Jax's Game: Book 1 of The Checkmate Series

Prologue

She sat on his bed, the fifth one out from the door. Harriet watched him pack what little belongings he had. She was silent, she didn't know what to say. Was she devastated? That was an understatement. Words couldn't express how she was feeling. Jax was leaving, and she didn't know if he would ever come back to her.

"Promise me you will find me once I get out of here?" she pleaded, eyes looking down to the concrete tile on the orphanage's floor.

The seventeen-year-old across from her, dark brown hair with disheveled curls very much on display, looked at her. Jax nodded slowly, crouching down to her height. Her small yet gorgeous sapphire eyes connected with his pale blue ones.

"I promise," he whispered, cupping her cheeks and bringing them in for a kiss. Lovers but survivors, the two orphans held onto the only love they had ever known: their love for one another.

Jax was leaving. His biological father was taking him back. The boy had been left to rot since he was born, as his mother never wanted him. Recently, his father found out about him and decided to take him back from the orphanage. This was the only home that he had ever known. He was leaving her, and she didn't know what to say. Her red, tear-soaked eyes continued to watch him.

The brunette boy took her in when she appeared at the age of four, him seven. He taught her to not be scared, and to look at the joy of life. Their relationship had progressed to young love.

Their plan had been simple. The moment he was eighteen and released from the government's hold, he would work, make money, and become her legal guardian. However, plans had changed, and he was no longer able to do that. Instead, he was going 'home' to his father, whom he just met, wherever home was now.

His father seemed to be a nice man, in his forties, married with two children. Harriet hadn't met him, but he seemed better than anything she could imagine from what Jax had told her. She was stuck here for another three years while he would be out there living his best life with a family. Harriet needed to be happy for him.

"I love you," she murmured, eyes dropping back to the grey concrete tile.

"I love you too, kitten," he kissed her cheek, hearing footsteps outside the room.

"Jaxon Irwin, your father is here to take you," the older woman, Betty, came in and gave him the terrible yet incredible news. A nun at the Catholic orphanage, she admired the two, watching them grow up to be such good friends.

"It was always supposed to be you who gets adopted, not me," he said. Harriet got up, and gave him a hug, holding him so close. Tears filled her eyes as she held him for the last time.

Jax held her, rocking them back and forth and placing a final kiss on her cheek. His hand clutched hers and began to let go slowly, dragging his fingers from her as he walked away.

"I will find you. I promise. I love you forever and a day."

She watched him walk out, her greatest love leaving her there in the rotten system. She didn't know where her future would take her. It was broken, therefore who knew where she would go in life?

He promised, though.