Two lovers, torn apart by betrayal, obsession and an unquenchable thirst for revenge.
How far would you go for love?
About to start the career of his dreams and marry the woman he loves, Sebastien Merrow has everything he could ever want, until a b...
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Laura Ramsden was pacing back and forth in her uncle's kitchen, waiting. Waiting for her phone to ring, an email to arrive, a fucking carrier pigeon to burst through the window with a note tied to its leg, anything. Anything at all would do, as long as it told her Sebastien was okay.
Laura hadn't been able to get hold of either him or Rodrick for days. Sebastien's phone was off, Rodrick's just rang and rang into oblivion. It wasn't like them. It wasn't like Sebastien.
Laura pulled a wooden chair out and sat at the dinghy, scuffed dining table, dropping her head into her hands. She felt sick to her stomach with worry. She'd actually vomited this morning, she was so out of it. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Marianne had dismissed her concerns, joking she was just suffering from Sebastien withdrawals. But there was a difference between missing Sebastien and being completely cut off from him. Sebastien would not drop off the grid like this, it just wasn't like him.
This was the Sebastien who called her every single night, just to say goodnight, even if they had just spent the entire day together. The Sebastien who would set his alarm for the morning ten minutes before hers to make sure the first thing she saw when she woke up was "I love you."
Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.
The sound of her phone's ringer cut through the stillness of the house. It had barely rung twice before Laura jumped up and answered. "Sebastien?" she breathed, not even glancing at the caller ID. It had to be him. It had to be.
"Laura..."
"Rodrick, thank god!" Laura stood, pushing strands of loose, bright red hair out of her face. "Sebastien's phone has been off for days, you haven't been answering, what the hell is going on? I've been worried sick!"
"Laura..." Rodrick said again, then lapsed into silence.
"What is it?" Laura pressed. "Rodrick? You're scaring me." Rodrick remained silent. "Where is Sebastien?"
"There was a robbery... I..." Rodrick said. The dread wrapped around Laura's shoulders grew heavier and heavier. "Sebastien... He tried to fight them off, he..."
"He what?" Laura pressed when Rodrick fell silent again. Her mind raced through all the possible endings to Rodrick's sentence, none of them good. She couldn't bear to hear it, but she needed to. She needed to know, but more than anything she needed to know he was okay. Laura stood, pressing the phone tighter against her ear. "Where's Sebastien?"
"He didn't make it. I'm sorry." Laura felt her lungs empty of air. She could hear Rodrick's sobs as he struggled to get the next words out. "Sebastien died."
The phone slipped from her grasp and clattered to the floor, bouncing once on the black and white tiles. Laura felt her lungs seize as they struggled to pull in a breath that wouldn't come. She wanted to scream, to cry out, but she felt empty. She steadied herself against the kitchen table, fighting to stay upright. This was a nightmare. This was a nightmare, and she was going to wake up any minute now. She was going to wake up and reach for Sebastien across the bed and he would take her in his arms and she would fold herself into his warmness and he would stroke her hair and whisper I love you in her ear and he- He wouldn't be gone. He couldn't be gone.
