“When I caught her mixing something in your drink one time and saw her dragging you to a room after you passed out. That day I was there to stop her, but I didn’t know she would try to do something like that all over again.”She looked at him as if to gauge his reaction, before dropping her face into her palms and letting her shoulders shake as she cried.Richard felt frozen on the spot. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t blink, he couldn’t breathe. The information Melinda had just given him, he couldn’t process. His mind refused to. It was as if everything around him was turning to dust.What she said could only mean one thing. And he felt sick at the mere thought. He felt disgusted. He felt like throwing up. He couldn’t believe that he had missed that. All of it. The signs. The warning. He couldn’t believe he had been too dumb and blinded to notice anything.But he could feel it all now.He could see it.In fact, he could almost…remember it.The way Cecelia would stare at him when she tho

Danika knew something was off when she heard those words coming out of Simon’s mouth.She knew the way he was looking at her, as if wanting her to know her place, as if wanting her to know she fucked up—big time at that—he had something horrible in his mind.Sweat broke through the pores of her skin and she had to wipe it off with the back of her hand, struggling—for the first time, ever—to find a way out of this unfortunate situation.So, she decided to come straight to the fucking point.There was no use in pretending to be nice anymore. She could tell that he didn’t care how beautiful she was, or how she could promise a great lay if given the chance.As far as she knew—or had heard of—Simon had a certain taste in women, and he never stirred from what he wanted. Trying to flirt with him or offer him something most people would fall face first for would only prove to be a waste of time.“What the hell do you want?” She asked, almost snapped, but not to the point it sounded rude, but m

Elena felt drained by the moment she stepped out of the police station.Her eyes looked bloodshot as if she could finally use some sleep, and her legs wobbled with how little movement she had been allowed in the interrogation room all night.But the said exhaustion was nothing in comparison to the pain she felt in her heart, the betrayal that cut so deep, she didn’t think she would ever be able to recover.She couldn’t believe that during everything that happened in the past—from catching Richard cheating on her to Josh’s accident, from her divorce to spending more than a year away from home just so she could heal herself in the best way possible—if there was one thing that remained constant in her life, it was Danika.It was because of her she always managed to push through—or at least that’s what she told herself. It was she who showed her the way when Elena couldn’t make up her mind, when she was broken beyond repair, and all she was good at was being there for Caleb and nothing els

Flashes of blurred visions danced in front of Elena’s eyes.“I don’t like this,” a woman said, shaking her head in disapproval.Elena barely caught that woman’s old eyes and wrinkled face when her eyes grew heavy again and she tumbled into the darkened corner of her mind.The next time her eyes fluttered open, she felt Simon’s face too close to her own. He didn’t look like himself, too much brightness and blurriness in front of her gaze made it feel like a dream.He smiled at her, the same sinful smile that always made her think of all the secrets hidden behind them. “Don’t worry, darling. You’re doing very good.”And then she was gone again.And then there was this another dream; cool oceanic breeze brushed her hair away from her face, making them dance here and there.“The room is ready, sir,” she heard someone say, while she struggled to make her throat work.“Good work,” someone else said, and even though there was no way to say for sure, she knew he was Simon. He had to be.———El

It didn’t help that he kept his hands tucked into the pockets of his pants as he watched her with growing curiosity, the smirk on his lips making him look even more evil than he already seemed.“Don’t tell me you don’t understand the reason why I brought you here?” He cocked his head. “You’re not that stupid, Elena, are you?”He was doing this intentionally, confusing her. It wasn’t hard to notice from the way he looked at her. She just wished she understood his reasoning, his real motives. “I’m not in the mood for your stupid games, Simon. Just tell me what’s going on and get it over with, for God’s sake!”It wasn’t until that moment, until that second when her frustration finally took hold of her and broke through the wall of composure she was trying so hard to keep, that she realized how much this meant to her.It had been too much to bear for a while now—the sudden changes and the secrets lurking in the shadows ever since her brother went into the coma, followed by the murder of Ce