LOSING HEART

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

Amber Parsons looked around the dark room. Her head was sore, she was hungry and cold. Three months... Three months of this hell. She had no idea why she was here.

Three months ago she left her fiancé's house to go to the bank. Her fiancé Antony Bravello... He was a criminal. Worked with drugs and whatnot. She met him and saw dollar signs. It was the truth. She never found him interesting. He was attractive but not her type.

She needed to help her aunt out. They were living literally hand to mouth. Her aunt Fran was desperately trying to make ends meet while paying for Amber's tuition. Amber was working at the local café where they lived, but it wasn't enough. It was too hard to keep up.

The rent, the bills, everything was too much, so when Amber met Antony she saw money. She thought she would pretend to be in love, get what she could... She knew it was dangerous, told her aunt that she fell in love and left to move in with Antony.

Problem... Antony was madly in love with her. He wanted to sleep with her, wanted to do things with her that Amber was not ready to do. She was a virgin. A twenty two year old virgin trying to get her life sorted.

He suggested getting married...

Amber only agreed to marry Antony to prologue her relationship with him. He promised her he would wait for their wedding day and make it magical.

Amber although didn't really like Antony at first, found it somewhat humbling that he wanted her so badly that he would wait until they were wed. She was taken by how much he loved her. He was sweet and kind to her.

Amber never introduced him to her aunt Fran. Didn't want him to know anything about her. For some reason, she thought better of it. Fran needed to be invisible.

So when he asked about her family she told Antony that her aunt didn't approve so she left.

The truth was, she didn't approve, but that wasn't why she left. She left to keep her aunt safe. She would take the money that Antony would give her to buy things and save it.

Whenever she could, she would deposit the money in the bank in her aunt's account. She refused to call or speak to her aunt, she didn't know what to say to her. But she knew that her aunt would know she was okay when the money would come through.

Amber missed her aunt terribly.

That day she was made it her mission to see her aunt. She just wanted to embrace her and tell her that she was happy, for her not to worry. Her intent was to go to the bank, deposit the money and try to visit her aunt at work.

It didn't happen that way. As she finished from the bank to get into her car she was attacked. She knew him... Darius Crowe... He was in business with Antony and his father Marcus.

This was all about Marlo. Marlo who was Darius' brother. He rubbed Antony the wrong way. It would seem that Darius believed him to be responsible for Marlo's death. She didn't understand why he would say that. Darius was over the mansion almost every day hanging out with Marcus.

He wasn't overly close with Antony but Marcus seemed to really like Darius. That didn't sit well with Antony at all. He wasn't liking the fact that his father and Darius had formed a bond of sorts.

Antony and Marlo never saw eye to eye and maybe that was the reason that Darius believed that Antony was responsible for Marlo's death.

She had seen Darius a number of times at the mansion. He was very quiet and reserved. Very calm and collected. Antony was always on his best behaviour around him. Even Marcus seemed to be very cautious around Darius.