
And I can’t have that.
I’ve got work to do.
I pull myself together, and start walking. My head is low, and my hands
are thrust deep into my pockets.
I don’t stop until I reach my apartment.
There’s still some lemon cake in the fridge. Her scent still lingers
between these four walls.
She’s become a phantom now, a ghost that’s stuck to me whether I like
it or not.
I shower, and change into my work clothes. A black suit with a black
shirt and black tie. The bouncer’s uniform at Inferno.
I slick my hair back, and then make some coffee.
It’s going to be a long night.
Just forty-eight hours ago, I met the love of my life.
And now I’m about to return to the very place where I first laid eyes on
her. Of course, I know now that it was all a ploy.
I still remember what my first thought was when I laid eyes on her.
After the initial reaction of possessiveness, I felt like she was too good to be
true.
And that’s what happened. She confirmed my fears.
She was too good to be true.
All of that innocence was a lie. It was all fake.
Even the way we met was set up. She knew I would be watching her,
and she knew I would come to her rescue.
But everything that happened after that? It felt too real.
Kissing her, holding her as she slept, talking to her, baking with her.
I wanted to be her confidante.
 It was obvious that she was hiding something, but I was willing to wait
for her to open up to me in her own time. I never imagined her secrets
would cause us to break up.
I glance in the mirror.
A lost man stares back at me. I keep looking at myself until all the
emotions are neatly tucked away. I have no use of them tonight.
I have work to do.

I da , the receptionist at Inferno, greets me with a smile. “Will. I haven’t

seen you since you disappeared with that girl.”
“Just took some time off, Ida. That’s all.”
“You never take time off.” She cocks her head to the side, and makes a
show of studying me. “Are you alright?”
I hold up my insulated coffee flask. “I will be.”
She chuckles, and scans my card.
When she hands it back to me, I ask, “Do we have any lead on that
thief?”
I know that Zoey’s behind this too, but it shouldn’t be this easy for a
crook to gain access to the club.
“We’ve got nothing,” says Ida, shaking her head. “The entry card he
possessed that night could’ve been anyone’s. Especially since the number of
visitors has dropped after...you know who’s arrest.”
I nod solemnly. The King’s arrest has been a real blow to the entire
country. It gave the people something real to worry about for a change.
Since most of Inferno’s patrons are from the upper echelon, they’re
putting their heads together and working on finding a solution.
Which means we’re getting fewer visitors than we usually do.
There are even some rumors going around that Sierran is about to
become a democracy. The rule of Kings and Queens might be coming to an
end.
But that’s just word of mouth. I don’t know how much of that is real.
I get in my usual position by the exit door. It’s also the closest to the
VIP table.
 It’s where the big guns play. The elite. The professionals. The best of
the best.
Their games tend to last for hours at a stretch. All the better for me
because that’s why I took this job in the first place.
Seven people are seated at the VIP table.
Out of the seven, three of them are the men who framed Alex.
I’ve been studying them religiously. I’m a man who likes to keep his
enemies close.
This way, they’ll never see me coming when I strike.
It’s mandatory for everyone in the club to wear a mask. The tables and
the players are brightly lit, but the rest of the place is relatively dim.
So there’s no way they can recognize me from my position at the wall.
For them, I blend into the background.
I watch their every move. My head turns in various directions, but my
eyes are always glued on them.
They’re having a grand time together, smirking and bumping shoulders
with each other. They live their lives blissfully, like they’ve never caused
anybody any harm.
I’m the only one who knows the truth.
They’re all scum. They deserve to be locked away.
And the things they’re involved in will be revealed in the daylight one
day. When that day comes, my brother will be a free man.
Until then, I’m going to watch them.
I’m going to watch them until I find their weakness. Even the worst of
the super-villains seem to have a weakness.
Why should these three men be any different?
I gave them nicknames in my head.
Scar. He’s the one with the large scar that splits his face in half.
Snowflake. He dresses in this obnoxious red suit every night, and walks
around like he owns the world. If I have to see his stupid red suit one more
time, I might just murder him.
Robot. This one is calm and quiet, but if my suspicions are right, he’s
the leader of this little trio.
Their real names are Raphael, Hugo, and Albert respectively, but to me,
they’re less than human. They’re not deserving of anything, even their own
names.
 They don’t talk during the game, but when the players at the table part
for a break, they make small talk. Everyone else leaves the table for drinks
and refreshments, but these three stay.
I hear snippets of their conversation.
Usually, I never get anything except for annoying details about the
women they banged. But tonight, a miracle happens.
They talk about their plans for the next quarter.
Business plans.
I hear one word over and over again.
‘Sunflower.’
It must be code for something.
Of course, their real business is all illegal. They’re dealing with drugs
now, but I know for a fact that they did worse things in the past.
These three men were the ones responsible for the human trafficking
operation my brother was framed for.
My fingers curl and uncurl.
With my beasts on the surface, I think I might even go for it.
This feeling is nothing new. Hurting them is something I’ve wanted to
do hundreds of times before. I always managed to stop myself in the nick of
time.
But now, there’s no knowing what damage I might do. I’m feeling crazy
enough to act on my impulses.
But I know it won’t change anything.
So I wait.
I blend into the wall, and wait for them to give me more.

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 11

OceanofPDF.com
 WILLIAM

A whole month passes.

I spend it doing what I do best. Hide.
I hide, blend in, camouflage until nobody can even come close
to finding me.
The Harrington’s are trying to find me.
It’s weird to think of myself as a Harrington, but that’s what I am by
blood. It doesn’t change things, but it’s still a part of my identity now.
My brother and I are Harrington’s.
Royalty.
I’ve moved to another apartment. There’s no way someone can find me
when I don’t want to be found.
I made a vow to myself that I would make my brother a priority.
No matter what, I will free him, and only after I do that will I do things
for myself.
Everything else is just a distraction. Even her.
As much as I try not to think about her, my mind keeps wandering back
to her.
Zoey.
She left the country. She’s living in New York City now, and she hasn’t
even attempted to reach out to me.
So I draw the only conclusion I can: I was much more involved in our
relationship than she ever was.
It’s possible that there was a piece of her heart that fell in love. But for
the most part, she doesn’t give a fuck.
Why else would she run away?
 Only people who have something to hide run away like that.
And yet, I can’t seem to shake her off of me.
She still lingers everywhere I go.
Her soft dark hair clouds my vision every time my eyes close. Those
lips of hers steal my breath away even in my imagination. Her voice fills up
my lungs every night, like I need her for sustenance.
I let myself think about her now, on the boat ride to Achilles Island.
Avoiding all thoughts of her zaps my energy, so I’m giving myself
twenty minutes every day where I do nothing but think about her.
It’s my ‘worry time.’
Setting aside time to think about what I had lost, what she had killed, is
a type of therapy.
I do it so that when I’m studying and going through my endless
textbooks, I can focus on them instead of ruminating on the past.
With every day that passes, I become a little bit more functional.
I quit the bouncer job at Inferno. I don’t want to spend my nights in that
place. Because when I’m there, at the place that we first met,
she’s everywhere.
The pain in my chest becomes sharper, and my breathing turns ragged.
It once made me wonder if she ever cried for me.
If she ever felt bad about our tragic ending.
These endless thoughts of her made it hard for me to do my job.
My real job, I mean. Spying.
I found some dirt on them.
After nearly a decade of hunting them down, and bringing myself to a
position where I can do something about it, I made headway overnight.
It’s like the universe was feeling bad for making me suffer, so it
finally, finally, decided to show some mercy.
I’m close. I can taste it.
It’s just out of my reach, but I will find out what they’re up to. It’s
happening sooner than I had expected.
It’s happening.
Besides the heartache that’s my constant companion now, something
else flickers inside me. Some dark corner of my heart is starting to glow.
It’s elusive and golden.
Hope.
 I’m almost afraid to address it. I’m afraid that if I approach it, it will
sprout wings and escape as fast as it appeared.
But that’s the thing about hope.
You hold on to it even when you have no clue if it’s going to work out.
That’s the beauty of it.
I hope that I will free my brother, and I hope that it will happen soon.
The island approaches now. It’s only a speck in the distance.
I’m surrounded by clear blue water on all sides. The sea is unusually
still, so when I look down at it, I can see all the way down to the ocean bed.
Purple corals and neon fishes are just beneath the surface.
I watch the island grow larger and larger.
The closer we get to Achilles, the shallower the water becomes. If I
were to get off the boat now, it would just be knee-deep. But I wait patiently
until we reach land.
“Do you want me to wait tonight?” asks the skipper.
The last time I was here, I had Zoey with me. So I told him he could
come back in the morning.
Usually, I spend some time at the lagoon after I visit Alex. I don’t think
I can do that tonight.
It’s not my place any longer. It’s her place now.
I find myself nodding to his question. “If you don’t mind.”
“No problem. You know where to find me,” he says, mooring his boat to
a makeshift dock.
I walk into the prison with all the necessary paperwork ready. Jeremy is
the one to accompany me again. We walk in comfortable silence all the way
to Alex’s cell.
“Alex,” I breathe, coming to a stop at his cell.
He’s waiting by the bars. I take it as a good sign that he’s actually happy
to talk to me today.
I’m about to launch into the speech about how we’re related to the royal
family of Sierran, and all the stuff I found about the ‘Sunflower’ operation.
But all prepared words leave my mouth when I see the look on his face.
It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Alex is a guarded man. Even around me, his emotions are always in
check.
Almost robotic.
But today, there’s a deep agony about him that I can’t decipher.
 It’s not the frustration and anger that usually overtakes him when he
thinks about prison life. This is something different. Something deeper.
I’m about to ask him about it when he speaks up. “How’re you doing?”
he asks me.
He asks me.
I shrug. “Good. I’ve had better days, but things are good.”
I want to tell him about Zoey. I want to tell him about everything that
happened in the past few weeks.
But how can I be the one complaining when he’s the one in prison? So
as usual, I refrain from telling him about the bad things in my life.
His eyes narrow. “I’m still your older brother, William. You can tell me
whatever it is that’s on your mind.”
I laugh. “We literally have the same birthday, bro.”
He watches me with an amused expression.
I clear my throat. “What happened with that crush of yours?”
“Love. Not a crush, it was love,” he sighs. “It’s hopeless now. I found
out too late that she’s married to someone else. It wouldn’t have stopped
me, but then she got posted at another facility. Haven’t seen my darling for
a whole week now.”
“I’m sorry, Alex,” I say.
My brother stares at me. “Are you?”
I open my mouth to speak, but he talks over me. “I know what you
think. It’s dumb to fall for your doctor, but she just happened to be my
doctor, you know? I would’ve wanted her even if we met under different
circumstances.”
Just like how Zoey happened to be a journalist wanting to write a story
on me, I think. I shake my head to clear away thoughts of her.
“No, I uh- I believe you,” I tell him. “You’re not the type to fall in love
easily. So she must be someone special.”
He sighs, and moves on to the next subject. We have five minutes to talk
every month, so that means we don’t get to discuss any topic at length.
“Crazy George had a breakdown last week.”
I smirk, “Oh yeah?”
“He threw this food tray into the air, and declared that Sierran is going
to turn into a democracy.” Alex chuckles as if we’re talking about
something as mythical as fairies and pixie dust.
 He doesn’t know that the same rumor is going around in the outside
world. I’ve heard people talk about the democracy thing too.
I check my watch. I have exactly two minutes left.
Well, fuck it.
I’m going to tell him everything.
I lean into the window between us, and look into his eyes. I speak as
fast as I can while being clear at the same time, “I don’t have much time
left, Alex, and I have a few things I need to tell you, so pay attention. The
major news is that I found the location from where the trio are currently
operating. It’s by an abandoned lock-up garage space next to a sunflower
field. They’re dealing with hard drugs now, turning the storage spaces into a
lab. I can get them arrested for this, but it won’t be enough to put them in
Achilles. I need your help. Brainstorm some ways on how to link this to the
crime they did a decade ago. Okay?”
“Why didn’t you start with this, idiot?” He runs his hand through his
hair. “Okay, I’ll see what I can find. What else?”
“I took the bar exam. Last week. The results aren’t out yet, but I did
well. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll make it. I’ll be a lawyer soon. I can
handle your case personally.”
Alex grips the iron gate with a deathly-white grip.
“Seriously. Why didn’t you fucking start with this. Congratulations.” He
snarls the last word out. “I’m happy for you.”
“You’re happy for me,” I repeat meditatively. “You still don’t believe
that I’m going to get you out.”
“I’ve had a decade to hope and pray, Will. I believe in you, but I don’t
believe it’ll be as easy as you think it will be.”
His words sting. They slice right through me, but I keep my poker face
on. Or so I think.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he sighs.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumble.
“William.”
“Alexander.”
“Little brother.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I laugh.
He doesn’t even have to try to lighten my mood. I can never stay mad at
him for too long. “You think I’m kidding? Fine. Let’s bet on it,” I say.
 “You already own everything we made. What do I have left to bet on?”
he asks, raising his eyebrows.
“Believe in me,” I say. I’m asking a pessimist in prison to have some
faith. But really, he’s all I have left. It would mean the world to me if he
showed even an ounce of trust. “Believe in me until I prove you wrong.”
“I’ll give you two years,” he says.
“Deal.”
I can feel Jeremy staring at me. He doesn’t interrupt us, but I know.
It’s time to go.
I look at Alex, and nod at him. He nods back.
We don’t say goodbye to each other. We rarely ever do. Saying so
means accepting the hand fate dealt us.
Both of us are warriors.
He’s more of a warrior on the inside, whereas I come with a battle cry
and beating drums.
But that’s only because in the process of trying to assure my brother, I
always end up convincing myself.
Because it’s hard. It’s hard having to fight every single day, working
towards a goal that isn’t promised to me. All I have on my side is faith and
hard work.
The wrongs inflicted on my family will be righted.
Every time I leave Alex, my heart is heavy.
This time, it’s different.
I feel like I’m walking on a cloud. It may be the fact that for the first
time in a long time, I’m truly hopeful.
It’s so close that I can taste it.
I turn to Jeremy, who’s escorting me out. “Hey, can I ask you
something?”
“I mean, I’ve only risked my life and broken every single job rule for
you. Yes, you can ask me a question,” he says dryly.
“What made you believe me when I said that my brother is innocent?”
It makes him stop in his tracks as he considers it. I stop beside him.
“Honestly?” he ponders. “I have no solid reason.”
I nod. That’s why I was curious. This prison guard is always willing to
sneak in birthday cake or let me stay a minute longer as I discuss with my
brother all the ways I’ll free him. He has no reason to be this kind to me.
 Jeremy continues, “Maybe it’s because I know about your past. I was
new to the job then, and his was one of the only cases that felt off to me.
I’ve seen the video recording of the trial, and Alex...he was so...”
“Detached?” I offer.
“Yeah…detached. Even when it was his turn to speak, he only said the
bare minimum and that was it. He didn’t have any fight in him. It was like
he knew that all of the evidence was planted firmly against him.”
My blood turns to ice at the memory. “He was internally screaming. He
had all these dreams for the future, and it was taken away from him in a
flash.”
Jeremy watches me, and then rubs the back of his head. “I-ah-I can’t
help but overhear your conversations with him sometimes. I don’t mean to,
but sound carries inside these stone walls.”
“Go on. Ask me anything you want,” I say. It’s really the least I can do
for this man.
“Are you really close to finding the men who framed Alex?” he asks
meekly.
His question makes me grin.
We’re strangers. I don’t know much about his life other than the fact
that he’s been nicer to me than was required of him. He’s a good guy.
But other than that, we’re strangers.
But in this moment, he feels like a brother.
I’m all choked up, but I clear my throat, and speak. “Yeah, Jeremy. I’m
close.”
“I hope you find them,” he says, suddenly all serious. “I haven’t
considered this until now, but I think part of the reason I believe Alex is
innocent is because of you.”
“Me?”
“From the very beginning, your faith in him has been staggering. You
visit him every single month without fail, even on the days when he doesn’t
even look at you.”
I rise to Alex’s defense. “He has bad days sometimes. It’s not his fault.”
“You’re just proving my point,” he smiles. “You guys were at the
Harrington Orphanage right?”
I swallow. “Yeah. For six years.”
“He talks about it sometimes. He said that those years were the best he
ever had it.”
 “He said that?” I ask.
Jeremy nods.
It makes sense. The Orphanage is where we spent the most time
together. It was a bleak situation, but we were stuck to each other. After
that, it was all about the business.
“He never told me that,” I confess.
We hear sounds from behind us, so we continue walking, albeit slowly.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I ask him.
“Three sisters.”
“Are you guys close?”
“We can’t stand each other,” he laughs. It’s a booming sound that
echoes off the walls. “Don’t get me wrong, we love each other to bits. But if
we stay in the same room for more than ten minutes, either we explode or
the room implodes.”
“I know what you mean,” I laugh. It’s weird, but that’s how I felt when I
was in the limo with the Harrington’s. Granted, the evening was more than
overwhelming, but still.
I felt like I was going to blow up.
But it’s different with Alex. He’s been my companion all my life. Even
when we fight, I can’t stay mad at him. Because for the longest time, we
needed each other.
For survival.
Jeremy and I reach the exit. I turn to him and give him a quick hug.
He’s surprised at first, but hugs me back.
“Thank you,” I say. “For everything.”
I go to the town’s market after that, looking for the helmsman. I find
him by the fruit stall.
The very same one I brought Zoey to.
Every time I think about her, I’m filled with longing. It’s been a month.
Does she miss me, at least a little bit?
I’ll hunt after her one day. She’s hiding far away from me in some
corner of the world, but I’ll find her.
She can never hide from me.
And when I do find her, I’ll talk to her. I already have a series of
questions lined up. I’ll probe into her mind, and then look into her eyes as
she answers them. I should’ve asked them sooner, but I wasn’t thinking
straight on the night of her confession.
 “Will.” The skipper’s voice brings me back to the present. “You ready
to leave?”
“Yeah,” I say, ignoring the red fruit on the stall.
“You sure you don’t want some? For the ride?” He’s holding a large
brown paper bag that’s probably full of that slimy fruit.
“I’m good,” I say. He does this every time we’re here.
“You’ve never tried any, have you? The locals are right to call it
magical.”
We walk back to the boat.
The forest is to our left, but I don’t even look towards it. If I do, I’ll see
that tiny strip of land there that leads to the lagoon.
The place where we first made love.
The night we shared was beyond magical. It was real. So that makes it
better than any magic.
“Magical, huh?” I’m distracted as I say this.
The skipper takes this as an opportunity to tell me how great the fruit is.
“Between you and me, my wife becomes Daddy’s little princess every time
I bring this fruit home.”
I wince.”Oh God, has it started already?” He gets a certain type
of...frisky after consuming it.
“You should really try it sometime,” he says, winking at me. “It’s less
about the fruit, and more about what comes after it.”
“Uh-huh,” I say.
Once we’re on the boat, and sailing back to the city, he starts humming.
It’s a silky tune that winds itself around my bones, rattling them. It’s
romantic.
I’m sure he’s thinking about his wife back home.
And it makes me think about Zoey again. Everything about this is a
reminder of her and the time we shared.
I love her. She doesn’t know it, but I love her.
The skipper’s whistling turns more passionate. It’s slow and melodic.
The change in music brings me back to my task.
Freeing Alex.
There was something else that I wanted to tell him today.
About Imogen Hathaway.
She goes by Gigi now, but I used to know her as Genie.
She was from the Harrington Orphanage too.
 Although she was a few years younger, she used to hang out with Alex
and I. We were her idols.
Alex never liked her for some reason, so he tried to avoid her at all
costs. But I didn’t mind having her as our dorky companion, so I let her tag
along anyway.
I knew a lot about her. I knew that her favorite flavor of ice cream was
mint chocolate-chip and that she adored all things Harry Potter related.
But I didn’t know that she was in love with us.
Both of us.
Someone at the Orphanage found her personal diary. Pages were ripped
from it and passed around as a cruel joke. Almost every single one
chronicled her obsession with Alex and me.
Frankly, it was upsetting.
I couldn’t entertain that fantasy of hers, so we cut all ties with her. I felt
bad about it for a while, but I reasoned that it was for her own good.
After the diary incident, she became a freak. An outcast.
There were times when I wanted to reach out to her, and tell her it was a
phase that she would eventually get through. Or something like that.
But I never got around to it.
I thought she would forget about us after we left, but apparently she
took it all to heart. All that bitterness that she held on to poisoned her.
She’s still holding a grudge over something that happened more than a
decade ago.
The skipper stops humming. I look around and see that we’ve docked. I
pay him, and say my goodbye.
An hour had just passed and I spent it all lost in thought. Maybe
thinking too much about the logistics of Gigi’s mind is a lost cause.
As I drive back to my apartment, a thought strikes me.
Life works in mysterious ways.
My boss threatened my family, Zoey had said. Imogen was her boss.
So if Imogen hadn’t sent Zoey after me, I never would have known
what it felt like to truly love another person. It ended too soon, but the
memory of it is enough to last a lifetime.
Imogen sent Zoey to me.
Although Zoey’s reasons were more personal, she never could have
done it on her own. If she didn’t have Imogen encouraging her, she never
would have even crossed my path.
 She was going to write a story on me. About the lost Princes of Sierran.
It was her plan to do an exposé on the Harrington family.
If she didn’t have the incentive to destroy the royal family, would she
have worked for Imogen’s media company as a journalist?
And if she hadn’t worked for Imogen, would she have ever met me?
Like I said, life works in mysterious ways.

