Penny Kingston finally has the life she once only imagined; steady work that challenges her, friends who feel like home, and an apartment high enough to make the past seem small. The version of herself she used to be is a closed chapter, locked away where it can't hurt her anymore.
Until one night changes everything.
When her coworker asks her to attend an event in her place, Penny reluctantly agrees, unaware that fate has other plans. It was supposed to be simple. Quick in, quick out. But across the crowded room stands the one person she's spent years trying not to remember.
The boy who taught her what love felt like and what it cost.
Sylas Kaine grew up beside her, who followed her into every wild idea, who made her feel invincible, right before he became the one wound she never healed.
He's older now, steadier, carrying the kind of regret that sits heavy behind the eyes. And yet one look is enough to make her carefully rebuilt world tremble.
With every unexpected encounter, the memories she's worked so hard to bury begin to surface.
Because some pasts don't stay locked.
And some people never stop being home, even when they're the ones who left.
Four good hours gone and yet nothing - no solution. I kicked a chair in my office hard sending it flying through an empty space as it crashed to the floor. Shelving off all the documents on my table to the floor, I created a perfect mess.
The feeling of frustration engulfed me, tightening all the muscles in my body. It was like I was having a panic attack.
I quickly helped myself to the bottle of whisky on the bar and drank uncontrollably from it. I remembered the last time I drank this way and what happened. But at this moment, all I needed was to forget everything that was happening.
Closing my eyes briefly to relieve all of the tension, I opened them again but the pain was still there, the reality of my loss was dawning on me completely and I was helpless.
'Desperate times calls for desperate measures' that's what they say.
Bryan a twenty-seven years old billionaire had a perfect life until Maryrose Brent, his mother decides to show up after ten years and a supposed dead uncle finally resurrects.
Suddenly his perfect life takes a U-Turn and begins to crumble bit by bit before his eyes.
Could it all be a mere coincidence or is there someone truly behind all of the happenings?
And how far, are they willing to take it? Perhaps, till the last breath is sucked out of his body.
[Unedited]
Started February 2020
Ended July 2020
Word count [144,591]