... ❝He was the poison I was dying to taste on my lips.❞ ... I was a coward. The coward who wanted to leave behind the wreckage of her life for the man who had tormented her for as long as she could remember. The boy who had spit venom at me growing up, all because he had more power - all because my family worked for his - and had later turned into a man who was the embodiment of poison. River Vanderbildt. The boy I hated more than anything in this world. And the man I never stopped seeking. The Vanderbildts were one of the leading families in our town. They were filthy rich, disgusting powerful, but vain and cruel. While my family, on the other hand, had been ostracised from their world because love had managed to tear everything apart. It was River's mission to make my life a living hell for a reason beyond my comprehension, and he successfully did so for eight whole years. The past belonged to him. The present belonged to heartbreak. But the future; it solely belonged to me because I'd had enough. Because Ishwarya Jalal had enough of his torment. Because the girl inside her had withered away and died, only leaving the ashes that River had created.

... ❝Burn with me as the storms wreak their havoc.❞ ... I have no recollection of anything. They say that I was in a car crash. One that proved how cruel life was by wiping away my entire existence from my memory. They say my name is Heira Rossi. They say that I've been in a coma for six months, and my father - the doctor - tells me everything he can to keep me under their control. But everything feels like a lie. They say that I was the perfect daughter, in her first year of university, and helpless to argue against the only life I now have, I agree. But then five years later, I meet a man. One who gives me hope that my life is more than it seems. One that seems to awaken my entire being and make my heart bleed all over again. Only, he hates me. His demeanour screams hostility, words laced with contempt, yet his eyes tell a different story. They speak of a past I can't remember, a betrayal I didn't commit and conceal the very truth I long for. Or rather, they attempt to. For, every truth inevitably comes to light and his hide beneath the weight of his own deception.