OceanofPDF.com
 12

OceanofPDF.com
 ZOEY

1 year later

I never really belonged anywhere .

Everywhere I went, I felt like I was out of place.
But I found home. It was very, very brief, but it was the most beautiful
home I ever lived in.
His arms.
His strong arms that held me so tightly and made me feel safe and
treasured. He held me like I was a fragile thing. That was before he knew
that I was a poisoned arrow aimed straight at his heart.
I bet he despises me now.
I bet he never thinks about me or the memories we shared.
If I could erase the hurt I caused to him, I would. I want to take back all
the damage I caused to his life.
Maybe if we met in different circumstances, things would have gone
differently.
If I was a normal girl, and he wasn’t a Prince.
If I didn’t have bad intentions, and if he didn’t love me like the ocean
tides love the moon.
My phone rings, bringing me back to the present moment. I stop
walking and take a seat on the nearest park bench.
It’s a breezy day. Birds are chirping away in the distance.
 I fish my phone out from my bag, and smile big when I see who’s
calling. I was waiting for her.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hi,” she huffs.
“Elena.” I know exactly why she’s mad at me.
“Zoey.”
“Do you have something you want to say?” I ask gently.
“A lot of colorful words, actually,” she says. “Why the hell did you keep
your phone switched off?”
I sigh, “I went to bed early.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Laney. I was in bed.” I don’t tell her the part about how I cried
myself to sleep.
“Okay,” she says grudgingly. And then softly, she adds, “Happy
birthday.”
“Thank you, Laney.” Something that’s tightly shut in my heart blooms a
little, peeking its head out.
Truth is, I have a lot of great things going on in my life. I don’t know
why I keep pining over the one thing I can’t have. The one person.
“I had this whole thing planned. All of our friends were here, and we
were throwing a party on your behalf. We were going to video call you and
stuff.”
“Our friends?” I tease.
Elena is a social butterfly. She loves being around people. Unlike me.
I’m content with just being in bed wearing my pajamas all day.
“You know what I mean.”
“I got the cake though,” I say, changing the topic. It was a dark
chocolate cake with a filling of fresh strawberries. “Thank you for that.”
“Was it good? I honestly had no way of knowing. I went by its picture
on the website.”
“Second best cake I ever had,” I say.
She gasps. “The first place better go that one I made you for your
sixteenth birthday.”
“You managed to burn most of that thing,” I laugh. The edges were
charred and the inside was gooey. Not the good kind of gooey either.
“Do you have something you dare to say?”
“Elena Winters, you shouldn’t be allowed in the kitchen.”
 We’re polar opposites of each other. I’m naturally good at baking, and
other creative things.
Elena on the other hand uses her oven as extra shoe storage space. True
story. I opened the oven at her apartment to make lasagna once, and found
all of her fancy shoes there.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” she mumbles.
Another thing about her: she honestly has no clue that her attempts at
cooking are a health hazard both to her and to everyone she tries to feed.
She’s genuinely proud of everything she’s made so far.
“Guess I’m lucky it’s my birthday,” I say.
We chat for a bit about trivial things. Life at home. Life here. Recent
events. Our jobs. I hang up after promising to video call her when I get
home.
I slump in my chair. We just skirted around all the important issues, and
it was draining. I could tell she was mad at me. For switching my phone off
on the night of my birthday.
She worries.
We’ve always been close, and never once did we live in separate cities.
We’re each other’s best friend and support system.
My sister knows that I share my birthday with William. She knew that I
would be upset because of this reason, and she wanted to cheer me up by
throwing me a virtual party.
And I had switched my phone off, so nobody could reach out to me.
It’s not her fault I’m like this.
This is my own problem.
And I need to deal with it on my own.
I lived in New York for a few months. After that, I wanted a different
scenery so I moved to a small town in Texas.
It was beautiful there, but it wasn’t what I wanted. Luckily, I have a job
that I can do with just a laptop and a decent WiFi connection.
So I switched continents. I moved to South America.
Right now, I’m sitting on a park bench in Argentina.
I’ve been trying to put physical distance between me and where my
heart was broken. Even though it’s been a year since we’ve spoken, I miss
him.
It’s a deep longing that I feel all the way down to my bones.
 I’ve been trying to find home in all these places, even though I know
fully well that my home is a person. It’s him.
He’s my home.
It’s his birthday too today. And I can’t seem to stop thinking about him.
Isn’t love supposed to be fun and simple? This love is so intense that it’s
burning me up from within.
The chocolate cake Elena had sent was big enough to feed a small army.
It was perfect, but with every bite I took of the strong chocolate and tangy
strawberry, I started to taste lemon.
I know it was just my imagination, but the flavor tasted so real.
It reminded me of that lemon cake William and I made for each other.
The one with the light frosting and lemon zest sprinkled on top. We cut a
big slice for his twin brother, Alex.
He took me to Achilles Island.
The lagoon.
Our first night.
That one perfect night is all I have. It’s all I have to hold on to.
I let myself be me for once. And it was enough. I was enough.
He made me feel like I was the one who hung the stars up in the sky.
Like I was the one who moved the oceans.
William thought he needed me. But I needed him too. Not just for the
story, but for me.
When I was with him, I felt like I was in one place. The world stopped
spinning so fast and for once, I was stable.
Now, he’s just a beautiful dream I can’t seem to shake off.
Our relationship had been fake from the start. So why does this pain feel
so real?
Squealing and laughter in the distance distract me from my thoughts.
A family of four is walking towards me. There’s a footpath directly in
front of where I’m seated.
They have a large family dog, who’s sniffing all the flower beds lining
the path. Trialing behind it are two sisters, and behind them are their
parents.
The sight of them fills me up with a fondness.
For the longest time, I was led by revenge. I ruined something good in
my life by thinking that it was okay to hurt the family that hurt mine.
But it’s not. It’s never okay to hurt innocent people.
 William’s face is still fresh in my mind. Some details have faded, like
the sound of his laughter and the shape of his hand. But the rest of him is
ingrained into my brain.
His kisses. His touch. His eyes.
The way he made me feel like I was the only one for him.
Maybe if I told him the truth sooner, I would’ve been able to salvage
our love. Maybe if I explained my reasons, he would’ve understood.
There’s a lot of maybe’s.
But one thing is for certain: I let my boss Gigi control me like I was her
puppet.
She twisted me until I was doing wicked things just to survive.
Although she gave me a life-or-death kind of deal, it was ultimately I who
chose to do it.
Choices matter.
I’ve learned my lesson now.
I made an even better choice later. A choice to keep the baby William
gave me. I chose to raise it all by myself, and in taking that decision, I
received the biggest gift of my life.
His name is Jasper.
He’s three months old, and is the sweetest little boy. He’s kind and
energetic and loves animals.
Right now, he’s resting in his stroller. He’s drooling over his chubby
fist, blissfully sleeping.
His tiny eyelids flutter open as I stare at him. His bright green eyes open
to meet mine, but only for a moment. Assured that Mommy is watching
over him, he falls back to sleep.
Something in my chest opens every time Jasper looks at me.
It’s love. I have so much love to give.
And it’s all for him.
The family dog stops in front of Jasper. It’s a fully grown Labrador that
towers over my baby.
Animals seem to love him as much as he loves animals.
The girl walking it tugs gently on the dogs' leash, trying to pull it
towards the footpath again. I smile and wave my hand at her to let her know
it’s okay.
The Lab’s soft panting wakes Jasper up. He’s startled at first to have the
dog all up in his face, but a toothless grin slowly spreads on his face.
 His cheeks become rosy with delight. He kicks his legs and moves his
arms in that way he does when he gets excited.
By the time the parents catch up, the girls wave ‘Adios’ at us, and take
their dog away.
Jasper stares at the retreating dog until it’s out of sight, and then looks at
me with his angelic eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that, little munchkin,” I say. “I’ll buy you a
puppy when we settle down somewhere.”
He must be satisfied with the answer, because his eyes close again.
I look at him for a moment. He’s so innocent. He must be dreaming
about puppies and open grassy fields already.
My baby deserves all the love in this world.
On the day he was born, I cried for two hours straight. Not because of
the pain or exhaustion, but because I never thought I was capable of loving
someone so much.
There’s a little nagging voice in my head these days, telling me to let
William know about the son he fathered.
The voice goes by the name Elena.
She was with me for two whole months in Texas. She cooked and took
care of the house while I took care of the baby. She didn’t say much about
William then, but recently, it’s all she seems to talk about.
She thinks I should at least let him know about Jasper. She’s still wary
of the Harrington’s, but like me, her opinion on them is slowly shifting.
Especially after they announced that Sierran is going to be a democracy.
I was pregnant in New York City when I heard the news.
It’s what I wanted for my country.
I believed for years that we needed a democracy where the people get to
vote and hold power, but now that we have it, it’s kind of…underwhelming.
Maybe it’s because it came about so naturally. Like it was only a matter
of time before this would happen.
It came too easily. Maybe if we had to fight for it, it would’ve been
more satisfying.
Sierran is now a democracy with a whole government body vetted by
the people, and I didn’t even play a part in it. I think that’s what bothers me
the most.
It was my original plan, my biggest motivation.
 I was going to write a piece on why the Harrington’s aren’t fit to rule,
and suggest alternatives. In the process of trying to do that, I lost the trust of
the only man I ever loved.
It feels like I ruined my future with William for something that would
have happened anyway.
There were a lot of factors that brought about this change.
The King’s arrest.
Eleanor’s diary.
Victoria’s support.
The royalty in Sierran is all but worshipped. So when Victoria appeared
for a press release, and read some excerpts from the diary of Eleanor
Harrington, the people melted.
The Crown is still a part of the government, but only if the people allow
it. They no longer have full control of the country’s decision making.
I should be happy about this.
But as I watch my baby sleep, I can’t help but think that he would’ve
had more love in his life if only I didn’t take one stupid decision after
another.
I have two roads in front of me.
Two roads of choice.
One road leads me back to Sierran. William will be everywhere. Not
literally, but memories of him will follow me around. I’ll always be looking
for him, but I’ll also have Elena. I can see her in person every week.
The other road makes me a traveler. It’s not as glamorous as I thought it
would be, but it keeps me in a safe place, far away from the mistakes I’ve
made and the people I’ve hurt.
You’d think that I’d be more courageous after doing the things I did.
I’ve ruined lives. I’ve broken hearts, including my own. I’ve stalked,
lied, and manipulated shamelessly.
After doing all this, I should be fearless in theory.
But I’m more scared than I’ve ever been.
I pick my road.
It’s time to move to another country.

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 13

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 ZOEY

3 months later

“Y ou ’ re a terrible liar ,” says Elena.

