POVX“Did you even read the contract?” I ask laughing with my question.I know the answer to that when she sits up straighter. “No..” she says.She makes it so damn easy for me.“I did this for you, X!” Adria says panicked. “No, Adria you did this for no one other than you,” I say calmly, pressing my fingertips into her small framed shoulders and she flinches from underneath.I’m about to show her who really is the boss in this house. “But ya know, I am going to do something for me now, I haven’t done anything selfish in a while and I owe it to myself to do this,” I say whispering in her ear again. “Please, X” she begs, she knows me well enough to know what’s coming next.“I wish I could say that this won’t bring me any greater joy than what I’m about to do Adria, but it does. It didn’t have to be this way, you could’ve just kept to yourself, did your job like everyone else but it just was never enough for you. I took pity on you when I allowed for you to stay but you know, deep
POV Millie As we’re finishing up our two-hour-long walk, stopping plenty of times to sit and talk, we make it back to the hotel entrance. “I had a really good time, Em,” Nick says genuinely. “Yeah, me too,” I say with a smile. “I still can’t believe the way you jumped when you saw that mouse crawl out of that garbage bin,” I say with a laugh. “Hey! I was startled!” He says with a laugh. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” I say teasing him. “Well, I should probably get goin', you have an early morning,” Nick says tilting back and forth on his heels. “I mean…yeah…but we could maybe just have one drink?” I suggest. He lifts an eyebrow at me, “Okay, yeah, sure.”We walk into the lobby together and go up the elevator, for some odd reason, I have this gut instinct that something is just off, not particularly with Nick, but just in general. It’s probably just from the guilt I’m feeling or my nerves. As we walk down the hallway, my gut instincts were right, he’s leaned up against the
POVMillie I sit along the wall in the hotel hallway with Nick still out. At first, I was afraid X may have killed him with that punch but I see that he’s breathing. It’s going to be really awkward if another hotel guest comes waltzing down the hall. Luckily, this floor is a pretty quiet one. Nick starts to move a little, I think he may be getting out of his unconscious state. He opens his eyes and sees me looking down at him. He perks up and scoots away from me like I’m the devil himself. “Where is he?!” he asks frightened looking around. Gee, guess I could count on him to protect me if I needed it…“He’s gone, Nick,” I say. “Why didn’t you tell me you were X’s?!” He asks belittling me. “I’m not his, he doesn’t own me,” I say annoyed. “Sorry..” he says trying to recover himself. I lean my head against the wall behind me, “sorry about all of this.” I say not looking at him. “It’s not your fault Millie, X is…” he says trailing off. “I know, you don’t need to explain, since w
POVMillie I take the piece of white paper out of the envelope, the page is filled with black ink numbered 1-20 of things about himself. I take a deep breath in and deeper one out and start reading number one. 1. Until you, Julian was my only true friend2. I didn’t take the Colombia deal even though it was offered 3. I secretly wished my mom would’ve denied the $25,000 to stay in my life 4. I hate the business I’m in but it’s all I’ve ever known 5. Sometimes I wish my mom would’ve taken me with her so I could’ve had a normal life 6. I hate that my mom had more kids 7. I have no desire to meet my siblings 8. I was afraid to get close to you because this business is brutal, love can be used as leverage. 9. The day you moved into the penthouse, was when I really knew I never wanted to see a day without you 10. I knew my dad was cheating on my mom for the longest time but never told her11. The day my dad left everything to me was the day I lost myself 12. My first tattoo was
POV XIt’s early in the evening, Friday. I haven’t spoken to Millie since Wednesday after the harsh encounter we last had. Today is the day she gets to move into her apartment. Although I’m not necessarily happy about the other night, I’m happy for her. She gets the new beginning that she’s been longing for. I think back to Wednesday night, seeing Millie with Nico, I didn’t know my heart could break any further than it already had. They were going to the hotel room, what were they going to do? I can’t even go there with that fucking thought, it kills me. When I left, she probably nursed Nico back to health and he probably used it to his advantage. That night, I came home to a clean house, not a drop of evidence to be left behind from Adria. I laid in bed with the sound of that crack playing in my mind, I knew it’d haunt me. I’ve never killed anyone that way before but my options were limited that night. I couldn’t have large amounts of blood in my house so I did it in a way that wou
It’s Friday morning.The last day in my San Diego apartment that I’ve spent the last year in. Let me rephrase that, the last shit show of a year. I spent the last year putting my life and career on hold to stay close to my parent's house taking care of my father. In the last three years, he pissed away all of his and my mom’s savings on booze and drugs and ended up foreclosing on the house.I don’t even know why I bothered, he hated the sight of me and after all my efforts he just ended up killing himself to heroin. It wasn’t always this way though. I was once “daddy’s little girl” and he adored me, he was an amazing father and husband up until three years ago when all that changed.My phone buzzing in the back pocket of my jeans breaks me of my thoughts. The phone screen reads Steph. My best friend of fifteen years. I answer by the second ring.“Hey, Steph! I’m just packing up a couple more things and I’ll be on my way.” I may have lied a little.I have a lot more than a couple of th
I pull onto the freeway and start my journey to Los Angeles.Shit, I need an oil change soon. I like this car but it’s got more problems than I’d like to admit. I need a new one but I can’t afford it quite yet. My dad financially drained me after financially draining himself. I’ve bailed him out of jail twice for possession of drugs and bought gift cards to grocery stores because I’ve made the mistake of giving him actual cash one too many times just for him to blow it on cocaine. That was his usual drug of choice, until it turned into the harder stuff a year ago, not to mention I paid for rehab facilities and a cheap apartment in a bad area for him about thirty minutes from my apartment because he refused to move in with me.I worked hard at Ricks Restaurant waiting tables for the last several years just to stay afloat. I offered to take additional shifts when I could barely stay on my feet for a moment longer but it’s what needed to be done. The tips were good, especially later in t
Stephanie Taylor. I love the girl to death, I really do but boy is she a rough one sometimes. She is the epitome of a free bird. I met her when I was eleven. She lived just down the block from me growing up. Her parents were always out of town for work so she stayed home a lot with her live-in grandma, which now that I’m older, realize she must’ve had dementia. God rest her soul she was such a sweet woman.Steph was usually hanging out at my house growing up, my parents basically raised her as their own. When high school rolled around and her parents weren’t home she had so much free range which included lots of parties. She was always the cool girl in school, but never a mean one. I envied her at times and still do now, just in a different kind of way. She’s gorgeous, she can be Barbie’s twin. She’s tall, long blonde hair with deep blue eyes that carry a sweetness to them. She always had the boy’s attention, she could get an A+ with flirting.Now, I’m not going to tear myself down an