admind Chapter 7 Andrew rushed over, pulling Anna into his arms as he shot his mother a pleading look. “Eleanor, enough. Anna just took her medication and she can’t handle this stress.” Eleanor glared at Anna but held her tongue, unwilling to cause a scene at the Hayes family event. Then Anna gagged and vomited. The … Read more
Chapter 6 *Stella… is that really my Stella?” The voice was frail but unmistakable. Eleanor, Stella’s grandmother, leaning heavily on her cane, looked decades older than she had three years ago. With each unsteady step, she called Stella’s name like a prayer. Stella had sworn she wouldn’t break-not here, not in front of them. But … Read more
Chapter 5 Fiona’s gaze darted away again. “You know how Andrew is-he never drives himself. The driver handled everything. We’ll get the details from him later.” She dug her nails into Andrew’s arm in warning. Andrew scrambled to recover. “Yeah. I’m just too upset to think straight. Stella’s everything to us. Hearing what she went … Read more
Chapter 4 Stella took a step back, heart pounding. She needed to leave now. Then a voice cut through the chatter. “Is that… Stella?” The room went quiet. Every head turned. Whispers erupted like wildfire. “It’s really her. God, look at her-three years did that to her?” “I heard she snuck out that night and … Read more
Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Silence stretched. Stella kept her eyes fixed on the passing scenery, her face unreadable. Max’s grip tightened on the wheel. “After everything you’ve been through, you still haven’t learned?” His voice turned icy. “Are you even listening to me?” Stella still refused to look at him, her words slow and deliberate. … Read more
Chapter 2 Stella froze. She hadn’t seen him yet, but that voice had haunted her dreams for years. In the past, whenever her parents and Max had treated her unfairly, it had been Lionel who comforted her, giving her the strength to keep going. He’d once promised her everything-that he’d go to military school, become … Read more
Chapter 1 The North was buried under a thick blanket of snow, the landscape a frozen white as far as the eye could see. A frail woman, dressed in threadbare clothes that did little to shield her from the cold, was carefully guided out by two policewomen. This was Stella Hayes, a survivor of abduction, … Read more
Chapter 10 She nodded understandingly. “Go ahead, I won’t blame you at all.” After getting that assurance, I spilled everything about the escape, including how I got the USB drive. 1 braced for Mom’s anger, but she just sighed softly. “I knew it.” She took my hand. “Let’s go. He saved you, we can’t just … Read more
Chapter 9 Katherine stared at me nervously. “Betty, what… what did you want to say?” I pointed at the flash drive, stumbling over my words at this critical moment. “F–flash drive… Betty got… got beaten.” Mom instantly understood, waving for Gerald to play the flash drive’s contents. Katherine collapsed onto the floor, scrambling backward while … Read more
Chapter 8 288 Vouchers Within an hour, professional mechanics swarmed our home. They thoroughly inspected every car Mom usually drove, discovering worn brake lines on each vehicle. As the mechanics put it, failure to detect this could’ve led to unimaginable disasters on the road. But how did Mom know about the car issues? Was it … Read more