I shift the laptop on my thighs. It’s uncomfortable on my bare skin after
being used for over two hours. The heat in the place where I now live
certainly doesn’t help.
“I don’t know why you think I’m lying,” I mumble.
I had a bad dream, and I wanted to forget all about it. That’s why I
called my sister first thing in the morning.
I’m living in Australia now. The time difference between us means that
there’s only a narrow sliver of time when we can catch up.
I just started my Keurig, whereas she’s getting ready for bed, snuggled
in her blanket wearing knee-length socks.
“Zoey, I’m your older sister. I know when something’s up. Tell me
what’s on your mind.”
It might be the exhaustion of my sleepless and coffeeless body. Without
any further resistance left in me, I tell her what’s making my heart feel
heavy.
“I keep having dreams about him,” I say. I pause for her reaction.
She knows exactly who I’m talking about, and she’s nodding like she
can completely understand that.
 Elena is an easy person to talk to. She’s empathetic. Compassionate.
Something about her makes you feel like you’re in a safe place.
“I know how stupid that sounds,” I say. “I mean, it’s been what? 456
days?”
She doesn’t say a word.
She just offers the tiniest of smiles, like she has something to say about
this, but won’t.
I sigh, “In the dream I had, he was miserable, Elena. That’s what scares
me. He was unhappy. I don’t want him to be happy without me, but I don’t
want him to be unhappy. Does that make sense?”
She nods like it makes perfect sense.
“So we were at this beach. His favorite spot.” My heart races as I think
about how he first made love to me under the stars. “And he kept avoiding
me even though we were the only two people there. I remember looking for
him, but he was always just out of reach. And when I did manage to get a
hold of him, he was furious. It was like he wanted nothing to do with me,
but wanted me more than anything else in the world at the same time.”
I don’t tell her about the kisses he left at the soft skin of my inner
thighs, and how desperate I was for more.
But he just kissed my thighs roughly, and then left me high and dry.
Needless to say, it drove me wild even in my dream.
I clear my throat. “Elena?”
“Yeah, honey?” There’s concern in her blue eyes.
As a kid, I used to be jealous of how vivid and blue her eyes were. She’s
stunning. A classic beauty.
And I was a regular brown-eyed girl.
The way I view myself and others has changed now. I’ve come to
appreciate different kinds of features.
We’re all beautiful.
William. He made me feel like I was an angel.
From the moment I met him, my heart beat for him and only him.
“What if...what if I never get over him, Elena? It’s been so long, and-“ I
stop halfway.
Jasper’s baby monitor has crackled to life. He’s crying.
“Hold on, Jasper’s up,” I say.
I throw the warm bedsheets off of me, and hurry to the nursery room.
 It’s painted a soft blue, with little wispy clouds lining the top border.
There’s a playpen to one side, and his small bookshelf on the other.
He’s still a baby, but he loves reading.
Especially those pictures books where you can feel the texture of the
flowers and the birds.
Right now, he’s sitting up in his crib. His cheeks are a flaming red
because of all the crying.
“Hi, Jasper,” I say, picking him up.
I clean him up, and rock him gently for a while. He quiets down until
it’s only a soft continuous sound of distress.
I worry about my baby sometimes. Is it normal that he still cries at the
same time every night? Am I not giving him everything he needs?
Motherhood is hard. I keep doubting myself, thinking that I’m doing
everything wrong. Especially since this is my first baby.
I just want to give him the best of everything.
“Do you want to talk to Aunt Elena?” I say.
We walk back to my bedroom. He stops making those pitiful sounds
almost immediately.
It was all an act.
An act that I fall for every night.
He hates sleeping alone, so when he wakes up in the middle of the night
in his own nursery room, he cries himself hoarse until I come to his rescue.
And the second I bring him back to my bedroom, he’s all cherubic smile
and twinkling eyes.
“You fooled me, didn’t you, little guy?” I stare at him in mock surprise.
It makes him coo with glee. “Come on, let’s say hi to Aunt Elena.”
I hold him in my arms as I get on the bed. Elena is waiting for my return
patiently, all hint of sleepiness gone when she sees her baby nephew.
“Pumpkin, I miss you so much,” she says, pressing her face up against
her laptop camera.
It scares Jasper at first, but when he recognizes her, he reaches his small
arms out towards the laptop and starts gurgling.
“He loves you,” I say.
It’s true. Elena is his favorite person.
My sister insists on seeing him at least every other day because she’s
afraid he’s going to forget her face.
 She was by my side in Texas, a few weeks before and after Jasper’s
birth.
She was also the first person to make him smile. He was barely six
weeks old when she discovered that there’s nothing he enjoys more in this
world than good old fashioned ‘peek-a-boo’.
It was an easy way to get him to stop crying. I still use it, but it doesn’t
work as well as it used to.
Jasper’s adoration for his favorite Aunt has remained, even though he
hasn’t seen her in person for over four months.
I blow raspberry kisses on his tummy as he tries to crawl towards
Elena.
I watch them interact. Every time I see another person shower him with
love, I think of William. He would’ve taken good care of his son. He
would’ve made a great father, but he can’t ever know about Jasper.
Because I was William’s mistake.
Why would he want anything to do with me?
“I think he’s starting to get sleepy,” sighs Elena. She’s lying down in her
own bed, with one hand propping her head up.
I kiss Jasper on his forehead as his eyes start to get heavy. He smiles in
his sleep, content to be back next to me.
I look back at Elena, and plug my earphones on. I don’t want to wake
Jasper up.
Her voice comes through. “Show me his cute little face. He looks extra
adorable when he’s sleeping.”
I do so, angling the laptop so she gets to see my sleeping baby.
“Oh my gosh, he’s the cutest little baby ever,” she says. “I miss him. I
miss you.”
“I do too,” I whisper through the thick lump in my throat.
“When are you coming home, Zoey?” she asks, turning her attention
back to me.
I shrug. A part of me thought that as long as I maintained some distance
from him, it would be okay. I would be okay.
Instead of speaking, I type into the chatbox on the bottom right, and
send her my reply. Until I’m not ashamed anymore.
Elena reads the reply, and her eyes narrow. “You can’t keep blaming this
on yourself forever.”
I throw her a look. She promptly ignores it.
 “I mean it, Zoey. You know it’s true. What happened was...unfortunate,
but you don’t have to spend the rest of your life reliving your mistakes.”
“You don’t get it,” I say softly.
Her eyes become moist. “Don’t I?”
I look at her. I’m not the only one who lost the love of my life.
While I was forced to flee, Elena chose to run away. And she refuses to
speak about her own love.
“Let’s talk about you,” I say.
I have absolutely no hopes that she’ll open up now. She never has. She’s
always been the type to keep personal things to herself. Maybe it’s because
she’s my older sister.
“One day, I’ll tell you everything, Zoey,” she says softly. “One day. But
I’m not ready for that yet.”
I nod.
“Now, you were telling me about that dream?” she asks, changing the
subject.
I haven’t told her my worst fear yet.
I wanted to stay in that dream forever. I didn’t want to wake up from the
fantasy my own brain created for me.
I love my little boy with all my heart, but I also wanted to keep feeling
the way I felt in that dream.
The way only William can make me feel.
If he takes my hand again, I would follow him anywhere. Absolutely
anywhere. Because it would mean that he would really be with me.
The time we had was too short. It wasn’t enough.
So if the only way I can be with him is through my dreams, then I don’t
want to stop dreaming. I want to dream about him over and over again,
every single night.
I whisper all of my worst fears to my sister, and then say in a low voice,
“I feel bad for thinking this.”
“Bad for thinking you want to be alone with him?”
“Yeah,” I sigh.
“You’re allowed to want things for yourself, Zoey,” she says.
“But there’s no point in wanting things I can never have,” I retort.
“Are you ever going to tell him?” She doesn’t have to explain herself. I
know exactly what she’s talking about. We’ve had this conversation about a
few dozen times by now.
 I keep my irritation in check, and say vaguely, “When the time is right, I
might.”
And the rest of the conversation is a losing battle. We always end with
this. She thinks I should tell William about the baby.
It’s almost like she’s poking at my conscience on purpose.
“He saw the devil in me, Elena. He saw the black in my heart.”
“Bullshit,” she huffs.
“He said that he wanted me to leave him and his family alone. He was
so mad at me that night.”
If I close my eyes, I can play out the scene part by part. It’s a movie that
never ends.
“People do that,” counters Elena. “People say things they don’t mean
when they’re angry.”
“You don’t know him. He’s a good man. A man with integrity.”
“Yes, I know the type,” she says. “You might think he’s all innocent and
good, but trust me, there’s a little bit of darkness inside everyone.”
“What?”
“I’m just saying, don’t assume that he’s all pure.”
My sister can think what she wants, but only I know about how I let him
down. He trusted me with his secrets. He opened up to me, and showed me
all of his scars and broken places.
I wasn’t worthy of him then, and I’m not worthy of him now.
“You don’t know him, Elena,” I sigh. “He has a twin brother, Alex, who
was framed by some sick men for a horrible crime. After going through
something like that, why would he want to be with a girl like me? What I
did was unforgivable. And his Dad was in the army, so William was taught
all these values about integrity and honesty growing up. I don’t fit into
those values. He’s at one end of the spectrum, and I’m at a whole another
end.”
Elena goes quiet for a moment. Her voice is smaller when she speaks. “I
want you to come back, Zoey. I’m not just being selfish and thinking about
myself either. I think it would be best for you and little J to come back
home.”
“I want you to stay out of this,” I snap.
I’m very emotional these days. My moods are a rollercoaster. I don’t
know if it’s the post-pregnancy thing or if it’s just who I’ve become.
 But I know I’ll regret it for the rest of the day if I say mean stuff to
Elena. It never feels right. “Laney?”
“Yeah?” Her voice breaks my heart. Like Jasper’s crying when he
wakes up in his nursery all alone.
“I love you.” We could just agree to disagree on this one thing.
She sits up straight, and throws her hair into a bun. She slips on a
cardigan over her sleep shirt, and replaces her shorts with jeans. “I love
you, too.”
“You’re going to that café, aren’t you?” She likes to spend time there
when she has too much work to do.
“We know each other too well,” she says, laughing.
“Same time tomorrow?”
“You know it.”
When I hang up the phone, I’m more frustrated than I was before. I
know I shouldn’t, but I keep thinking about the dream I had.
It was just the two of us, and it was so lovely. I loved the feeling of just
being close to him. I miss his intensity and passion.
For a second there, I almost believed that we would work through our
problems together. I don’t know what I was thinking. That we would live
happily ever after?
I miss Elena. I miss Sierran.
But more than anything, I miss the person I was when I was with him. It
was the way he made me feel. I felt cherished and safe and beautiful.
In another world, I would’ve made my amends.
I would’ve begged and pleaded for a second chance.
But I don’t deserve a man like William. Nobody deserves him.
Except for maybe an angel.
I wanted to be that for him, but I’m too broken. The ghosts of my past
run alongside the blood in my veins.
Some days are good.
But other days are too much for me to handle. The memories overtake
me, and I find myself thinking about him all day.
The way he made me feel like nothing could ever hurt me again. The
way he kissed my lips like they belonged to him.
If I was honest from the beginning, things would have been different for
us.
 But I knew what I was getting into when I decided to choose my sister’s
well-being over William.
I’m going to own that decision.
I’m going to own all of my mistakes and move forward knowing that
every new day is a chance to be a better person.
I have a whole mountain of work to do today.
But I get my coffee and nibble on a big chocolate-chip cookie in bed.
I write in my journal. It holds all of my fears and all of my secrets.
Things I’ve never told anybody. Not even Elena.
I write about my insecurities.
Like I how I think I single-handedly ruin all the good things in my
life. And how I’m afraid that I’m a bad mother.
I have to remind myself every single day that I’m good enough as I am
and that I’m deserving of love. But there’s a paradox to this. If I truly
believed this, I would have the guts to go to William and tell him
everything.
But I don’t. I choose to run from one foreign country to another.
I try to go as far from home as possible, even though all the people I
love and cherish are back in Sierran.
It’s not just about William and Elena.
My gut instinct tells me that I’m doing this for all the wrong reasons.
I’m still running. I’m still restless.
Maybe I’ll be this way for the rest of my life.
Or maybe I’ll finally suck it up and be a little bit braver one day. I might
even tell William about his son.
Jasper sleeps soundly next to me, breathing deeply. He seeks my
warmth even in his sleep. His cute little head is turned towards me, and his
chubby hands are splayed out to both sides.
I stroke the downy curls on his head.
He’s truly the light of my life.
My phone rings just as I’m about to wake Jasper up. It was placed next
to him, so the jarring ringtone is right against his ear.
My poor little baby awakens with a start, and starts crying immediately.
I take him into my arms, and we both glare at the ringing phone.
An unknown number.
It’s probably spam, but I pick it up anyway.
“Hello?”
 “Is this Zoey Winters?” comes a clipped voice.
“Yes?”
“We’re calling from Silver Oak Hospital. You’ve been listed as Elena
Winter’s emergency contact.”
I stiffen, and sit up straight. “Yes?”
“She’s been in a car accident.”
More words follow, but I don’t hear them. Even Jasper stops his crying
to look up at me with wide unblinking eyes. He’s willing me to do
something. But I’m sinking.
My limbs feel like they’re made of lead.
I can’t move, I can’t breathe.
I’m sucked into a flashback. Of a darker, more traumatic time.
Back when I got a call from the hospital for the first time.

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 ZOEY

I ’m watching over Elena as she sleeps. Jasper is staying with a

friend of Elena’s, who’s taking care of my baby while I wait for
Elena to wake up.
My sister is okay.
Her cheeks are sunken, and there are dark circles beneath her eyes, but
otherwise, she’s doing okay.
Still, I need to reassure myself by looking over her. She doesn’t need me
by her side, but I want to be here when she wakes up.
She got into a car accident. Her car was wrecked from the sides, but
luckily, nothing happened to her.
This isn’t her first car accident. The other time this happened, it was a
few years after our parent’s death.
She went through a phase where she had to get high before she fell
asleep.
It would’ve been fine if she did pot like the rest of her friends. But she
went and got herself sleeping pills. They did their job, but she also started
experiencing episodes of parasomnia.
She would do things like wake up in the middle of the night to clean the
whole house, and have no memory of doing so the next morning.
I was scared.
She was my older sister, and that means something when you’re young.
I couldn’t straight up tell her to change her habits.
In my adolescent mind, everything she did was okay. I looked up to her.
Until the night of the accident.
 The pills morphed the status of her mind. She took her car out, and
drove out into the night in her sleep-like state.
The next thing I know, I was crying by her side as she was being
wheeled into a hospital’s OR.
Every part of her was broken in some way. Even through all that pain
she must have been in, she wiped my tears away, and swore to me that she
would never touch those pills again.
I scan her body now to make sure she’s okay.
I keep having flashes back to that night. When I didn’t know if she
would make it. When I had to sit outside and wait while a team of doctors
tried to fix my sister.
Her last words in my ears. Be brave for me, Zoey.
For probably the hundredth time, I scan her body and make sure there
are no broken bones.
They’re keeping her for three days, as the medical examination results
have been unclear. She was in a state of shock when she was brought in,
and the medics initially suspected an internal trauma to the head.
An IV line drips drugs into her veins. Most of it is medication to keep
her asleep so her body can heal.
I curl into a ball in my chair.
The hospital staff gave me a comfy green armchair after they realized
that I won’t be leaving my sister’s side. I’ve been eating and sleeping here
ever since.
A flash of green in my peripheral vision makes me turn. I frown as I
look through the blinds.
There’s just the usual activity of the hospital staff going about their day.
But I could have sworn that it was him.
Ever since I stepped foot in Sierranian soil, I kept getting the feeling
like he’s just around the corner. I’m seeing him everywhere.
This must be me finally losing it.
I’m going paranoid.
Not only am I broken, I’m beyond repair now.
The room door opens.
A man in a white coat steps inside. He’s tall, lean, and a little
intimidating. I’ve been curled up in my armchair, but I sit up straight now.
“Are you Zoey Winters?” he asks me. His eyes hover over my face and
land on my lips.
 When William looked at my lips like there’s nothing more he wanted in
this world, they buzzed and tingled.
When this strange man is looking at them the same way, I don’t like it
one bit.
I nod. He smiles, an artificial one with gleaming white teeth. He looks
like he’s about the same age as William, maybe a little younger.
And I suppose he’s good-looking as well. But I’ve truly been blind to
men all my life.
The only man I want is him.
I think I seek an emotional connection over everything else. It’s what
attracted me to William when I first met him, and it’s what kept a part of my
heart with him. The rest of my heart is tucked into Jasper’s chubby little
fists.
“Well?” The doctor’s voice brings me back to the present.
“What?”
“Are you or are you not a family member of Elena Winters?”
“Oh-uh-yes, I am. I’m her sister.”
He narrows his eyes at me, like he’s wondering whether I’m the one
who had the concussion.
But then he goes back to doing some routine tests. He picks up a folder
from Elena’s bedside table, and makes some notes on the pages.
“She’s going to be okay, right?” I ask him.
His eyes flick to mine. He looks away quickly, but not before glancing
down at my chest.
I cross my arms, starting to get a little uncomfortable now.
He’s not her usual doctor. Elena gets her vitals checked at night, but it’s
done by a friendly nurse that I know by name now. Doctors don’t usually
come to check up on her, and if they do, it’s generally in the daytime.
“She’s getting along really well,” he says. “A real soldier.”
The warm words he says about her make me smile.
A soldier. Yes, she is a soldier. A fighter. She fights every day to create a
better life not just for herself but also for everyone around her.
Tears well up in my eyes against my will.
The doctor’s hand is on my shoulder. He squeezes it reassuringly. “Hey,
she’ll be okay.”
I nod, and tilt my head up towards the ceiling to keep the tears from
spilling. “I’m sorry. It’s just a lot to take in.”
 Not just Elena, but being in Sierran. My baby Jasper is here for the first
time. It was supposed to have been his home.
“You’re a good sister. I’ve noticed that you haven’t left her side since
you got here.”
I sniff. “Was it you who sent the green armchair over?” Because I didn’t
ask for it. I went to the restroom once, and it was here next to Elena’s bed
by the time I came back.
He looks at the object I mentioned, and shakes his head.
It’s an ugly shade of green, with a yellowish tint to it. But it’s the most
comfortable thing to sleep in. It reminds me of being in his arms.
Why does everything have to lead back to him?
Why does he have his claws so deep in my heart?
My eyes well up again, and this time, they spill. The doctor moves to
wipe them away, and accidentally brushes my lips with his thumb.
The room door bursts open.
We both turn.
William.
He strides over like a tornado, and grabs the doctor’s neck with both his
hands. I don’t stop him as he cuts out the doctor’s oxygen with his bare
hands.
I take a step back, and give myself a moment to soak in his features.
His beautiful face.
His fiery eyes.
His sculpted body.
Not a thing has changed.
But the man in front of me is completely different from the man I knew
458 days ago. Is it sad that I’ve been counting down the exact number of
days since we last saw each other?
William doesn’t look at me.
The skin on the back of his hand is taut as he crushes the doctor’s throat.
“Nobody,” he spits out. “Nobody touches what belongs to me.”
And then he turns to me.
I always thought I would forget about him with time. But the second his
eyes find mine, everything comes rushing back.
We’re right back where we started. Time has passed, but my feelings
have remained the same.
 He’s the reason I’ve been on the run. He’s the reason I’ve been so
restless.
Having Jasper in my life was a much-needed anchor, but I still needed
my baby daddy.
“You’re going to kill him,” I say, not even looking at the choking
doctor.
William relaxes his grip. “Would that be good story-material for you?”
And just like that, I hide inside myself again. I can’t. He asked me to
stay away once. I hurt him already. I’m not worthy of his love.
I turn away. The Doctor storms out of the room, muttering something
about bringing his lawyer into this.
William lets out a cruel laugh when he hears that. “Good luck finding
one,” he calls after the retreating man.
The door shuts with a bang.
I look at Elena. Even after all this commotion, she’s sleeping
peacefully.
A morbid instinct inside me makes me want to check whether she’s
breathing or not. When I scan her body from head to toe, and realize she’s
okay, I turn to William again.
“You keep doing that,” he observes. “Why?”
“Doing what?”
“Scanning her like you’re afraid she’s going to combust.”
“She was in an accident,” I say. “I’m worried.”
“There’s not a single scratch on her body,” he counters.
“Thank God for that. But there could be internal damage too.”
“Wouldn’t the doctors know if there was?”
I look at him. How do I explain to him that I’ve seen my sister on the
verge of death? That kind of experience sticks with you. I’ve seen her with
her bones twisted and her tissues in a pulp.
He doesn’t know about my past.
He doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he does.
“What are you doing here?” I say with a shaky voice.
What I really want to do is close the distance between us and press my
lips against his to see if they would still feel the same. But I cross my arms,
and guard my heart by building a fortress around it.
Instead of answering my question, he examines my dinner tray. There’s
a stale sandwich and chocolate pudding on it. I could only get myself to eat
the cut-up fruit, and I was saving the pudding for later.
“Come on,” he says, moving towards the door. “You need to eat.”
I want to stay rooted. I shouldn’t go anywhere with him. But with one
look at my resting sister, I follow after him like a puppy.
My eyes are trained on the broad expanse of his back as he leads me
out. If it’s possible, he looks even more handsome than he used to.
There’s a toughness about him now. An edge that he didn’t have before.
He takes me to a small, but cozy diner right outside the hospital. I sit
down in front of him. Now that we’re facing each other again, every part of
me is buzzing. I’m so aware of his gaze on me.
It warms me up from the inside until I’m burning up.
“Stop blushing,” he says through gritted teeth.
I look up at him, and bite down on my lower lip.
“Goddamnit, Zoey.”
He looks around the restaurant agitatedly, and beckons to a waitress.
She’s a pretty redhead who looks at my man for a second too long.
William isn’t mine. He probably won’t ever be. But that doesn’t mean I
want him to belong to someone else.
I can’t stop the jealousy that flares from within.
He orders for me, looking at me intermittently for approval. I nod
through the lump in my throat.
I just want the waitress to go away. She’s making these doe-eyes at him,
and licking her pen seductively as she waits for the full order.
A salad, appetizer, main course, and dessert.
When she leaves, she adds an extra sway to her hips, but I’m the only
one who notices.
William has eyes only for me.
His burning gaze makes me want to hide. I can’t look him in the eye
anymore. Not after what I’ve done.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come back,” he says, breaking the silence.
“Why?” comes my automatic response. I’m genuinely puzzled.
“I believe we have unfinished business between us.” His jaw is set as
his eyes roam over my face. It reminds me of the way I search Elena’s body
for any sign of hurt.
Can William tell that I’m hurting?
I didn’t let myself accept this until I came back to Sierran, but I’ve been
hurting.
 Without him in my life, I’ve been miserable.
Jasper is the apple of my eye, but every time I look into his big green
eyes, it reminds me of his father. The father who has no clue that he even
exists. And I’m going to keep it that way.
It’s the right thing to do.
Our food arrives. He pushes it all my way.
“You haven’t had anything to eat all day,” he says.
I take a bite of the hot food. It’s not just edible, but it’s good. “How do
you know that?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.
“Do we really need to go over the details?” He’s studying my lips
shamelessly.
I shake my head. I don’t tell him that I had a feeling he was nearby.
Although one part of me was worried sick over Elena’s condition, there
was this other part of me that was excited.
I could smell his spicy aftershave in the hospital, and I could sense his
eyes on me.
Knowing that he was watching over me was soothing.
If William wanted to see me, I know that he would’ve done whatever it
took. He’d been this way from the beginning.
On the day of my 21st birthday, he found me at my hotel, and asked me
if I wanted to bake with him.
'If not now, then when?' he had said. It made perfect sense.
Although I was going to make a move to accidentally “bump” into him
that very day, he came to me.
And the rest is history.
He stares intently at the food left on my plate. I finish it off bite by bite,
and surprisingly, I don’t even feel self-conscious.
I’m happy that I get to see him one more time. One last time.
After I’m done eating and he’s satisfied, he beckons for the waitress
again. The same one who was drooling all over him.
I bristle in my chair.
It’s almost like she doesn’t see that he’s here with someone else. I look
away from the girl and at William. His eyes are on me.
Why does he look at me like I’m still his angel?
He knows that I’m a sinner and a liar. But he looks at me like he can’t
believe his lucky stars.
I have to do something about this.
 If he looks at me like that for a moment longer, I’m going to crawl over
the table, and curl up in his lap like a kitten.
Can’t he tell that he deserves someone better?
Because I’m still ashamed.
I’m drowning in my own shame and guilt. I should have never done
what I did. I should have never let my boss bully me into doing those
horrible things.
“Do you want to take a walk?” I ask. At least then, I won’t have to
fidget under his burning gaze.
He gets up and offers me his arm, but I pretend like I don’t see it. In a
low voice, he asks, “Are you okay?”
Where do I even start? I shake my head, and head out of the restaurant.
When we get outside, I’m hit with a sense of déjà vu. Of a time when he
was the one walking out on me. When the royals showed up, and I was
made to walk away from the only man I ever loved.
But I take responsibility for all of it now.
I can’t be bitter towards someone else when this was all my own doing.
His strong hand wraps around my elbow. He could crush it if he wanted
to.
He’s a powerful man. From his barrel chest to his tree trunk thighs, he’s
all masculine power.
He tugs on my elbow, and leans down so his mouth hovers over my ear.
“Why do you look ruffled?”
I whip around. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
He studies my face, from my dilated pupils to my parted lips. He takes a
step back. “I’m making you uncomfortable?” He tries to hide it, but there’s
a touch of hurt in his voice.
I shake my head. “It’s not you. It’s always me, William. I’m the
damaged one. I can’t even go to a restaurant with you without losing my
mind to jealousy.”
He looks perplexed. “Jealousy?”
“That waitress. I didn’t like the way she was looking at you.” The heat
rises in my throat again.
He’s mine. Mine.
Nobody else can even look at him.
“In that case, we’re more alike than you think,’’ he says. A slow smile
spreads on his face until it’s a cocky grin. He’s having fun with this.
 I can’t help it. His smile is infectious. “I can’t believe you choked a
doctor,” I say, smiling back at him.
His smile drops. “That fucker was so unprofessional. Flirting with a
patient’s family member.” His body goes rigid, and a muscle near his jaw
jumps.
He’s jealous too.
“Why shouldn’t he?” The doctor gave me the creeps, but I find myself
defending him for no other reason than to push William’s buttons. “He’s
single, I’m single.”
“You don’t mean that,” William replies broodily. It’s almost threatening,
but I’m drawn to him even more. “I saw him looking at you. Every time he
passed by the corridor, his eyes were on you. I wanted to kill him when he
touched your shoulders, Zoey.” His body is quivering with rage now.
When he says that he wanted to kill that man, I actually believe him. If I
hadn’t stopped him when I did, I think he would have.
When I first met him, he was a perfect gentleman.
I turned him into this savage.
There’s this recklessness about him now. This rawness that’s just
beneath the surface.
A breeze ruffles my hair. My dark waves blow in the direction of the
wind, baring my neck. He glances at my exposed neck like he wants to
mark it as his.
With trembling fingers, I reach for him. I find his hand, and link my
fingers through his.
When I look up into his eyes, I find an avalanche of emotions there. A
little bit of lust and a whole lot of lost.
He’s been waiting for this moment too. He’s been waiting for me like
I’ve been waiting for him.
I was afraid that after all this time, he would’ve moved on. I was afraid
he would’ve come to his senses and realized that he could do much better.
But as his thumb brushes across the back of my hand reassuringly, I
know.
I’m his one and only.
I’m his.
Like he’s mine.
“458 days apart, and my heart still beats for you, Zoey.”
My jaw drops. “You’ve been keeping track?”
 “How did you know that was the right number?” he asks, his eyes glued
to my lips.
I part my lips to answer, but he’s on me. My back hits a wall. He pushes
up against me, until I’m forced to wrap my legs around him.
Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Even after all this time, he’s the sun to my
moon.
We balance each other. Complete each other.
William pushes his hips against mine. It’s almost arrogant, the way he
places himself between my thighs like it’s his right to do so. But I love it.
He grabs the hair at the back of my neck, and tugs at it, until my face
tips up towards him.
His lips crush against mine, and his tongue pushes its way forward. He
grants himself access to my mouth.
Again, it’s dominating and cocky, but I don’t care.
He’s feeding me oxygen.
I’m having oxygen infused into my cells for the first time in a long time.
His touch awakens the slumbering parts of my body, the darkest corners of
my heart.
All of it comes to life for him.
Our bodies writhe. Our tongues declare war. It’s a competition to see
who devours who. And it appears like we’ll both be winners.
But I know the truth.
I know better.
It may seem like we’re climbing higher, but it’s only a matter of time
before I drag him down with me.
He doesn’t know that I’m cursed. He doesn’t know that I bring ruin to
everyone who dares to love me.
Salt water drips down my eyes as I stop kissing him back.
He breaks away to investigate.
I can’t bring myself to look him in the eye. It’s that fancy French
restaurant all over again. The shame and guilt are compounded, because I
know better now.
I know that no matter what I do, I’ll never deserve his love.
“I can’t,” I tell him. “I can’t.”
He looks at me for a moment, before placing me back down on the
ground. He respects my wishes, but he doesn’t let go of me.
 He’s still holding me like I’m about to take the first flight out of the
country again.
“I thought I could control my impulses,” he says. “But that’s never been
easy for me when you’re around.” As if to prove his point, his cock jumps
against me.
I draw a deep breath in. It’s been so long, and I’m dripping.
Can he tell?
I sneak a glance at him. At his green eyes that are the same shade as our
son’s.
Jasper. The thought of my six-month-old fully brings me back to my
senses.
I place my hands on William’s chest and push. With hurt in his eyes, he
takes a step back. And then another.
He’s no longer touching me. I already miss his hands on me.
My chin wobbles. My heart feels like it’s a dandelion. A single blow is
all it will take for it to disintegrate. I hug myself. I wrap my arms around
myself, and look down at my feet. “Is it okay…if we just talk?”
I’m weak.
I don’t want him to go away. Not yet. I want to drink my share of him,
and make sure it’s enough to last a lifetime.
He takes a step towards me. And then another.
We’re not touching. He respects the fact that I need space, but
everything in his body language tells me that he’s going to fight for me.
“We can talk,” he says. His voice sinks into my skin, creating a buzz
that tugs at my core.
I turn towards the sidewalk. He falls into step beside me.
We’re near the city outskirts where the lights are dim and the streets are
bare.
“How have you been?” I ask him. I’m not just asking him for the sake
of asking it. I genuinely want to know how he is.
He sighs and looks up at the night sky.
“Miserable,” he answers. “I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to,
but there’s no joy in it. I know it’ll be worth it in the end, but…” he trails
off. “I don’t know, I’m just not fulfilled.”
Shit. That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling too.
I’ve been taking care of my baby and taking care of myself, but I
constantly feel like something’s missing.
 “Me too,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself again. His body is so
close to mine. I can feel his heat, but I’m afraid to touch him.
I’m shy. Only with him.
He glances at my arms, like he’s jealous of them.
“Are you happy?” he asks me.
Since we’re being honest here, I give him an honest answer. “Most of
the time, yes,” I reply.
He doesn’t know about Jasper, the gentle child who loves big hugs.
William hasn’t asked for it, but I feel the need to tell him more about
my life. I want him to know the person I’ve become.
I continue, “I go to dance classes twice a week. They’re pretty much the
highlight of my week.”
He smiles at me. “The endorphin rush does make life seem a little less
bleak.”
I almost forgot who I was talking to. This is a man who pretty much
lives at the gym.
“What else do you do?” he asks me eagerly, as if there’s nothing more
important to him than my day-to-day activities.
I want to tell him. I want to tell him about the writing I do for
international blogs. I want to tell him that I spend an hour writing out my
feelings for him in my journal every morning.
But I know that if I do, I’m going to tell him everything.
I’m going to fall right back into his arms, where I feel safe and
protected.
And he’ll take me back, because that’s just the kind of man he is. He
doles out second chances to people who aren’t deserving of second chances.
He’s a saint.
I’m a sinner.
I look into his warm eyes, and say, “It’s getting late. I think I should get
back to Elena.”

