When I was a kid, I had a bad habit of hiding in dark places. It led me to hear things I shouldn't have.
"I'm ruined Dina. They've made us obsolete."
The sound of sobbing.
"I hate it here, Dad. Why do I always have to come with you? Eli is such a kid. She's annoying."
The sound of smacks.
Everyone saw me as fragile. I was born two months premature and it seemed I was destined to play catch up my whole life. A small and clumsy child, always too innocent and sensitive to be exposed to the world's harsh realities. A clumsy thing. Always getting hurt. Always picked last. Everyone always working to keep me safe. But they didn't know that I heard everything.
Saw everything.
My mom's flushed cheeks when dad wasn't in town.
The way my dad shook as he stifled his sobs, a bottle of cognac clutched between bone white fingers.
The boy who hated me. The tall beautiful boy who called me plain and dumb and a nuisance. The boy whose dad hit him in just the right places so that people couldn't see the bruises.
Maybe they were right to try to shield me. It doesn't matter. I kept the secrets deep within me and they festered. Burning away and blackening my insides until the day I decide to set them free. But I'm not ready to let them go. Not yet.
I need the fire they feed, the cruelty they foster. I need them to take down the man that brought all the pain. I need them to destroy his company. His love and god.
I'm going to burn it all to the ground.
YOU ARE READING
The Buyout
RomanceElena Clark was set to live a charmed life. The internet was booming, and her dad had caught the wave early. But betrayal destroyed everything. And Elaine was left penniless, motherless and in many ways fatherless. She wants revenge and devotes her...
