Table Of ContentCopyright © 2013 Emma Grayson
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without
the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art by: Meredith Blair of Author's Angels
© Meredith Blair 2013.
Interior design by Angela McLaurin, Fictional Formats.
WARNING
This book contains the following and is recommended for ages 18 and
up.
-Sexual content
- Abusive subject matter
-Attempted rape
-Language
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
For my mom,
Thank you… for everything.
I Love You.
Meeting him changed my life. I never thought I’d meet someone
who’d finally complete me like he did. Someone who finally made me
feel whole and loved as much as he did. There’s always been a void in
my heart, a void I thought I’d never have. I was in love, deeply in
love, the kind of love that only comes around once in a life time, the
kind you don’t want to live without and he didn’t even know how I
felt. I’d waited too long and I didn’t know if I’d ever get to tell him.
The thought of him fizzled from my mind as my body shook from
the cold under the thin sheet of a blanket that was wrapped around
me. I was in shock, I could tell. I knew the signs. I winced as I moved;
shooting pain licked my body in every direction. I knew a couple of
my ribs along with my wrist were broken, and possibly something on
my face, as pain swept over it and into my head. I raised my free arm
up slowly, painfully, feeling my damp face as my hand found its way
to the laceration on the side of my head, the source of only some of
the pain. Unable to hold my arm up for much longer, it fell to the side
throbbing and dangling off the edge of the bed. My body, it was
beaten and bruised possibly more than ever before and I could feel
myself slipping away, wanting nothing but to close my eyes and
sleep, but it was the last thing I’d allow myself to do.
My mind was disoriented; I had no idea what day it was or how
long I had been locked in this cold, dark place. Time was frozen,
becoming nonexistent, and I was sure the days were just bleeding
together. I thought about Finn and Mollie, hoping and praying they
were safe because I didn’t know if I was going to see them again. The
thought of that was unbearable. My eyes watered, nose burned and I
felt like I couldn’t breathe.
Pull it together.
Think.
I didn’t know where I was, why I was even here or what caused him
to do what he did to me. I felt like my life, my being, was being
sucked right out of me. The abuse had taken its toll on my body and I
had no fight left in me. All hope that I had earlier was beginning to
fade away.
The door creaking open brought me back from my thoughts, my
eyes snapped closed at the light that followed him in. I wanted to pull
my blanket up to hide myself and hope it would make me disappear
but I couldn’t and there was no point in trying.
Looking at him you wouldn’t think any kind of malicious evil would
consume him, but it did. It was written all over his face, in the grin he
wore and the burning in his cold, dead blue eyes. A shiver ran through
me as I thought of his eyes looking back at me, blank, filled with
nothing but coldness and the brightness of those eyes forever gone.
I’d never seen a pair of eyes so cold, or so hollow and dark, not even
the pair I looked into years before compared to what I was seeing
now.
He walked over to the side of the bed, no words said. His rough
cold hands roamed over my hair down the side of my face and my
body stilled as I wished him away. My eyes snapped shut not knowing
what was about to come.
His hand slipped under the covers, gliding over my naked arm,
stopping above my elbow, lingering there a moment before moving
away and then my cuffed hand was free. His hand went back,
gripping my arm tightly as he pulled me to a sitting position. Pain
radiated through me as I let out a whimper. He pulled me to my
frozen feet, my knees shook, feeling like they were going to give out,
unable to support me. I felt myself sway to the side but his grip held
me upright, tightly; his fingers dug into my arm, pinching my skin.
What’s one more bruise?
He started to pull me towards the open door, my eyes squinting,
trying to adjust to the light. I didn’t know where we were going and I
was sure it wasn’t going to be good and for the first time I was
wishing to stay in the hole. I didn’t have any strength to fight him so I
let him pull me, taking me wherever he was going.
Maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe it was meant to end here and
meeting him, falling in love, having this emptiness I carried around
finally filled, maybe it was only supposed to be... temporary.
Life had a way of playing cruel tricks on you.
This I knew.
Boy did I know.
I no longer saw the future with him as bright, happy and full of
love; it was suddenly now empty, numb and full of complete and utter
darkness.