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 ZOEY

E lena’s staring up at the ceiling by the time I get back to the hospital
room.
“Laney, you’re up,” I breathe, immediately rushing to her side.
Her blue gaze fixes on me. “So this is what it takes to bring you back
home,” she chuckles.
“Don’t say things like that.” I would slap her arm playfully, but she
looks so fragile.
I take my spot by her bed.
She’s staring at my lips. My stupid tell-tale lips. They’re all red and
bruised from kissing him.
I could try to cover it up with my hand, but that would just draw more
attention. Instead, I speak up before she can. “How are you feeling?” I ask.
She looks away. I see conflict in her clear blue eyes. Eyes that can tell
you all of her emotions if you study them for long enough. She turns to me,
and says, “Rested. Like I’ve been out for two days straight.”
“You needed the sleep. You’ve been working yourself to the bone these
past few days.”
“You know how unpredictable things are in my line of work,” she says.
“I have so much to catch up on.”
I shake my head. “You shouldn’t even be thinking about anything work-
related right now.”
She props herself up into a sitting position. I help her. “Are you sore
anywhere?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I’m not physically hurt, Zoey. You don’t need to
worry about me.”
 I look at her for a moment, and nod.
She knows all about the nightmares I had after her first car accident.
Almost overnight, I was forced to grow up. I haven’t been the same
person since.
Elena always blamed herself for my nightmares. Just like how I used to
blame myself for my parent’s death.
“What happened?” I whisper. “You were talking to me. You seemed
fine. And an hour later, I get a call that you were admitted into a hospital?”
She shrugs. “The streets were too dark. I didn’t see the truck coming
from the other direction.”
“And you somehow missed the red light too?” I ask dubiously.
It’s so unlike her. She’s a good driver. She doesn’t miss things like
traffic signals at intersections and large trucks barrelling down the road.
She avoids looking into my eyes. “I guess so,” she answers.
Why is she looking everywhere but at me?
A thought strikes me. “We argued right before your accident. Were you
distracted because of me? Is that why you missed the red light?” Paranoia
seizes hold of me.
Elena squeezes my wrist. Her voice is urgent. “No. Don’t go there. You
are not responsible for what happened. None of it is your fault.”
She’s not just speaking about this accident, but about what happened to
our parents.
She knows that my mind is my enemy sometimes, and there are times
when I listen to that enemy.
“I’ve told you this countless times before, Zoey. What happened was a
wicked thing. Nothing you could’ve done would have stopped it. George
Harrington is a disgusting excuse for a human being. We just happened to
know it way before the world did.”
“You didn’t know they were in trouble, Laney. But I did.” I start to
hyperventilate again.
The demons of my past grip me and shake me, telling me it’s all my
fault.
“You were a child,” she says. “You overheard a conversation between
two adults, and you kept it to yourself. Even if you stepped up and told
somebody, the King would have done what he pleased anyway.”
A decade ago, everything was glorious.
 Our Dad was the town sheriff, and our Mom was a full-time parent.
Both of them worked hard to give us a comfortable life.
We didn’t have many material things, but we had plenty of love. Our
Dad built us a treehouse to play in, and our Mom kissed our boo-boos every
time we fell.
It was a happy house, and we lived happy lives.
It all changed when my Dad met the Devil. George Harrington.
The King ran a business back then, along with his best friend, Gideon
Payne. They were the founders of Harrington Enterprises.
While they were in the process of expanding their company, the King
came to our small town.
He had a look around, and a few days later, he informed our Dad that
they needed land.
Not just any barren land.
He was talking about land on which families lived.
Needless to say, our Dad was firmly opposed to this. He had always
been an honest man who stood up for what he believed in.
And he believed that families shouldn’t be uprooted and relocated from
their homes for no good reason.
Our Dad wasn’t alone in this belief. He was the town sheriff, so he had
a support system. Other people joined him. There were rallies on the streets
by people who believed that the King was a dictator.
The saw the King for who he really was. He was no leader, he was a
bully.
But not everyone saw it that way back then. Love for the Harrington’s
was basically in our genes.
They were the family that fought for our country’s independence. But
one rotten egg is enough to poison the whole country.
George Harrington was that poison.
The poison that ruined my childhood.
It was ‘take-your-child-to-work’ day at our school. I was in fifth grade,
and our teachers gave us a project where we had to write a paragraph about
how our day went.
I chose to spend the day with my Dad. I was in his office when the King
visited him at his place of work.
I overheard their hushed conversation. It took place right outside the
office doors. The walls were paper-thin, so I heard every word loud and
clear.
I remember not liking the tone of the King’s voice as he threatened my
Dad. It scared me.
My Dad stood his ground though, polite but firm in his manner. So I
believed that it would all be okay.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have kept my mouth shut. I should have told
somebody about what happened.
My Dad was fearless, but he was foolish in his fearlessness. He wasn’t
scared of anyone, even the people he was supposed to be scared of.
And I wanted to tell my Mom, but something about the whole day had
me paralyzed with fear.
That very evening, our parents went out on their weekly date
night. There was a babysitter at home, watching over Elena and me.
I remember staying up late that night, waiting for my parents to come
back home.
They never did.
That was the night they disappeared.
They had a reservation at one of the good restaurants in town, but when
we checked with the restaurant, it showed that they didn’t show up that
night.
We called the authorities. But they couldn’t help us either.
There were no signs of a car crash, no clues on their whereabouts,
nothing. It was like they vanished off the face of the Earth. Even their car
was nowhere to be found.
Our parents became a statistic. A number. A part of the millions of
people who go missing every year worldwide.
It wasn’t until years later that Elena and I decided to move on.
We never found their bodies, but there was no point in holding on to
hope that they would come back.
We accepted what we had known for a long time now. Our parents were
dead.
So we gave them a funeral.
All of this was sobering to my young mind. I believed for the longest
time that it was my fault that they were gone.
Even after Elena told me countless times that it wasn’t, I held on to this
guilt that if I did things differently, they would still be here.
 I went to therapy to deal with my issues. I worked hard to overcome that
fear.
But the ghosts of your past come back to poke you every once in a
while. Like in this moment, when I’m feeling especially vulnerable.
I know Elena and I are both reliving the same things in our minds. It’s
why we hate the King so much. We threw a party when we found out that
he was sent to prison.
Elena moved on, but I held on to the hate.
I wanted more. And in my thirst for revenge, I became reckless.
I hold my sister’s hand now, and squeeze her back. I need something to
hold on to.
My body is quivering. For the third time this evening, I wrap my arms
around myself to keep my heart from falling to the floor.
“I can’t see her like this,” comes a rich, low voice from behind me.
“Just tell her.”

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 ZOEY

I shift in my green armchair, and look behind me. “William?”

He’s standing by the door, looking at Elena. I turn to my
sister in disbelief. Her eyes are bright, and she looks like she’s
about to cry. But she doesn’t seem surprised that he’s here.
“Wait a second, you two- you two know each other?” I ask.
On my nightly video calls with my sister, I talk to her about William. A
lot.
She’s a patient listener, and she’s good at giving advice. But never once
did she tell me that she met him.
William crosses over, and scoops me up in his arms before sitting down
in the armchair. With me still in his arms. I resist the urge to rest my head
against his chest.
I don’t demand to be released either, because I know that he needs this.
I spread my fingertips over his hard chest, and become his maestro. His
rapidly-beating heart slows to a deep, steady rhythm.
I didn’t let myself believe this fantasy. I didn’t want to hold on to any
delusion that we could make this work.
But now, I see the passion in his eyes.
I see his love and tenderness and pain. It makes me wonder, will our
love hurt us again?
I’ve been keeping a secret from him.
He’s a father, and he has no clue about it.
I’ve been keeping my baby all to myself. He will come to know about it
sooner or later. And when he does, how will he react?
 Is it possible that he’ll be hurt over something he never even knew? I
know that he won’t be happy about it. He would’ve wanted me to have told
him this secret.
Another secret.
Granted, this one is much cuter than the one I had before.
We look into each other’s eyes, and I peel back a layer of myself. I let
myself feel.
Everything that I feel for him, I let it show.
I don’t want to hide. Not when he’s looking at me like I’m a treasure
chest full of everything he ever desired.
“Zoey? William?” Elena’s voice sounds like it’s coming from the other
end of a tunnel.
We both turn to her.
“Yes, I’m still here.” She holds both of her hands up. “Just making sure
I’m the only one with a head injury here.”
“If anything, I feel more like myself than I’ve felt in days.” William
speaks against my shoulder. His booming voice travels straight to my pussy.
“Ugh, don’t tell me you’ve been counting days too,” says Elena.
I allow myself a soft smile. It withers just as quickly as it appeared.
Why can’t I seem to keep the promises I make to myself?
I told myself that I would stay away from William no matter what. That
I would hide from him.
And yet, here I am, right back in his arms.
“You guys need to tell me what’s going on,” I say, squirming in his lap,
and then stopping dead in my tracks. I definitely felt something thick and
hard against my ass.
William’s grip on me tightens. His bicep flexes against my waist as he
holds me in place.
“The car accident was no accident,” he says.
All the air is knocked out of my lungs. “What?”
“They were onto me. I thought I was being careful, but they knew all
along.”
“Who’s they?”
“The trio,” he answers.
The trio. The one’s who are responsible for his brother’s incarceration.
The three men who have committed gut-wrenching crimes and covered it
up as a jewelry business.
 “Did you find them or did they find you?” I ask.
I turn in his lap, and cup his cheek when he doesn’t answer. He turns his
face so that he’s kissing my palm.
“Both.” This time, it’s Elena who answers. I stare at her expectantly. “I
suppose you want to know how I know William,” she says.
I nod.
“He found me a few days after you left the country. I would’ve told you
about it, but both of you were heartbroken. It wasn’t my place to interfere. I
understand now, Zoey. I understand what it’s like to love another person.”
She looks up at the ceiling, probably to keep her tears from showing.
I still don’t know her story.
I wanted to ask, but she’s always been a private person, and I figured
that she would just tell me when she’s ready.
She continues, “And we became friends. He kept coming to me for
updates on you, and I just felt bad for the guy, so I told him some things
about you to keep him from losing his mind.”
I look up at William.
He came to my sister for information on my wellbeing.
He’s always been making sure that I was taking care of myself. He’s
always been looking out for me.
The knowledge of this makes me feel precious. But I don’t hold on to
this feeling for long. There’s something else that’s gnawing at my brain.
“What did you mean when you said that Elena’s car accident was no
accident?” I ask William.
“The trio,” he sighs. “They saw me spending time with her, and they
must have known that she was someone important in my life. I used to
come by to her apartment right before you video called her. For some
reason, Elena never let me stay to watch you.”
“It’s an invasion of privacy,” she says from her position on the bed.
I glare at her. “And telling him all the details of my life behind my back
isn’t?”
“Not all the details. Just enough to keep him from going insane. I told
you, when he first came to me, he was a wreck.”
I look at William. So he already knows about the writing I do and what I
have for dinner. But he knows nothing about the baby he fathered.
This is so not going to go down well. I tuck this thought away in a
distant corner of my mind.
 “Start from the beginning,” I tell him. I’m only getting bits and pieces
of what happened. I want to know the whole story.
He holds me closer to his body. I’m flush up against him, so I hear the
rumble that originates in his chest as he speaks. “Remember where we first
met?” he asks.
“Of course,” I reply easily.
The poker club. Inferno.
There were times when I wondered why he worked there as a bouncer
when he has access to the millions of dollars that he made with his brother.
I have a feeling I’m about to find out why.
“You weren’t the only one on surveillance that night. I worked in that
club so I could spy. On the trio. They were regular customers at Inferno.”
As he tells me his version of the story, I can’t help but feel like he’s not the
God-like man I painted him out to be.
He’s still a man of honor, but he’s done some shady stuff. Like me.
Knowing that he isn’t all that perfect makes me like him even more for
some reason.
William gets all worked up as he tells the story.
I touch his face to relieve his stress.
His entire body is tensed, but my touch eases up the lines on his
forehead. It erases the frown that tugs down on his lips.
We’re right back where we started.
“There’s something I need to tell you, Zoey,” he says.
“Anything,” I say. I’m still hypnotized by the stubble on his square jaw.
It clenches and unclenches as he prepares to tell me whatever it is that he
has to say.
He glances at Elena, who nods at him.
“I killed a man.”
My hand drops back to my lap.
“You did what?”
“I killed one of them. Hugo. He was the one who wore these obnoxious
red suits to the club every night. He laughed too loud, and it grated on my
nerves.”
“You killed someone because he laughed too loud?”
“No, I killed him to defend myself. It happened a few weeks after you
left. I found a clue on the whereabouts of their current operation, so I
followed them to this sunflower field, and waited until they left. I thought I
was in the clear when I went to the lock-up garage next to it. It was a lab
and storage area for drugs. I was just going to take pictures, but one of them
returned unexpectedly, and caught me in the act.”
My heart starts to skip a beat as he tells me this.
It’s not about what he did, but about what could’ve happened to
William.
“He put a gun to my head, and I wasn’t exactly in the kind of place
where I could run. So I had to-“
I hold up a hand. “I can’t.”
I can’t hear any more of this. Because it just as easily could have been
William in the other man’s place. “Do the others know that it was you?” I
ask.
“No.” He shakes his head, and smooths down my hair. “They didn’t
know back then.”
Back then. So they know now.
“It’s because of me,” I whisper. “All of this is because of me.”
If I hadn’t fled from home, William wouldn’t have had to talk to Elena.
And if he didn’t talk to Elena, they wouldn’t have tried to hurt her.
“Zoey, stop doing this to yourself,” sighs Elena.
William holds me even tighter.
“No, you don’t understand. I made a promise to myself once. That no
matter what happens, I’ll never let another person control me.”
“What do you want me to do?” asks William, ready for action. I turn in
his lap.
I love this about him. He’s willing to do absolutely anything for the
people he loves.
“I want to destroy the two men who tried to hurt Elena. I wish you had
put a bullet through their heads too. They deserve it for the things they’ve
done in the past.”
The room’s door opens just then.
All of us turn towards it.
It’s Bruno, the nurse who usually checks up on Elena. He’s a tall Black
man with broad shoulders and a boyish smile.
He fusses over her for a minute, taking notes and ticking off things on
his clipboard.
“You’re doing good, Ms. Winters. One more night here, and you’ll be
discharged.”
 “Thank you,” she says politely, fixing her bun to perfection like she’s
ready to leave now.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” he asks her.
Elena’s eyes flicker to meet mine. “I have everything I need right here,”
she answers, smiling at me.
Bruno pulls something out of his pocket, and hands it to me. “An extra
chocolate pudding for you, sweetheart,” he says, winking at me.
The last time he was here, he joked about how it’s the only thing I was
eating.
Chocolate is comforting for me. And with my sister sedated in a hospital
bed, I needed all the comfort I could get.
But with William here now, chocolate will be the last thing on my
mind. Probably.
I take the packaged snack from the nurse, and smile up at him.
William tightens his grip around my waist. I touch his forearm, letting
him know that it’s okay. He relaxes, but only slightly. Just enough for me to
breathe.
“Hey, thanks for the armchair,” I say to the nurse. “It’s super
comfortable.”
Bruno looks at William, and then turns to me. “I’m not the one you
should be thanking,” he says.
My heart starts to pound.
William was the one who brought it for me?
It’s a small gesture. Giving me a comfortable place to sit while I look
over my sister. But it’s so thoughtful and characteristic of William that I
want to cry a little.
It’s like those raspberries he brought for me the morning after we first
made love.
And how he made me blow out candles on the day of our birthday.
The door shuts with a click, and we’re alone again.
Elena smiles knowingly, and closes her eyes. A moment later, she’s
snoring.
She’s out. Just like that.
I think she goes to sleep faster than my infant.
William’s biceps flex as he nuzzles his face in my neck. It tickles a
little, but it’s also really arousing.
He’s the perfect mixture of sweet and charming. He’s perfect for me.
 When I kissed him outside the diner, I told myself that it would be our
last kiss.
When I sat in his lap, I told myself it was just because there was only
one chair in this room.
I’m running out of excuses now.
And my brain is starting to catch up on what my heart already knows.
I’m falling. All over again.
“William?” I whisper.
“Yeah?” His voice rumbles against my ears. He’s tracing circles on my
thighs, and I’m finding it very hard to concentrate.
“Can you put me down?”
“Not a chance.”
“Please?”
“Nah.”

