story #1 in the 'for the flawed' series. tw | eating disorder she just wanted to be skinny for him; she wanted to be the kind of girlfriend he'd be proud to have, even if he couldn't see her. he just wanted to see her, to be able to tell her she was beautiful and she'd know he was telling the truth, he wanted her to be happy. they wanted to be perfect for each other. and with that, they destroyed themselves. (some quotes aren't mine, lowercase intended for stylistic purposes.) © 2014 flawed- [Watty Awards 2014]

As the only daughter to one of the most powerful Mafia families, Shay has sought to figure out her own path despite the overbearing pressures from her Family. After a family dispute leads to Shay and her mother to go into hiding, Shay attends Elite academy--her own perfect Hell. With an incredibly awful (or ingenious) disguise, Shay's new identity is going well until Jacob Smith shows out of nowhere. Not only does he seem to know every right button to push, but he also seems to know everything about her. Shay's seemingly normal school life explodes with a new set of problems. Old and new enemies are coming for her and she needs to choose whether she will carry the Ricca name. Goodbye Nerd Disguise, hello old identity, old life, old friends, and new enemies. It's the Family business, where plotting someone's assassination is just part of the daily duty. (Unedited first draft) FYI title may be misleading at first.

With a murderous secret and a dark history few but Helen Eriksson know, an uncertain path lies ahead of her. Helen's past, present and future are on a collision course with a sense of morality she wonders if she ever possessed. Her husband's corpse is barely cold, laid to rest under a shroud of suspicion directed at her by former peers at the FBI. Revenge boils in her veins against the one who shattered her perfect life, or the carefully constructed illusion of such. One thing Helen does not believe is that coincidences happen. So when an opportunity falls into her lap to slip through the web of the FBI investigation into her ex-husband's murder and darken the doorstep of the man she holds responsible for her professional ruin, Helen is hard pressed to resist the lure. Rather than arriving in Darkwater Bay anonymously, Helen walks with full knowledge into what she understands could be a trap sprung by her nemesis, Danny Datello. But the shield of a police detective's badge can't protect her from what she fears she has become by genetic birthright - a hardened murderer just like the father who shaped her into the woman she has become. What Helen doesn't count on is investment in anything but her own plot of revenge. To her surprise, the discovery of a body mere hours before her arrival in Darkwater Bay draws her into more than her own conflicted desires, but a corrupt city with its own secrets. Even more shocking is the realization that Helen craves more than Datello's punishment; justice for a dead victim.