Back to Willow - [SAMPLE]

Prologue

Liam

THE BRISK RUSH OF AIR WORKS AS AN ANXIETY SUPPRESSANT, lowering my body temperature and solidifying my state of alert. I'd still be going downhill if I stayed inside, suffocating in that sea of dancing bodies. The crazy lights swirling around the club are gone, and the deafening music is now muffled by the back exit of the building. It was getting too loud and overwhelming, too much for me to take.

I hate nights like this when the anxiety creeps in at the most inopportune moments. For the past few years, I've been nothing but focused on finishing my degree and starting work as a doctor. I knew staying busy was the only way to keep going, and it has worked so far. It's like every time I treat myself with any kind of leisure, Karma comes knocking on my door to yell, "Not tonight, bitch!"

All I know at this point is that life is miserable. While I know my coping mechanisms throughout the years haven't always been the healthiest, I had hoped that by now, things would be better. Besides being close to finishing my master's degree and starting residency, I often ask myself, that am I even here for? Because nothing else makes sense.

Not without her.

I must be stupid to have thought tonight would be different from all other nights, where copious amounts of alcohol helped me take my mind off ...her. Today would have been our seventh anniversary, and going through it sober is torture.

"Fuck, no," I grit to the emptiness of the dimly lit alley. "No thinking about this. She doesn't fucking deserve it."

It's no fun, though. Ever since I started University, everything has been different. The assignments I am completing throughout the beginning of the residency are giving me little to no time to wallow in my shit—thankfully. In a way, not having time to remember the past has

made me feel better. Like she isn't the centre of the universe anymore.

It's frustrating as hell that the few moments I have some free time to have fun, she comes crawling back all over again. Like a plague on my brain, body, heart, and soul.

Sometimes, if I focus too hard, I can still smell her flowery scent. It used to calm my heart and rebellious soul. Her soft eyes are engraved in my mind, tearing at the pain even more. They used to be so full of love and affection, and it filled me up so much. But now? It just eats me alive.

Every now and then, when I wake up groggy from exhaustion or hangovers, I can still feel those silky chocolate waves against my face and hands from when we had fallen asleep after long study sessions. My heart still skips a beat if someone looks remotely similar to her. Even if, deep down, I know it won't ever happen again.

She made the choice to disappear from my life without a word. I won't be the one to search for her either. Not anymore.

All the time I wasted begging my parents for help, and all the times I chased Jacob around with the hopes of getting somewhere. A word, just a "she's fine" or a "here, you can have her number." But nothing.

Fucking nothing.

The whole family closed as tight as clams and shut me out, aiding her in the pain she caused. She not only broke my heart, she also had her family step on it until it withered away to ashes.

"Why are you here alone with such a cool party raging inside?" The sultry feminine voice that sounds behind me makes me turn around.

The first word that comes to mind: hot. Golden-tanned skin and subtly muscled legs and arms. She's wearing a short sparkling-silver dress, giving me a decent view of her full cleavage. Her dark hair is locked behind her head in an updo, showing off her slender shoulders and long neck.