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 17

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 WILLIAM

I had a taste of those lips.

And like every other time I stole a kiss from her, the
slumbering beast inside me has awakened.
He demands more. She has that magic all in her lips, and it makes me
yearn for more.
Torture. Having her sit on my lap and not being able to do anything
about it is the worst torture I’ve ever known.
We’re now in the deserted hospital cafeteria, having just finished our
steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
There’s a little bit of chocolate-flavored froth on her lips.
History is repeating itself.
All over again.
It started with cake frosting that was smeared over her lips. And then it
was that obnoxious island fruit. And now, it’s hot chocolate.
I want to have it all, as long as I get to have it straight from her lips.
“You should be sleeping,” I say. “You haven’t slept properly in over two
days.”
She looks up at me through her thick eyelashes. “Don’t say things like
that, William.”
“Like what?”
She wrings her arms out in frustration. Her pouty pink mouth looks
upset.
I can’t stand it.
I’m by her side immediately, but she stands up, stopping me from
scooping her into my arms.
 “Let’s go outside, okay?” There’s a slight tremble in her voice.
I tip her chin up, so I’m looking into the brown eyes that have haunted
me in my dreams.
“Why are you still running?” I ask her.
Her bee-stung lips part to answer. I stare at them for a second, and that
single second is enough for me to lose my mind.
My thumb moves to her mouth. I feel her wet heat and her anticipation.
I push it in all the way, and her cheeks reflexively hollow out to suck on
what I put in her mouth.
Fuck.
I grab her arm, and we walk. We walk to a secluded part of the hospital.
The fire exit.
There are stairs above and below us, dimly lit by a flickering purple
light.
I push her up against the wall, and show her the torment I’ve felt for the
past few months.
It’s been hell without her.
She touched my heart, and because of that, I’m forever changed.
Maybe if I didn’t know what it felt like to love her and fuck her, I
would’ve been okay.
But she gave me a taste. And it’s all I’ll be craving for the rest of my
days.
“I’ve waited for you for so long, Zoey,” I say right over her lips.
She gasps as I dig my hips into her pelvis. The thick length of my cock
rubs against her tiny clit. That’s all it takes to awaken the dirty angel from
within her.
My snarling beast against her innocent angel.
“Why didn’t you reach out to me?” she whimpers. The sound is so
pitiful that it makes me howl in rage.
I want to erase away all her pain and problems. I need to see her in a
constant state of satisfaction.
“I was waiting for you.” I inhale her scent. It’s strong near her neck.
It’s even stronger at her pussy. It makes me grit my teeth. Even the
thought of her snug little cunt almost makes me come.
“So we were waiting for each other, then,” she laughs sadly.
“I never gave up on us,” I say, leaning my forehead down to hers.
 “I always felt like this part of me was missing, Will.” She rubs her
hands up and down my forearms. “And right now, I don’t feel that anymore.
I feel whole. It’s terrifying.”
“You’ll always, always have me, angel.”
“How can you call me that? Angel. After everything I’ve done.” She
really looks perplexed, like she can’t wrap her mind around her own
brilliance.
“You’re my angel. Fuck being perfect. Perfection is overrated anyway. I
see myself in you, Zoey. We have a lot more in common than you realize.
Both of us will do whatever it takes to protect the people we love. There’s
honor in that. It’s beautiful.”
She considers this. “So you’re saying that we’re both a little insane?”
“Only in the best way.”
Our bodies rock as we speak. The friction between us burns red hot.
“For the longest time, I thought I wasn’t good enough for you, William.
I still-“
I silence her with a kiss. I can’t hear any more of this.
This love brings out the best and the worst in us. It’s making her
question herself. It’s making me want to kiss away all her doubts.
She needs this as much as I do.
I sink into her cushiony lips, and gather all her little breathy moans. She
grips the base of my neck, and hooks a thigh around my waist.
“That’s it, pretty baby. Spread those legs for me.”
A shudder wracks through her. So she still loves dirty talk.
“Tell me, angel, do you ever touch yourself at night?”
Her breasts are heaving. They’re ripe and heavy for me. I can’t wait to
bury my face in her cleavage as I fuck her. But first, I need her to be wet
and ready for me.
She nods. “Every time I do, I come with your name on my lips.”
“Is that so?” My cock is so hard that it’s almost painful. I need to bury it
deep, deep inside her.
“Uh-huh,” she says. Her pupils are large and dilated. “I think about your
big hands touching me.”
“What else?” I cup her plump ass with my hands.
“There’s something that I always dream about,” she says, lowering her
gaze.
“And what’s that?”
 When she looks back up at me, her eyes are blazing. “I think about you
filling me up.”
“With?”
“You know,” she whispers, pushing my chest with her little fists.
“Why don’t you tell me?”
She shakes her head.
“You fantasize about being filled up with my cum,” I growl. “About me
getting you pregnant.”
Why is that so hot?
She studies my face, as if checking for a reaction.
I grab her ass, smack it, and then pull her body in towards my raging
erection. It makes her gasp out loud. If anything, her innocence turns me on
even more.
I can’t wait to defile her, and drag her to the dark side. We’re both
sinners, so it’s about time we start acting like it.
“I think that’s a great idea, Zoey,” I say. “Let’s get started on it right
away.”
“What?” It’s barely a whisper.
“You know something? I think about that too. I want to see you knocked
up with my seed so bad it makes my balls hurt. I see flashes of you
sometimes. Barefoot and pregnant with my baby. Your belly swollen and
your breasts leaking. I think I should fuck a baby into you, my angel.”
She kisses me now. Her lips crash into mine, and her hot little tongue
darts out to touch mine.
I lean down to hook my arms beneath her knees, and then lay her down
on the cold hard floor.
There’s a purple glow in the air, probably from the dark night. But my
angel, she has a glow of her own.
I cup her breasts from over her clothes. She’s as plump and juicy as
ever.
I can never get enough of her curves. The shape of her body always
drives me wild.
“I’m going to teach you how to ride a cock,” I say.
I don’t want her pinned to the hard ground. I plan on being rough, but I
don’t want to accidentally hurt her in any way.
So I lay down on the floor, and make her sit on me.
 “Spread your thighs. Yeah. Just like that, angel. Now start rocking back
and forth.”
She follows my every instruction eagerly. I undo the button of her high
waisted jeans, and thrust my hand into her panties.
“My God,” I grunt. “You’re dripping for me.”
She fumbles with my belt, as I peel off the clothes covering her torso.
When her tits come into view, I’m pretty sure I’ve entered heaven.
I make her lean down so her tits are resting on my face. I grab her ass
by the fistful, and rock her up and down the length of my cock.
Anybody could walk in on us right now. We could get caught. But we
don't stop touching and rubbing against each other.
We make the hospital our playground.
Our palace.
I grab the back of her neck, and bring her mouth down to mine. Her
breasts flatten against my body, and my cock molds into her soft belly.
I’m dry humping her with reckless abandon.
“What do I do next?” she asks, batting her eyelashes at me.
I shimmy her tight jeans off, until she’s sitting on top of me with
nothing but her red thong on.
“Wrap your little hands around my cock,” I say. “Spit on the head.”
She looks unsure, but does as she’s told, lowering her head down
towards it. I can’t help it. My hips buck, until my hot crown is pressing
against her lips.
And just like she did with my thumb, her lips part to take it in.
I have to squeeze the base of my cock to keep from filling her pretty
mouth. My only self-control comes from the fact that I get to save it for
the real deal.
The last time we were together, I was cautious.
I kept the crazy at bay. I didn’t show her the depth of my emotions.
But now, all my cards are on the table. She knows exactly what kind of
man she’s dealing with.
I want to give it all, and I want to take it all.
She circles her tongue around my shaft, and hollows her cheeks for me.
I can see the indent of my cock against the side of her cheek, and the sight
of it makes some pre-cum splash deep down her throat.
She swallows.
 The tightening of her throat muscles makes me pull out, because my
self-control is not going to work any longer
“Baby, you’re a natural,” I praise her. I lift her off of me, and look down
at her core. She’s messy for my love, drenched all the way through her
flimsy red panties.
Her puffy lips jutt out through the sides of her thong. My mouth waters
as I look at her.
“One taste, baby. I just need one lick.”
She plays shy. “Just one?”
“Just one,” I reply. I help her get on my face, and make her sit on me. I
plant a kiss against her swollen lips. It makes her squeeze her thighs
together.
While she’s still squirming against my face, I push her drenched useless
panties to the side, and get my taste.
Only I don’t want to stop after a single lick.
Her moans are breathy and urgent. “You promised you’d stop after one
lick,” she says.
“I forgot how good you taste,” I lie. “I can’t stop now.”
My hands are spreading her fleshy ass cheeks apart. I nip at her swollen
clit, and tongue-fuck her pussy. All the while, I’m moving her hips around
using my grip on her ass.
She becomes my willing toy. She gasps and moans, but never asks me
to stop.
Her cream is proof of how much she wants more. When I’m satisfied, I
bring her down to my cock.
“Now, on to your lessons. Dickriding 101,” I say. “Get my cock all wet
with your honey. We don’t want to hurt you too much.”
She starts to grind on top of my bare cock.
I groan, and rip her pretty little thong off. She doesn’t stop moving. My
hands go to her swinging breasts, and I massage them as she massages my
cock.
“Good girl,” I say. “Now place it right against your pretty opening.”
She does as she’s told. It takes everything in me to not impale her with
my cock right away.
I rub my hands up and down the curve of her hips. “Now slide your way
down, and don’t stop no matter what.”
 She arches her back, and bites down on her lower lip as she lowers
herself on my cock.
“I thought I took your virginity. How do you still feel so damn tight,
angel?”
A vicious thought surfaces at the front of my mind. I dig my fingers into
her lower back. “Tell me, Zoey. Tell me no other man has touched what’s
mine.”
“Just you,” she gasps. “It’s always been you.”
She squeals as I thrust all the way up to the hilt. I’m deep, deep inside
her now.
Raw.
“Now, start dancing for me, angel.” I watch her quivering breasts as
they rise and fall.
Zoey starts moving. Rocking side to side, front to back.
“That’s it, angel. Take it.” Her walls are snug around my rod. I can feel
myself growing as she starts to move.
I don’t know if she can handle it.
She gathers her long hair up above her head in a ponytail as she grinds
for me. Her pouty mouth is parted in silent pleasure, and her eyes are
squeezed shut.
“Go on, make a show for me. You’re a dirty little slut for me aren’t
you?” I start to pump my hips.
Her eyes meet mine. There’s a shy submissiveness to them. My cock
twitches inside her.
“Why do you always fuck me raw?” she asks, sliding up and down the
length of my cock.
“I can’t help myself, angel. I see your curves, and a condom is the last
thing on my mind.”
She shakes her head. “I think you do it on purpose.”
I smirk. “Ah, you caught me. Yes, it’s intentional. I already told you,
didn’t I? I won’t stop fucking you raw until I see your belly swollen with
my child.”
She stops her reckless grinding. I take hold of her ass, and try to help
her along. But the enthusiasm that was there before is gone now.
Her pussy lips are still dripping, and parted around my cock where I
breach her. Her tits are still rising and falling with every shuddering breath
she takes.
 But her face isn’t transparent anymore. I don’t know what’s going on
inside her mind.
I’m about to ask her about it when she bucks her hips. Until now, her
eyes have been either shut or fixed on the ceiling as she was riding me.
But now, she’s looking right at me.
It’s insanely sexy.
There’s such innocence and purity there.
It makes me crave more. It makes me want to take control. I hold her
waist, and flip us around until she’s pinned to the floor with my body.
“Forgive me, angel. I promised myself I wouldn’t hurt you, but I’ll die
if I don’t take you how I really need to.” I start to thrust into her like an
animal. Her thighs are spread wide apart to accommodate me, and I pull my
cock out all the way just to pummel into her.
I fuck her with brutal strength, until I’m just rutting into her.
I lean down, and crush her lips against mine in a bruising kiss. My
hands all moving all over her body, from her full breasts to her little clit. I
swallow her breathy moans.
She tastes so sweet.
Like the nectar of a flower that blooms only once in ten years.
And like the starving man I am, I lap it all up. I take it from her as I feed
her pussy with rough thrusts.
“Come for me, angel.” I reach down between us, and pinch her clit. At
the same time, I bury my face in her soft cleavage, leaving bite-marks all
over her breasts.
She fists my hair as she shatters.
The spasming of her tight hole makes me cum deep inside her. I fill her
up just like I told her I would.
I empty all of my cream into her, right against her cervix. Her pussy
clenches against me, milking me until I’m all drained out.
It’s an explosion that lasts for a full minute. Every time I’m with her, we
create magic.
“I love you, Zoey,” I say, telling her the three words I should have said a
long time ago. I didn’t tell her then, so I make up for it now. “I love you. I
love you. I love you.”
My heart feels light and heavy at the same time.
I’m happy that she’s back, but I still mourn all the time that we lost.
 We could’ve spent it together, but instead, we were running as far away
from each other as possible.
But all of that is in the rearview mirror now.
Right now, in this moment, I hold the world’s most beautiful woman in
my arms, and she lets me call her mine.
That’s enough for now.
I kiss her slowly, telling her a story with my lips. It’s a story of longing
and passion and heartache. God, I missed her.
Heartbeats are supposed to slow after an orgasm. But ours are racing,
thudding and pumping harder than ever.
Who knew a single kiss could complete you?
I reconcile with every corner of her lips.
Her soft sighs fill my lungs, and it becomes clear to me that we need to
meet each other again.
The first time we met, we were both hiding things from each other. But
this time, we need to show each other all of our angels and our demons.
I break away from her lips, and plant a kiss on her forehead.
Her eyes flutter close. And she smiles so sweetly that I can’t stop. I need
to see that satisfied smile again.
I’ll do anything to earn it.
I make my way down, kissing her temples and her cheeks. I kiss the
angle of her jaw, and move down her neck.
I don’t stop until I’m between her thighs. And I get to work, using my
tongue and the muscles of my neck.
I pull an orgasm out of her with just my mouth.
She’s creaming again. It’s like her body is making up for all the time we
lost.
When I’m done, I lean over her body, and look down at my precious
woman. My hands are propped on either side of her head.
“I love you,” I say. The words hang in the space between us, but she
smiles, accepting them.
“I love you too, William,” she plays with my arms. Something on my
chest catches her eyes.
I’m surprised she hasn’t noticed until now.
It’s hard to see against my tanned skin and the dark lighting I suppose.
Plus, I hadn’t taken my shirt off as we fucked.
She unbuttons my black shirt now.
 Her fingers trace the path of the tattoos that cover my chest and my
arms. They weren’t there before. She’s looking at them for the first time.
Right over my heart space, I have a tattoo of her name.
Zoey.
It’s done in a font that isn’t easy to read, but she recognizes her own
name. She looks up at me with her big doe-eyes, asking me a question
without any words necessary.
She wants to know why.
“The physical pain eased the pain in my heart,” I tell her the truth. “I got
it during a particularly difficult period.”
“After you killed that man?”
“Yes,” I deflate. I felt horrible about it. I still do. Taking away
someone’s life is never an excuse. It’s a burden that I drag around with me
wherever I go.
And if I’m being honest, I wish I had other options to defend myself in
that moment. “I was in a weird mood after that happened. I was still
missing you, and I wasn’t any closer to freeing Alex. I felt like I was letting
everyone down.”
“But you weren’t. You were doing your best. Weren’t you?” Her palm is
flattened against the tattoo of her name.
I swallow. “I started a law firm, Zoey. For Alex. There’s a whole team
dedicated to his case now. We’re waiting for evidence to the contrary. I need
something good if I’m going to ask a decade-old case to be reopened.”
“Waiting,” she says. “I’m so sick and tired of waiting. I think you
should plant something against them. Like they did with Alex.”
“You mean…foul play?”
“Yes, but I’d rather call it ‘tit for tat’. They set your brother up, and he
doesn’t need to spend his time out there. So find something against them,
and extrapolate it to fit your needs. But that’s just my two cents.”
She’s got a dangerous mind, I’ll give her that.
I’m very careful about the things I do.
She’s the opposite. She acts on a whim, and is reckless with her
decisions. Together, we make one hell of a team.
She looks at the rest of my inked body. They’re just symbols, but
they’re powerful. They give me strength.
After the beasts inside me were let out, I decided to take that rawness
and turn it into something useful.
 I wear it all on my skin now, where they’re a permanent reminder of
who I am and what I’m capable of.
“I think they’re hot,” she says. A corner of her mouth tilts up, and she
peeks up at me from underneath her long lashes.
“Stop,” I growl. “Keep looking at me like that, and I’ll have to fuck you
against the floor once more.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she pouts.
I throw my head back, and look at the stairs above. “You’re
impossible.”
I love my woman.
Her fingers are still on my body. She traces and re-traces every single
one of my tattoos, getting to know them.
“Hey, Zoey?”
“Mmm?” comes her sleepy voice.
“Introduce me to the real you.”
She sinks into my body. I hold her.
I hold her as she reveals to me the ugly parts of her.
I hold her as she tells me all of the things that she never told me.
And I’m still holding her as she falls asleep.

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 18

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 WILLIAM

I stand watch by the door.

We can never be too careful now.
Zoey is asleep, curled up in the armchair next to her sister.
She spilled her heart out to me last night. She told me everything she
had to tell. Right before sleep overtook her, she said that she had something
she wanted to show me.
And that she’d show it to me today.
It’s around seven in the morning now. The whole hospital is peaceful as
the sun washes over it.
I always loved mornings. They’re new beginnings. A fresh chance to be
a little better and do a little better.
There’s something about the sun lighting up this cold world day after
day that makes me think about the power of intention.
Your life goes where you direct it.
I never thought it would happen so easily, but Zoey accepted me.
She thinks that what she did was wrong.
But what I did was worse.
I let her get away. I made her believe that I didn’t want anything to do
with her. And I said hurtful words to her that should have never entered my
brain, let alone left my mouth.
Despite all odds, despite what Elena told me, she took me back.
“William?” Elena’s voice makes my head snap up. She’s awake.
“How’re you doing?” I grin at her.
“Is that a smile I see on your sulky face?” she grins back. “She totally
took you back, didn’t she?”
 Zoey is fast asleep, her dark hair surrounding her angelic face. Her
eyelashes rest on her cheek, and her lips look especially irresistible in her
sleep.
She looks so adorable that I want to scoop her into my arms, and tuck
her into my heart, where nothing can ever touch her.
“Yeah, we made up,” I say. I don’t get into the details of it though.
Elena would murder me.
“I never thought it would be that easy,” she muses.
“Yeah, me neither.” I thought I would have to fight for her love again.
But I guess when two people are meant to be together, it’s easy. Being with
her feels natural.
“Things are really going to change for you. You should be prepared.” A
seriousness overcomes her.
“You wound me, Elena. Do you think I’m not good enough for your
sister?”
“That I made clear from the beginning,” she says. “She’s done some
less than ideal things in the brief history of your relationship, but she really
deserves the best.” Elena proceeds to look me up and down, like I don’t
even come close to her definition of ‘the best’.
I take it seriously though. “I’ll be a better man for her,” I vow. “I’ll love
her harder with every day that passes. We’ve lost too much time already. A
life without her has been hellish, and I don’t want to put either of us through
that ever again.”
Both of us turn towards the armchair, where Zoey’s sleeping. Only she’s
not sleeping anymore.
Her eyes are wide open, and she’s looking right at me.

T he three of us walk out of the hospital together.

Elena’s three-day stay has come to an end. We head to the underground
parking lot, where my car is parked.
I came straight from the firm when I heard the news about Elena’s
accident. And when I heard that Zoey would be coming, there was no way I
would leave the hospital grounds for even a second.
 Zoey’s arm is linked through her sister’s now. I hold Elena’s medical
records in my hand.
My girl turns to me now, and asks, “Why now?”
She hasn’t said a word to me after she overheard the conversation I was
having with Elena. Now she’s asking me why.
“Why didn’t I come after you until you?”
She clamps down on her lower lip and nods. “Yes. That.”
“Alex,” I answer her question with a single word. “I couldn’t leave him
here. So I stayed and focused on building credibility as a lawyer.”
“He’s a great lawyer,” says Elena, turning to Zoey. “You should see him
in action.”
Something akin to pain clouds Zoey’s face. “William, I’m really proud
of all that you’ve done with your life. I missed out on so much. You missed
out on so much too,” she says, almost to herself.
I stop in my tracks.
I can’t let her go down this road again.
“I was waiting for you to come back, Zoey. Because I thought you
needed some time and space. I never gave up on us. I wasn’t going to give
up on something so wonderful without a fight.”
So it looks like we’re having this conversation in an underground
parking lot. I don’t know if the fumes are good for Elena’s health.
She butts in now. “I have to say though, it’s partly my fault.”
Zoey’s eyebrows scrunch together. “Your fault?”
“I was the one who told him that you needed space to process what had
happened. I mean, I didn’t like this guy in the beginning. When he first
showed up at my door, I punched him in the face.”
“Nearly broke my jaw,” I grumble.
Elena is grinning, proud of her accomplishments. “Still not going to
apologize for it. It was because of you that she had to flee Sierran like a
criminal. You don’t know what she had to go through, William. Gah. I
guess I’m still a little mad at you.”
I can’t say I’m surprised.
Elena, my dear, dear friend, never misses an opportunity to tell me
exactly how dumb my life decisions are.
“It was because of him that I found a home,” says Zoey. Her voice is
steady and matter of fact. Like these words have crossed her mind multiple
times before. “I know I don’t have a right to ask you this-“
 “You have the right to ask me my social security number, angel.”
Zoey continues, “When I woke up this morning, I was excited, William.
I was looking forward to the day. You’re always so sweet to me, and…” She
wrings her arms out, unable to continue.
“And what, angel?”
“I guess I just want to know if we’re getting back together because
it’s…convenient.”
I don’t care that her sister is here anymore.
I pull Zoey into my arms, and crush my lips down on hers. She lets out
a soft gasp of surprise, but lets herself sink into me.
I try to show her through this kiss that nothing about her is convenient.
She’s difficult and stubborn and has driven me crazy on more than one
occasion.
But nobody else can ever take her place.
She’s rooted in my heart.
She smiles when we break apart. Her eyes are still closed, savoring the
moment as I savor the beauty of her face.
Elena has walked a little farther away, giving us some privacy. I want to
tell her that my car is in the opposite direction, but that can wait.
The whole world can wait, because everything I need is right here in my
arms.
Zoey’s eyes open now, ablaze with emotion.
“The kiss thief,” she whispers.
“Who?”
“I write about you in my journals,” she says shyly, rubbing my
forearms. “I don’t even have the guts to write your name on paper, so I
named you the Kiss Thief.”
“Oh yeah? What other things has the kiss thief stolen from you?” My
hands snake around her waist to cup her curvy ass.
A yelp makes us both turn.
“Get a room, ugh,” Elena’s walking even faster now in the wrong
direction. “I can’t hear you, but I can still see you.”
Zoey bites the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.
I kiss her again, squeezing her hips, memorizing the shape of her one
more time.
Elena must have seen that because we hear her shout, “That’s my sister,
you pervert. Show some respect.” And then she adds, “You’re lucky that
I’m cool.”
“She calls this being cool?” I whisper to Zoey.
A giggle escapes her lips. “Any other man, and she would’ve hit you
with her purse.”
“Oh, that’s actually scary. Have you seen the size of that thing? Like
what does she even carry in it to make it so heavy?”
“Her AK rifle and highlighter palette, among other things.” Zoey drapes
her arms around my neck.
I love how she feels against me. All soft and pliable and lovely.
I want to hold her like this for life.
“Don’t you ever think that I’m getting back with you because it’s
convenient. I would’ve waited for you for a thousand years, if that’s what it
took. I knew, Zoey. I knew from the moment I first saw you in that crowded
club that if I ever married, it would be to you. That if I ever had children,
they would be yours.”
I can feel the second she withdraws into herself. Our bodies are flush
together, but her heart is miles away.
“What did I say wrong?” I squeeze her waist to bring her back to me.
“Do you really mean that?”
I don’t know which part she’s talking about, but I meant every word I
said. “I do,” I nod firmly.
“Okay,” she whispers. “Okay.”
We walk towards my black Benz.
Elena trails behind us grumpily. She’s not happy with how her day is
going so far.
I’ll never tell her this, but I low-key love that she’s so protective of her
little sister.
I like knowing that Zoey had someone looking out for her when she was
younger. Although it wasn’t always easy for them, the two sisters always
had each other’s backs.
Zoey told me all this last night.
About her parents going missing. About the dark days that followed.
If she had told me this in the beginning, I would’ve understood.
If I were in her place, I would’ve wanted to destroy George Harrington
too. But I would’ve thought it out carefully, so there was no collateral
damage. My girl isn’t like that. She’s impulsive and does things on a whim.
It’s just who she is.
 It’s a shame that I didn’t see that before.
Her fingertips brush against the inside of my biceps. I have her on my
arm. Nothing can go wrong now.
“That’s the one,” I say, nodding towards the car. Zoey’s eyes narrow,
seeing something I missed.
A little blonde lady is leaning against the other side of my car, facing
away from us.
“What is she doing here?” Zoey hisses.
She recognizes the person, and freezes in her tracks. Then, she starts
walking faster, almost at a jog.
The petite blonde woman turns towards us.
Imogen Hathaway.
Zoey’s ex-boss.
Zoey comes to a stop in front of her. Her hands are clenched at her
sides, like she’s trying not to use any physical violence.
“Gigi,” she spits out. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Hello, Zoey,” replies the other woman.
“You came all the way here to say hi?”
I come to a stop beside Zoey, and don’t say a word.
I might have been friends with Genie when we were younger, but she
bullied my woman. And that’s unforgivable.
“Hi, William.” She steps forward to give me a hug, but I sidestep and
wrap my free arm around Zoey. Genie’s hands drop to her sides. “You
remember me, right?” she asks meekly.
“I think he remembers you just fine,” Zoey answers for me. “Especially
after you ruined not just my life, but his.”
“Right.” Gigi visibly deflates.
It makes Zoey’s eyes soften. I watch her with amusement. She doesn’t
make a very good villain. She has too much empathy for that role.
“I guess I owe you both an apology,” Gigi says.
Elena catches up with us. “Who’s this?”
With her nose in the air, Elena looks the stranger up and down.
“My old boss,” says Zoey.
“The skank who tried to blackmail you?” Elena’s eyes double in size.
“Yes, that one,” Zoey answers.
“The moron who’s the reason you split with William, which led to you
taking a vacation in Bali?” Elena is positively fuming now.
 “I never went to Bali,” Zoey rolls her eyes, and looks like she’s going to
say more but stops when she sees the look on her sister’s face.
Elena looks like she’s going to swing that mammoth purse of hers over
Imogen’s head.
I always believed that Genie was harmless. She might have done some
despicable things, but I still think she’s harmless. She’s like a dog who is all
bark and no bite.
“Elena.” I pull my car keys out from my pocket, and hand them to her.
Elena snatches it away from me, and storms off. She sits down in the
driver’s seat, and glares at Genie.
To her credit, Genie doesn’t look ruffled in the slightest.
I’ve known her since she was a kid.
She’s grown a thick skin over the years. Endless bullying does that to
you. She’s now gotten to a place where nothing bothers her anymore. I’m
actually kind of proud of her.
But I’m still wary. “What do you want, Imogen?”
“Forgiveness,” she answers, without missing a beat. “I’ve done some
things I’m not proud of, and I want to apologize.”
“I think it’s a little too late for that,” Zoey says.
Genie turns to her. “Zoey, did you ever wonder why I took in a high
school graduate with zero experience?” Imogen doesn’t wait for a response.
“It was because I saw myself in you. I saw your desperation, and I knew
you’d do whatever it takes to excel in your job. I always had a soft spot for
you.”
Zoey stares at her ex-boss for a moment, and then says in a deadly
voice, “I don’t know what you’re trying to get at, but I think you should
leave.”
“I’m sorry for what I made you do, Zoey. I really am. I don’t know if
William has told you about our past, but-“
“William doesn’t hide anything from me.”
“Ah, but you’re still hiding things from him aren’t you,” she says,
shooting a glance at me. “I followed you from the airport, Zoey. I saw.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed or what?” Zoey is visibly distressed,
and I don’t think this is the best way to approach this.
“Look, Genie, now is not the best time to do this.” I hold Zoey’s lower
back, and guide her towards the passenger seat.
“I know you killed him,” she says.
 I freeze. How the hell does she know about the trio?
“Is that a threat?”
If so, I underestimated her.
“No,” she says. “No, it’s not a threat. I’m finally going to therapy,
William. It’s something I should’ve done a long time ago, but I didn’t want
to accept that there was anything wrong with me. I mean, I’m a highly
functioning individual with a great career and a stellar future in front of me.
I didn’t want to accept that there were things from my past that were still
affecting me.”
“Get to the point,” I hiss.
“My therapist said that my relationship with you and Alex was a typical
example of transference. You know my story, William. Your parents died.
Mine decided that they just didn’t want me anymore. So I tried to transfer
the relationship I had with my parents to Alex and you. On a subconscious
level. Like parts of that relationship. And I got upset when the whole diary
incident happened, and you two didn’t want to hang out with me anymore.
The grudge stuck with me. That’s why I wanted to hurt you back when I
found out that you were the lost Princes.”
I run my hand through my hair. “Look, all of that’s in the past. I forgive
you, okay? Can we do this some other time?”
I really don’t like the idea of the Winters girls both getting mad at me.
“No, you don’t. I want to make it up to you. What I did, it can’t be
undone, but I want to make you forget all about it.”
I really don’t like where this is going. “And how do you suggest we do
that?” I ask carefully.
“I want to help free Alex. I want to play a part in it. I have power and I
know people, William.” She looks up at me with wide eyes. I see in her the
girl she used to be. The one who quoted Harry Potter and shared her
desserts.
Elena starts the engine, and honks, breaking the growing sympathy I
was beginning to have for Genie.
“Here, at least take this.” Genie holds out her business card. “Call me if
you change your mind.”
Another honk. Both of us turn to glare at Elena.
I snatch the business card away from her outstretched hand and pocket
it. “I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.”
OceanofPDF.com
 19

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 WILLIAM

“W ell? What did she want?” Elena looks at me through the

rear-view mirror.
I meet Elena’s eyes. She took the wheel, and that’s
making me all nervous. Especially with Zoey in the front seat.
“Eyes on the road, Elena. Don’t get us killed now. Zoey and I
literally just got back together.”
She rolls her eyes, but focuses on the road once again. We’re heading
towards the inner city.
“So?” Her eyes flick to me again, and then back towards the road before
I say something about it.
Zoey looks back at me, and then turns to her sister. “She said that she
wanted to apologize and make amends for what she’s done.”
“Is that it?” Elena’s voice is breezy. Too breezy.
“Is there something specific you want to ask us?” I raise my eyebrows.
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I just heard your brother’s name being
mentioned.”
“She might have said something about him, yes,” I tease.
It’s no secret.
Zoey knows.
I know.
Elena knows that we know.
And yet, she can never bring herself to talk about him. Never once did
she admit that she’s in love with Alex.
She’s the psychiatrist my brother fell for.
 But neither of them ever acknowledge it. I don’t know what happened
between them, but the love is still there.
Every time I bring him up in conversations, she’s all ears. But she never
asked about him before.
Until now, that is.
She yanks the steering wheel to the left, and slams the breaks. The car
comes to a stop, and Elena slumps forward in her seat.
Her forehead comes to rest on the steering wheel, and she moves her
head from side to side, as if she’s saying ‘no’ to something.
Zoey and I exchange a look.
Elena straightens up. The topknot she usually wears that’s perfectly
imperfect is now perfectly lopsided.
“We’re going to the beach,” she announces.
I shake my head. “The doctor warned you to stay away from direct
sunlight for at least-“
“Goddamnit, William, you don’t have to tell me how to live my life. If I
want to go to the beach, I’m going to the fucking beach. And for the record,
I’m a doctor too.”
I remain quiet. I’m used to her outbursts. But I don’t want her to be
feeling volatile and driving at the same time.
All I care about right now is Zoey.
I swear to God, if anything were to happen to her, I don’t know what I’d
do.
Elena takes a deep breath in, and sighs it out. “I’m sorry. That was
uncalled for. I just really want to go to the beach.”
Zoey squeezes her sister’s hand. “Then we’re going to the beach.”
A few minutes later, we’re pulling up at the parking lot in front of the
beach.
We leave our shoes in the car, and walk in the golden sun-kissed sand
that leads to the water.
The clouds above are shaped like puffy marshmallows.
There’s a slight breeze that intensifies as we get closer to the water.
Wooden sunbeds with white linen umbrellas dot the landscape.
It’s a weekday, so it’s not as crowded as it usually is, but there’s still
some activity. There are tattoo studios, bars, and stalls selling fresh fruit.
Most of the people here are either tanning or reading a book.
“I feel safe here,” admits Elena.
 I nod. The warm sunshine and fresh air is refreshing. “Is that why you
wanted to come here?”
There’s a bounce to her step now as she walks. “Yeah, I just wanted to
feel normal for a little while.”
I look behind me. The girls don’t know it, but there’s a whole security
team looking out for any possible signs of danger. Anyone who even looks
our way will be scrutinized.
“What are you searching for?” Zoey asks.
I turn to her. And I’m struck speechless by her beauty.
The sun on her skin makes her look like she’s glowing from within. Her
perfect pink lips are beckoning me to come take a bite.
If we weren’t here with her sister, I’d be giving in to her charm by now.
Elena comes to a stop. “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? My
sister is a person. Stop looking at her like she’s a juicy watermelon.”
“I’m going to marry her, Elena,” I smile at her. Even when it’s directed
at me, her protectiveness warms me.
I turn to Zoey, and plant a chaste kiss on her parted lips. The kiss
doesn’t remain chaste for long. I swipe my tongue past her lips, and crush
her soft curves against my body.
It’s brief, but it’s a promise.
That there will be more to come tonight.
Elena resumed the trek to the ocean. I lace my fingers through Zoey’s,
and we follow behind her.
I stop at a smoothie stall. It’s a local spot that sells coconut smoothies.
It’s a simple drink made of coconut water, coconut-flavored ice cream,
and a splash of salt. I buy one for each of us.
Elena needs to keep her energy levels up. I’m still worried about her.
She might seem fine right now, but I’ve seen the state of the car she was
driving. It was totally wrecked. It’s actually a miracle that she got out of it
unscathed.
The hospital only kept her for three days, but I’m going to keep my eye
on her for at least a month.
“She’s always so put together and in control. It’s hard for me to see her
like this,” Zoey says. “Does Alex ever talk about her?”
I think about my visits to Achilles Prison over the past year. He seemed
to be at an all-time low. Seeing him like that compelled me to work even
harder.
 I put in over eighty hours every week into building a law firm. It
specializes in criminal defense, and has clients all over the world.
But the only client I’m truly concerned about is Alex.
“Remember when I told you that he was in love with his psychiatrist?” I
ask.
Zoey nods. “I knew then that he was speaking about Elena. It was easy
to put two and two together. She just got posted in Achilles back then.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, she admitted once that she punched me that one time
because I looked like Alex. She has no memory of telling me this if you ask
her now though.”
“That sounds like her, alright,” smiles Zoey.
I look at my girl. She doesn’t know that all of her furniture and luggage
from Australia is being shipped back here as we speak. I don’t plan on ever
letting her go again.
We sit down next to Elena. I pass her the tall paper cup. “Here, we got
you a drink,” I say.
“Thanks, Will.” Elena takes a long slug, and scrunches up her whole
face.
“Ouch,” says Zoey, taking a tiny sip of her own drink.
“Brain freeze?” I wince.
Elena nods, and waits it out. After it passes, she says, “It’s finally
summer.”
We stare out at the ocean meditatively for a while. The endless waves,
the blue ripples against the white sky, the golden sand stuck to our legs.
Elena had a point.
It is comforting.
I absent-mindedly rub the back of Zoey’s hand.
We spend the day just chilling, talking about nothing in particular and
taking walks along the oceanfront.
By the time afternoon rolls around, I buy an umbrella and some
sunscreen for Elena. She just got discharged from the hospital, for fuck’s
sake. I don’t want to drive her all the way back there by the end of the day.
“You know, once in a while, you’re actually a decent human being,” she
says, smearing the sunscreen on her forehead and arms.
I pull out a brown paper bag from behind me, and hand it to her. It holds
our lunch of burgers and potato wedges.
 “I change my mind,” she says quickly, scanning the contents. “You’re
the bestest.”
Elena takes a nap under her umbrella after lunch.
The security personnel are watching over her, keeping her safe.
Although I don’t think Scar and Robot will try to attack in broad daylight.
No, they’ve always been too careful with the shit they do.
If they tried to do something evil, they would either try to make it look
like an accident or pin it on someone else.
But just in case, I have my people spread out all over the beach.
Zoey and I sneak away to find a secluded corner where we can make
out. It’s under the shade of a palm tree.
As the day passes, I find that there’s a growing tension within her. She
kisses me back differently when she’s not really feeling it.
The tension in her only urges me to kiss her harder.
“Will,” she moans my name now. “Somebody could see us.”
Her back is to a tree, and I’m grinding into her. All of our clothes are
still on, and there’s absolutely nobody around us.
Behind me, lies the vast ocean, and behind her, there’s an abandoned
store. By the surfboards lined up along it’s front, I’m guessing that it used
to be a surfboard rental.
In any case, nobody will be disturbing us here.
“You know you drive me crazy when you moan my name, baby,” I say
against her lips. My hands are underneath her shirt, dangerously high on her
waist.
Heat flares in all the spots where our bodies touch.
“Oh my God,” she cries, as I drag her lower lip between my teeth and
bite her like the juicy watermelon she is.
“Not God,” I grunt, baring my teeth against her jaw. “Say it. Say my
name.”
She makes those bedroom eyes at me, but she doesn’t say it.
“Say it,” I hiss.
“But it turns you on even more,” she protests half-heartedly.
My hands travel higher and higher, until I’m holding the mounds of her
breasts. I massage them roughly, and push her bra aside to roll her nipples
between my fingers. “Who do you belong to, Zoey?”
“You. I belong to you.”
 I pinch both of her nipples at once. It makes her shoot off the tree, and
arch her body against mine.
“You’re a dirty little slut for me, isn’t that right? You’re so horny for my
big cock that you can’t even wait until we get home.”
“Will.”
My girl looks like she’s on the verge of an orgasm, but I won’t let her
come unless it’s on my mouth, my fingers, or my cock.
I dip lower to kiss down her neck, and her breasts. I suck on her nipples
for only a moment. I don’t want anyone to see any part of her, even by
accident.
“What’s wrong?” she taunts, arching her back so that her hard pink
nipples are gleaming up at me. “You don’t want anyone to see my tits?”
Wrong thing to say to the wrong man.
“You’re mine,” I growl. “Your tits. Your ass. Your pussy. Your lips.
Everything is mine. Nobody gets to even look at what’s mine. And I swear
to God, if you try to run away from me one more time, I’ll burn down cities
to find you.”
Her lips are on mine. She’s the one soothing me now. All of her tension
is forgotten as she kisses me deeply and lets herself sink into my body.
“I’m yours, Will. I’m yours,” she reassures me.
Her tits feel so soft when they’re crushed against me.
I bounce her on my cock. It makes her all breathy, the way she gets
when she’s horny. I pump my hips into her again, rocking her on my cock.
My fingers dip below the waistband of her jeans. I travel lower, all the
way down to no man’s land.
No man’s land except for mine.
From her big brown eyes to her puffy pink cunt, she’s all mine.
My hands barely fit inside her pants. It’s such a tight fit. Just like her
pussy on me.
“Now let me check if my cum from last night is still covering your
pussy.” I kiss her throat, leaving a hickey on her delicate neck. “If I don’t
find any, we’ll know it’s time for a refill.”
“Will, I swear to God, if you keep talking like this-“ she trails off.
“Then what, angel?” I cup her mound, and squeeze it in my hands. Her
honey drips into my waiting palms, eager to take my cock.
“You’re going to make me come. In public.”
 “I already have my hands touching your privates,” I say. “Might as well
take it all the way.”
I massage her clit with the rough pad of my thumb.
Her pretty mouth pops open, and her breasts shudder as she writhes on
my hands.
“Will,” she whispers my name, like we’re doing something we’re not
supposed to be doing in the dark. “Will, you’re going to make me come.”
“Do you want me to stop?” I ask her.
Her hips buck towards me, grinding against my cock. She lets out a
silent cry of pleasure as the thick shaft of my cock touches her pussy.
“That’s what I thought,” I say. “Now let’s see how many fingers I can fit
inside you without stretching you out too much.”
I start with my index finger. It’s already a snug fit, but it slides it easily.
I add my middle finger too. I don’t think she can take much more than that
comfortably.
“It’s a wonder this little pussy swallowed my cock,” I muse out loud.
Her eyes open to meet mine. In the sunlight, I can see the streaks of
gold in them. I’m lost. I’m lost in the most beautiful way.
That’s when she says, “That’s because my little pussy was made for
you.”
“That’s right, angel. That’s right.”
I fuck her pussy with my two fingers, driving them in and out of her
tight hole mercilessly. She grips both of my arms for support right as she
shatters.
I pull my hand out of her.
She watches with a shy gaze as I lick my fingers clean, one by one.
When I make sure that her shirt looks neat, and her hair doesn’t look
like she’s been finger-fucked against a tree, I take her back.
Elena’s still napping with a fashion magazine covering her face. She
hasn’t moved an inch from where we left her.
We spent over five hours at the beach now. We should get going, but
there’s just one little thing. “I hate to admit this, but I’m actually terrified of
waking her up when she’s sleeping.”
Zoey laughs. “I don’t blame you. Waking up my sister is an art form. If
you do it the wrong way, she’ll bite your head off.”
“Learned it the hard way,” I shudder. “There was this one time I called
her too early in the morning. She screamed into the phone for a full minute
when she learned that I called to see if she wanted to try this new Japanese
place. I don’t know why she doesn’t just switch her phone off.”
“She’s a little rough around the edges, but she cares about people,”
Zoey answers. “She doesn’t switch her phone off because she wants to be
there for people in case of emergencies.”
I look at my sleeping friend. “Yeah, underneath all crazy, there’s a good
person.”
“That’s what makes her so good as a psychiatrist. She’s a natural at
getting to know people and really talking to them.”
I nod in agreement. “So what are we going to do? Have a sleepover at
the beach?” Because I know that Elena can sleep for hours at a stretch.
“Lucky for you, I’ve perfected the art of waking up monsters.”
We approach her like we’re walking towards a feral zoo animal. I let
Zoey take the lead. She kneels down by Elena’s side, and whispers
something over her sister’s ear.
My heart squeezes as I see this gentle and caring side of Zoey.
She’ll truly make a great mother to my children. Everything in me
expands and contracts at once. I’m going to have a family with this
magnificent woman.
Elena awakens, and smiles at us.
Okay. Wow.
I stare at my friend like I’m waiting for her to become unhinged any
second now. Both of the sisters are looking at me now. I clear my throat.
“Do you want to have some ice cream before we leave?”
Zoey rolls her eyes, but Elena nods enthusiastically.

I takethe wheel this time.

We pass by Walnut Street, where Zoey’s hotel was back then.
So much time had passed, but when we’re together, it feels like we’re
picking up right where we left off.
Both of us stare at the hotel as it passes by.
I was here to pick her up for that date. The one where we made love the
whole way to the restaurant.
I grip Zoey’s hand tighter.
 A weird feeling has settled in my stomach. Like everything is not going
to be perfect for long.
I’ve always suffered from this feeling.
Whenever something good happens in my life, I keep waiting for it to
become a disaster.
Maybe it’s because of the patterns I’ve observed in my life. My parent’s
accident and adult life with my brother in particular.
But I can’t keep looking back at the past, and still expect to move
forward.
My past makes me who I am today, but the person I will be in the future
is in my hands.
I can mold the person I’ll become.
I’ve done all I could for Alex. I’ve created the law firm, and I have
people working on the case now. It’s only a matter of time before we find a
loophole in his case.
And now, it’s time for me to become a better man. Zoey needs a man
who doesn’t keep waiting for things to screw up.
Just because she’s nervous in her seat doesn’t mean that anything’s
wrong.
My phone GPS makes an announcement that I should take the next left.
Elena put the address in. We’re going towards a quiet, wealthy
neighborhood that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s not even where Elena lives.
She’s in the back seat now, glaring at the spot where Zoey’s hands and
mine are intertwined.
Instead of taking the left, I take a U-turn.
“You were supposed to take a left, dumbass,” Elena comments.
“Thank you for your input,” I chuckle, pulling up at the gas station. My
gas tank needs to be refilled.
Elena jumps out to stretch her legs the second I stop the car. Zoey sits
next to me quietly, assaulting her lower lip with her teeth.
“Baby, you’re scaring me,” I say honestly. “What’s on your mind?”
She sighs slowly, and turns to me. “Remember when I said that I was
going to show you something?”
I nod cautiously.
“You’ll be seeing it when we get there,” she says vaguely, nodding
towards my phone.
Both of us stare at Google Maps.
2 minutes, it says at the bottom in green.

OceanofPDF.com
 20

OceanofPDF.com
 WILLIAM

“I s that a hickey?”
“No,” Zoey tries to cover her neck with her hair, but her
sister is faster. She examines it in broad daylight and purses
her lips.
She groans, and turns to me. “Seriously?”
I shrug.
“At the beach?”
I nod solemnly.
“Unbelievable.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m going to stop
hanging out with you two if you keep this up.”
She stomps towards the ivy-covered building like it’s hers. I take in the
manicured gardens and semi-circular driveway. This place definitely
belongs to someone rich.
I take Zoey’s hand. It’s clammy and a little shaky.
“What are you so worried about, angel?” I ask.
She shakes her head, and shrugs nonchalantly. I don’t miss the slight
tremble of her chin.
I cup her jaw, and make her meet my eyes.
We’ve entered a whole new phase of our relationship now. We’ve been
brought even closer together because of all the shit that we went through. It
has cemented and solidified our relationship.
Our obstacles have only acted to nurture and water our bond. Now it’s
in full bloom.
“You can tell me whatever it is that’s on your mind.”
“What will it take for you to give up on me?” she whispers.
 It makes me pause. I truly consider it, because she’s truly anxious about
something.
“Absolutely nothing,” I reply, assuring her. “I don’t know what you
have hidden in there, but absolutely nothing can come in between us.
Nothing means anything without you, Zoey. You’re my whole world. You
know that, right?”
Her whole body is cold to the touch. I rub my hands over her arms, and
then envelop her in a hug.
“Okay?” I ask.
“Okay,” she replies. And then angles her head down and kisses my
thumb, wetting it a little.
The atmosphere between us shifts once more. It’s like our bodies are
trying to make up for all the lost time.
“Let’s get inside before I take you on a stranger’s driveway,” I say,
tucking her into my arm.
She fits perfectly against me.
She always has.
We walk towards the sprawling house. Zoey looks at our surroundings
in awe.
I try to see it through her eyes.
There’s a tennis court to the right, and behind it lies a farm with orange
trees. I guess it’s impressive.
I’m already envisioning our children growing up in a place like this,
having lots of open space to play and run around in. Maybe even a family
dog or two.
“Can you see yourself living in a place like this, Zoey?”
She looks at me with soft eyes. “It reminds me of the house I grew up
in,” she says. “I mean, it was really nothing similar. It was much, much
smaller, but something about this place reminds me of home.”
“It’s probably the red maple trees to that corner,” I say, I say nodding
towards the other side of the house.
This makes her stop in her tracks. “I never told you about the giant red
maple tree next to my house.”
“You didn’t?”
She shakes her head, and clamps down on her lip. “It was you, wasn’t
it?”
 I carefully nod. I know the house meant a lot to her, so I wanted to give
it to her.
Her parents rented the house that she grew up in. I knew that Zoey was
saving up to buy it when she found out that it was on the market. So I
bought it for her.
“William, you didn’t have to do that,” she says.
“I wanted to,” I say. “I’m a rich man, Zoey. I’m glad that I can spend
my money on something that brings a smile to your face.”
She looks bewildered, like all of this is still too good to be true. “I was
heartbroken when I heard. Does Elena not know about it as well?”
I shake my head. “It’s been vacant for over five years, so it was in bad
condition. I wanted to get it renovated before I showed it to you.”
Her arms bind themselves around my neck. Her face is pressed up
against my chest as she gives me a big hug.
I squeeze her back, and kiss the top of her head. The scent of the ocean
still lingers to her. Rock salt and lotus blossoms.
“Come on,” she says, taking my hand again, leading me up the stairs
that lead to the double door entrance.
A butler is waiting for us.
He’s a thin man with a grey beard and white gloves on his long fingers.
“Mrs. Welch is waiting for you in the library,” he announces. Without
waiting for a response, he turns on his heel and leads us.
I look questioningly at Zoey.
Stepping into this house feels like I’m traveling back in time or
something.
She smiles back at me reassuringly, but her hand is clammy again.
We pass through wide halls with tasteful paintings hung on the walls.
Our feet sink into plush carpet.
I lean towards Zoey, and whisper, “Is your sister friends with the Queen
or something?”
Her eyes meet mine. She’s so close that I can see her thick eyelashes.
“No, she’s not friends with the Queen. You’re the only royal we know.”
I smirk, and look away from her.
That’s another area of my life I haven’t fully explored yet.
When I decided to start the law firm and make something of myself, a
lot of things were put on the back burner. Putting all of my energy into one
thing was the only way.
 The butler in front of us comes to a stop. The tall library doors are
pushed open.
Zoey takes a sharp breath in.
Books. They’re everywhere.
The spacious library is shaped like a hexagon. Six floor-to-ceiling
windows overlook the garden outside.
Reading nooks are spread out along the periphery. A small fireplace is
positioned at the seating area closest to us.
A circular rug is positioned in front of the fire, and playing on that rug is
a small baby boy.
A happy child with rosy cheeks and chubby arms. In front of him, lie
cubes with alphabets and numbers on them. He’s trying to stack them, and
keeps stopping to giggle like nothing could be more fascinating than this.
I find myself smiling at him.
He looks up then, and looks straight at me. His chubby fist pops into his
mouth, and he chews on it for a few seconds.
He’s being watched by Elena and her companion, an older woman.
“I’ll give you some privacy,” says the woman. She looks to be in her
early sixties, and has a head of smooth silver hair. On her way out, she casts
a weird glance back at me.
“That’s Dr. Welch. She’s my mentor and my friend,” says Elena, after
the doors close.
“And this little guy?” I turn to the baby, who’s still staring up at me like
I’m Santa Claus with a bag full of presents.
His eyes are familiar. A startling shade of green.
“This is Jasper,” Zoey says, picking the child up into her arms.
Immediately, the kid nuzzles his face down her breast.
Elena watches this intently, but I’m looking at Zoey. She’s holding the
child with such tenderness and warmth.
The child twists in her hold to look at me. Zoey swallows. “He’s usually
only like this with dogs,” she says.
“Thank you, I guess?” I shoot Elena a puzzled look.
She groans, and plops down on a wingback chair dramatically. But
otherwise, she doesn’t say anything.
Jasper is still watching me with his big moon eyes.
I wave my hand at him. “Hi, Jasper.”
 With speed impressive for an infant, he reaches out and grabs hold of
my finger.
Zoey’s whole body is shaking now. She was nervous the entire way
here, and now, with this child in her arms, she looks like she’s on the verge
of a panic attack.
The kid lets go of my hand, and starts to cry.
Not cute little sobs either. It’s the wail of a banshee. I’m surprised
something so small can make so much noise.
I take the kid from Zoey, and wrap an arm around her too. I don’t know
why, but I feel like I’m in charge of making sure both of them are soothed.
Jasper immediately stops crying.
His hands are on my chin stubble. He’s exploring it like my facial hair is
the world’s eighth wonder. As he plays with it, he keeps drawing his soft
hands back as it scrapes him. It must tickle him too, because he smiles
every time he touches it.
“William?” Zoey’s voice is barely a whisper.
“Yeah, angel?” I pry my eyes away from the chubby kiddo.
“Jasper is my son.”
I break these words down in my head, and reconstruct them again. Did
she just say that Jasper is her son?
I heard her loud and clear, but still, I ask dumbly, “He’s your son?”
A laugh bubbles from the base of my throat at the absurdity of this
situation. I let it come out.
I’m laughing, but the thoughts in my mind are anything but funny.
How can I not know that the girl I love has a son?
Elena never said anything about a baby. I turn to her now, still laughing
uncontrollably. “You never thought to tell me this?”
She sits up straight in her seat, and looks between the two of us. “It
wasn’t my secret to tell,” she says.
All that sassiness she had earlier today is gone now. Now, she looks at
me like she would look at one of her patients. With pity and compassion.
The baby is still playing with my face.
His world hasn’t changed at all. I really look at him for the first time.
His full rosebud lips and big eyes that are so like his mother’s.
But the shade of his irises. They looked familiar for a reason.
“He’s mine,” I say.
Zoey bites down on her lower lip, and nods slightly.
 I hand the baby back to her, and head out of the library without another
word.
My name is called, but I don’t look back.
Not even once.

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 WILLIAM

I don’t stop walking.

I don’t stop processing.
The more I think about it, the angrier I get.
Not at her. Never at her. No, this fury is directed at myself.
I’ve been so thick-headed. All this time, I thought I was making the
right decisions, but I was just making both of us suffer because of my
inaction.
Deciding to wait for her to come back is my worst decision yet.
I should have pursued her, fallen at her feet, and done whatever it took
to have her in my life.
Because righteous or not, she’s my angel.
She’ll always be my angel. My saving grace. Even back when I felt a
little bitter towards what she was trying to do.
Instead, I decided to put my brother first. Which isn’t a bad thing at all,
but what I should have done is put them both first.
There’s no comparing the life-long bond between my brother to the
soul-deep connection I felt with Zoey.
These are two different things. They just couldn’t be compared.
So by choosing Alex, I let Zoey down.
I got my angel pregnant, and I didn’t even know it.
We had risky sex, but I always thought that if I was ever going to start a
family, it would be with her.
And I could count on my fingers the number of times we made love, so
the probability of her getting pregnant was slim.
Or so I thought.
 I knocked her up, and she had to take care of the baby all by herself.
She had to take care of herself all by herself as she went through every step
of being a new mom.
If I had known, I would’ve been by her side in a heartbeat.
This must be why Elena left to go to a “three-month long medical
conference” a few months after Zoey left. She went to take care of her sister
and her nephew.
But that was my job.
I can see the Jasper’s big eyes now.
They’re seared behind my eyelids, just like the tears flowing from
Zoey’s eyes right before I left.
I’m letting down all the people in my life.
One by one.
First, it was Alex. Then, Zoey.
And now it’s a baby who’s probably only six months old if my math is
correct.
There’s also the Harrington family.
The excitement on Victoria Harrington’s face when she saw me for the
first time. She wanted to get to know her lost brother, but instead, I showed
her a monster.
I’m a monster.
I’m destroying everybody’s lives, including my own.
My steps come to a halt. I can’t keep walking anymore. My limbs are
too heavy and my heart feels like it’s made of lead.
Towards my left is what looks like a dive bar.
I don’t normally drink. I don’t normally let loose, but maybe I should.
A man like me can’t be forgiven.
Zoey must have been thinking about me every day. She was probably
waiting for me to come back to her and take care of her.
Only a weak man waits for things to happen.
And I’m a weak man.
I enter the bar. The floors are sticky, but the 80s music is pretty good.
Most of the people inside are gathered around a flat-screen TV,
watching a sports game.
I order myself some whiskey.
“Keep it coming,” I tell the bartender. A heaviness is taking root inside
me. It's dragging me down, and it’s making me sink.
 I want to sink. I want to hide away from the world for a little while.
Mostly, I just want to hide from myself.
Even now, I know that I should be with her. My place is next to Zoey.
But instead, I’m at a dive bar all by myself.
I pop some peanuts into my mouth as I drink and judge myself. I’m a
father now. But I’ve never been a Dad to my child.
My first few drinks are spent with me just staring at my glass. I try not
to think about anything in particular, but that just makes it worse.
It makes me think about everything at once.
All of my mistakes.
All of my wrong-doings.
All of my inadequacies.
It all hits me at once. These thoughts swirl around and around in my
head, more intense than ever. I try chasing it away with whiskey, but that
doesn’t seem to work.
What can I do now to make it better?
Is this offense ever forgivable?
Maybe not.
But still, I vow to myself that I’ll do my best from this point onward.
That I’ll make Zoey and my child my biggest priority. Yes, I’ve screwed up
by not hunting after the woman I love, but it’s not too late for me.
She let me kiss her today. She even kissed me back.
That’s proof that I can fix this.
I want a second chance with Zoey. If she truly lets me back into her life,
I will worship the ground that she walks on. She’ll sleep in a bed of roses
every night, and wear the finest clothes. I’ll strive to love her more with
every day that passes.
An emotion bubbles from within. A happy emotion.
This possibility of having a second chance with her is so refreshing.
I look up from my glass in triumph, and notice an older man drinking
solo across from me. Nothing about him seems approachable, but I
approach him anyway. I grab my drink, and take a seat on the stool next to
him.
“What do you want?” he growls. His face is weathered, and his eyes
look like they’ve been through it all.
“Wisdom, Sir,” I say.
 “Didn’t you just get here?” he asks, raising his eyebrows pointedly at
my drink.
“You look like the kind of man who has been through things in life, and
survived,” I say. “I need your help.”

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 ZOEY

“A re you sure you want to stay up?” Elena asks, shutting the lid
of her laptop, and stretching her arms.
It’s after one in the morning. I put Jasper to sleep, and now
I’m waiting for my baby daddy to come back home.
I flex my fingers around my steaming mug of chamomile tea. Drinking
hot tea always manages to calm my nerves and release any stress that I’ve
been carrying around.
I look at Elena, and nod. “He’ll come back. I’m sure of it.”
“Of course he will. Where else is he gonna go when he has everything
he needs right at home. I’m saying that he might stay out for the night. He’s
not the man you used to know, Zoey. He’s a good guy, but he’s a little bit
unhinged at the same time. He’s dangerous.” Her eyes have a faraway look
to them. I’m familiar with that look. It’s one of longing and desire and lost
love.
She’s thinking about a love of her own.
“Are we talking about the same person?” I say gently.
She blinks back to reality. “Um. Yeah. William. Who else?”
“Tell me about you and Alex,” I ask softly. She never opened up about
this, and I never asked her to.
But now, at this time of the night, it only seems appropriate that we
share secrets and talk about things that we never talked about before.
I pour her a cup of tea. She takes tiny little sips of the hot brew, and I
wait for her to open up.
“You know what, Zoey? Fuck boys. We don’t need boys.”
 I purse my lips and stay quiet. My sister fell in love with someone she
shouldn’t have. She might have been indifferent about love before, but now
she’s become wary of it.
She sighs. “Girls. We love too hard.”
“If it’s the right man, he loves you back even harder,” I say, thinking
about William.
I’ve been a fool to not reach out to him sooner. I had all this shame and
guilt, but all that did was waste precious time. We could have been together
all this while if I was a little bit braver.
“Laney?” I turn my attention back to my sister.
“Yeah?”
“Did you love him?”
“I was posted at Achilles Prison for a month. I took it on because I
wanted to have more experience. I thought it would be interesting to look
after the mental health of criminals. Little did I know that it would change
the course of my life forever. He was there. I think I fell for him the very
first time I saw him. And you know what the scariest part about all this is?”
“What?” I whisper.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen his face. But somehow, my feelings
for him haven’t been diluted. Not one bit. I think I’m still in love with him,
Zoey.” She quickly picks up her cup of tea, and buries her head in it.
I reach out to squeeze her shoulder. I know what that feels like. The
agony of heartbreak.
“I told him I was married just so he’d get off my back,” she laughs,
even though there are tears in her eyes. “He said that he wanted to have a
little chat with my husband. God. I still miss him. A whole fucking year
goes by, and I still see his face on strangers on the street.”
“Does William remind you of him?” I ask. It’s gross to think about it,
but we fell for two men who look exactly the same.
“Physically, Alex looks exactly like Will, but they’re two different men.
Alex has this darkness inside him. You can see it when you look into his
eyes. He’s hurting, Zoey. And I just wanted to make him feel better.”
“What made you quit halfway?” I ask. She was supposed to be there for
a month, but she left halfway.
“We had a fight,” she says quietly. “And I never had the guts to go back
there even after my anger had cooled down.”
“And there was no way for him to come to you,” I say.
 “Yeah.” She wraps her arms around herself. “It’s too late now anyway.
He hates me.”
“Did he say so himself?”
She looks at me with her clear blue eyes. Eyes that showcase every
emotion that she’s going through. Right now, I see turmoil in them. “He
didn’t have to say it.”
I don’t say anything. I’m the last person on Earth who should be doling
out relationship advice.
The way William and I came together is beyond fortunate.
He was able to forgive me and I was able to forgive myself. I don’t
know what the future holds for us, but God willing, it’ll be a good one.
I hope my sister and Alex will have a happy ending too. Both of them
deserve one.
Having no words to console her, I give her a hug instead.
She buries her head in my shoulder, sobbing as I hold her firmly. “I
truly missed having you around. If my car accident is what it took for you
to come back to me, I’m glad of it.”
“You’re not allowed to say things like that,” I say, my voice breaking a
little. “Every time you do, it makes me feel really guilty. Do you think it
was a picnic for me to be away from you? It was hard, Laney. I struggled.”
“You have me now. And your baby daddy too. We’re not letting you go
this time.”
I lift the curtain next to the nearest window, and peek outside.
“Are they still there?” she asks. Her eyes are still shimmery, and she
wipes them with the back of her hand.
A few minutes after William left, three SUVs pulled up outside the
house. A whole group of armed men in camouflage pants and black t-shirts
stepped out, and they’ve been here ever since.
My guess is that William sent them over to watch over Elena and me.
After all, our lives are still in danger. And the men who’re after us don’t
care much about human lives.
I drop the curtain. “Yeah, they’re still here. Is your friend okay with
having these men on her property?”
“Mrs. Welch has seen crazier men than William. She’s retired now, but
she used to have her own psychiatric hospital. So she has plenty of
experience with crazy.”
“William’s not crazy,” I say with a smile.
 I kinda like that he’s this possessive alpha man when it comes to me. It
makes me want to get on my knees and worship him.
“Oh yes he is,” says Elena. “I don’t think I’ve told you about how often
he used to come to my apartment. Every single time, he pretended to be
there to see me, but I knew better. All he really wanted was updates on
you.”
“He makes me so happy, Laney,” I say. “Do you think he’ll come to
love Jasper the same way too?”
She gives me a side hug, and squeals. “Of course. Have you met your
little boy? He wins over people’s hearts like that.” She snaps her fingers to
show me how fast.
“You’re right,” I smile. It feels too good to be true though, but I know
my sister is right.
“Of course I’m right,” she says. “Mrs. Welch told me that she’s planning
on keeping my nephew with her forever.”
Thinking about my baby makes me smile at any time of the day. “That
was really nice of her. To take care of him on such short notice.”
“She loves children,” Elena shrugs.
“She’s really good with him,” I say.
Jasper wouldn’t stop crying the whole flight ride here to Sierran.
I knew I couldn’t take him to a hospital environment, so I was relieved
when one of Elena’s friends offered to take care of him. She picked us up
from the airport, and Jasper really got along with her.
I was constantly video calling him, but he didn’t even look like he
missed me. I try not to dwell on that particular fact too much because it
makes me emotional.
My baby didn’t miss me.
But yeah, I’m glad someone could take care of him for three whole
days.
There’s a knock on the bedroom door now.
Elena goes to open it, and finds the butler there. He says something
about a drunk man at the front door.
“I think that’s for you,” says Elena, smiling back at me.
My heart starts to pound.
It always does when he’s in proximity. In a blur of adrenaline, I float
towards the house entrance.
A silhouette of a man greets me.
 He’s on his knees, with the moonlight outlining his broad back. He
holds up a bouquet. Wild lilies that are a deep purple in the middle and
white at the edges.
“I’m so sorry,” he rasps. “Do you have it in you to forgive me?”
I take the flowers from his outstretched hands, and bring them to my
nose. They smell heavenly.
I fall to my knees, so that I’m looking up at him. His arms wrap around
my waist, and tug on me until I’m crushed against his body.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” I say, touching his cheek. I know it’s
impossible, but he looks like he’s aged in the last few hours he was away.
There’s a heaviness about him now.
“You truly mean that?” he asks. I smell the sweet alcohol on his breath
and the salty sweat on his skin.
I grip the hair at the back of his neck, and nod. “Why would you even
think that, William?”
The truth gushes out of him. “Because I’m nothing with you. I was at
this bar, where this elderly man was drinking alone. I was going to ask him
for love advice. You know what he said?”
“What?” I ask softly.
“He told me that the way to a girl’s heart is by putting my heart on the
line. He told me the story about how he met his wife. He asked her to dance
with him at a party once. She was way out of his league apparently, but he
went for it anyway. She said yes. And they never stopped dancing since.”
“Sounds like a fairy tale,” I smile.
“Yeah, and he was having a shitty day because his wife was out of town
for the weekend. I could see the love he had for his wife written all over his
face. It was real love. You deserve real love, Zoey. Elena always told me
that you were doing well. She told me about your job and your dance
classes, but never once did she tell me about…my son.”
I shake my head. I can’t let him pin this on himself. “That was my fault,
William. I should’ve told you about our baby. You deserved to know.”
He grabs the back of my neck, and wraps his fingers around me until
he’s tipping my chin up with his thumb. “No, it was my fault. I should’ve
fought for you, instead of waiting for you to come back. I should’ve told
you when I first thought the three words in my head that I loved you. I
didn’t tell you all this then, so I’m going to tell you now. I love you, Zoey.
You’re the best thing to have ever happened to me. You’re the Sun that
lights up every dark corner of my life. Will you stay by my side forever, and
be my wife?”
He’s putting his heart on the line.
Maybe it’s time I follow his lead.

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 ZOEY

2 weeks later

“W illiam ?”
“Yeah, angel?”
“What do you have in your hands there?”
My husband is leaning over the pool, checking the water’s temperature.
“Everything needs to be perfect. It’s Jasper’s first time swimming.” He
glares at the thermometer in his hands, and then nods, satisfied with his
findings. And then he looks up at the late afternoon sun.
“Are you wishing you can control the sun’s brightness levels now?”
“Ha ha,” he says dryly, looking back at me.
“Babies are tougher than they look, you know. They’re built for
survival,” I say.
“I don’t want to take any chances,” he mumbles, leaning towards me to
plant a kiss on my ankle.
Even a small act like this makes me feel like I’m floating.
My husband worships the ground that I walk on. My husband. Yes, he’s
my husband. It’s been a week since we got married, and I still like the ring
of it.
His protective nature had amplified after he became a father. It’s kind of
adorable, but he frets over the smallest details. Elena totally approves of
this behavior.
 I hand Jasper over to him.
My baby’s completely at ease with William. Both of my boys are best
friends now. You’d think that they’ve known each other all their lives.
Will lowers Jasper into the water slowly. Jasper’s lips quiver, and his
chin dimples in that way it does right before he’s about to cry.
He’s surrounded by endless water in all directions, and it must be
terrifying for his baby brain.
But his Daddy’s got him.
Will swirls his son around in semi-circles, holding him gently but
firmly.
Jasper looks up at his father with wide eyes. His chin smoothens, and
his frown transforms into a toothless grin.
They start with blowing bubbles in the water, which makes Jasper flap
his arms around hysterically.
I sit down at the pool ledge, holding the tall glass of watermelon
lemonade my husband made for me. It’s complete with a tiny slice of
watermelon on the glass rim, and frozen watermelon cubes. Like he legit
poured the fruit pulp into an ice tray.
All because I told him last night that I was craving watermelon.
He’s so extra.
I love it.
I wasn’t my best self when I met him. But being a Mom and being in
love both brought out the best in me.
I know now that I’m in charge of my own happiness.
It doesn’t come by getting revenge or by pining after a lost love. It
comes from within. It’s an inside process, and I have to work on it every
single day. Things like late night sex and afternoon dance sessions
definitely help.
William isn’t letting even a drop of water come anywhere near Jasper’s
face. My little boy looks so cute, with his baby-sized swim trunks on.
They’re his favorite color.
Pink.
Jasper is obsessed with absolutely everything pink. He only lets me put
socks on his little feet if they’re pink in color.
I think it suits his personality.
Bold and bright.
 After I finish my drink, I open the book I’m reading on my Kindle. It’s a
romance novel with a whole lot of steam.
I spend the rest of the day under the sun, alternating between the book
and watching my husband bond with my child.
We head back inside after the sun sets. Jasper’s already sleepy after all
the hard work he did today in the pool.
William always hires private chefs to make us dinner at home, so food
must be ready by now. We step into the house, where I’m instantly greeted
to the aroma of fresh bread and parsley.
Jasper is starting to get cranky, so I know it’s time for him to eat. We
give him soft-cooked pasta and steamed carrots for his dinner.
My baby gets sleepy right after eating, so William carries him to the
nursery to put him to bed.
He turns on the night light, a lamp that paints the walls with star-shaped
soft yellow lighting. And then he lets Jasper pick out a picture book from
his collection.
They settle down to read the story. It’s their bedtime ritual.
My husband holds his son in his strong, protective arms as he reads.
Jasper gives him his full attention.
The story is about a little bird and it’s journey to flight. It tries to learn
how to fly on its own, but that doesn’t work. But when it takes the help of
all it’s forest friends, it soars.
I’ve read the same story to Jasper countless times, but there’s something
special about William telling it.
He’s a great narrator. He gives every character in the story a distinctive
voice, and adds background noises to boot.
It makes my baby giggle and softly clap his hands in glee.
I don’t disturb them. I just watch from outside the bedroom, leaning on
the doorframe.
I’ve had plenty of time with Jasper. I have a feeling that William still
feels bad about the time he lost with his son, so he needs this.
And Jasper as usual is more than happy to be the center of attention.
William looks up at me after he finishes the story.
His eyes darken when he sees the short silk shorts that barely skim my
upper thighs. Then, he squeezes his eyes shut and says ‘Barney’ three times
in a row. It always seems to kill his erection.
 Jasper is already asleep, so I walk over to them quietly. I bend down to
kiss Jasper on his head.
William grabs my wrist.
“Doesn’t daddy get a kiss?” he growls.
I obediently plant a kiss on his lips. He sucks me in, making me sit on
his lap as he claims my mouth.
His kiss is a promise. That there’s more to come once we’re in the
bedroom. Actually, any spot outside Jasper’s nursery will do.
The kitchen. The bathtub.
Against the walls. On the floor.
We’ve done it everywhere in our new home.
It’s in the same neighborhood as Mrs. Welch’s house. William bought it
for me as a wedding gift.
It’s just a few minutes away from the city, but it looks like a country
house, with the spacious backyard and fresh air.
It’s magnificent.
William carries me in his arms. I play with the stubble on his cheek as
he shuts the door to Jasper’s nursery.
“I’ve been thinking,” I start.
“Hmm?” His lust-filled eyes are on my lips, no doubt thinking about all
the ways he can debauch them tonight.
“About that story you told Jasper. It has a quote at the end. No bird can
soar too high if he soars with his own wings. William Blake. Maybe, just
maybe, you should take the poet’s advice, Will.”
“I really can’t think straight right now, Zoey. Dumb it down for me?” he
asks, pressing me against his body to show me exactly where all his blood
is concentrated.
“It’s about Alex. You’ve been thinking about how to free him all by
yourself. Maybe you would reach higher heights if you did this with a
team.”
As always, the topic of his brother sobers him up. He comes to a stop,
and frowns slightly. “Who do you suggest?”
“The Harrington’s,” I say. “They’ll be eager to help. And Gigi too. I
hate what she did, but her apology seemed sincere to me. She meant what
she said.”
He’s already shaking his head. “Nope. I can give you a hundred reasons
why that would not work.”
 “You never know until you give it a shot,” I protest. “I know for a fact
that they’ll be more than happy to help you out.”
Will doesn’t talk about this much, but I know that he’s thinking about
his brother every minute of the day. Even when he’s smiling and having fun
in his brand new swimming pool with his infant son, he’s thinking about
Alex, his twin brother who’s in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
I want to help. And convincing him to taking other people’s help is the
only way I know how.
He’s still shaking his head. “I don’t know, Zoey.”
“It’ll make me really, really happy if you do.” I pout for good measure,
and as I look into his eyes, I see the exact second I win.
“Okay,” he says. “I’ll talk to them.” His eyes are on my lips as he
watches my smile spread all the way.
My husband is a stubborn man, but he’ll do absolutely anything to make
me happy.
He continues his prowl to the bedroom, where he throws me on the bed,
and continues to make me happy five times in a row before I pass out in a
state of blissful exhaustion.

THE END.

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 ALSO BY ARIA R. BLUE

The journey still continues with Alex and Elena’s love story. It’s dark, steamy, and super dreamy so
be the first to be notified about it by signing up to my newsletter:
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If you haven’t yet, check out the first two books of the Royals series:

Mr. Baby Maker

Mr. CEO Daddy

For more of alpha baby daddy yumminess:

Mr. Mountain Man

Mr. Baby Daddy

If you’re in a baby girl kinda mood, you’re going to love these:

Mr. Taboo Daddy

Mr. Forbidden

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