MasukElena's Pont Of View"Yes, I am gullible! I am completely stupid for believing a single word that came out of her mouth!" The words tore from my chest, raw and jagged, slicing through the heavy drone of the jet's engine. My voice fractured under the weight of it all, hot tears finally spilling over and carving slow, burning paths down my bruised cheeks. Each breath felt like swallowing glass. I leaned forward against the biting pressure of the zip-ties, my glare cutting into Graham's pristine, aristocratic face. Even now, even here, he looked immaculate… not a hair out of place, his suit pressed to perfection. The sight of his composure made my rage burn hotter, a white-hot fury that threatened to consume me from the inside out. "But you will never understand it," I said, shaking my head as my lips twisted into a bitter, trembling line. The words came out thick with emotion, each syllable weighted with years of buried pain. "No one would ever understand it unless they were forced to
Elena's Point Of ViewThe sharp, chemical-sweet stench of chloroform still clung to the back of my throat when consciousness finally knitted itself back together, piece by fractured piece. My eyelids felt weighted with lead. I blinked heavily, my vision swimming in a blurry mess of bright white light that seemed to pierce straight through to my skull. A low, persistent thrumming vibrated through the soles of my shoes and up into my bones, setting my teeth on edge.The air felt thin. Dry. Wrong. It tasted recycled, artificial… nothing like the musty hospital smell I'd expected. I tried to raise my hand to press against my throbbing temples, but my wrist refused to move. A sharp, heavy snap of metal ground against metal, the sound cutting through my disorientation like a knife. My eyes flew wide open, the fog of confusion instantly melting into cold, spiking panic. I looked down, my breath catching in my chest. This wasn't a hospital room. I wasn't even on solid ground. I sat in a pl
Elena's Point Of ViewMy eyes widened as the full weight of the situation finally settled into my brain like a stone sinking to the bottom of a dark lake. The sheer horror of it made my stomach drop into a bottomless pit. God, I had been such a complete, utter fool. I had walked straight into the slaughterhouse because I thought, for one single second, that a piece of her might still be human.That somewhere beneath the greed and selfishness, there might be a mother who actually cared about her daughter's wellbeing. She wasn't. She was just a broker, and I was the merchandise. She was selling me out... again. Just like she'd done when she'd pushed me toward Graham in the first place, dazzled by his money and status. "You're a monster," I whispered, the words coming out cold and hollow as I looked at her. I wanted them to hurt, wanted them to cut, but her expression didn't even flicker. There was nothing there to wound… no conscience, no maternal instinct, no love. "I'm a realist, sw
Elena's Point Of ViewI turned my back on her before she could even open her mouth to scream, walking toward the heavy door without a single backward glance. My fingers clamped around the silver handle, cold metal biting into my palm. I pulled. It didn't budge. A sharp spike of irritation pierced my chest as I frowned. I jerked the handle harder, the metal clinking loudly against the frame, but the mechanism remained entirely dead. Someone had locked it from the outside. The realization sent a cold trickle of unease down my spine. "What the hell..." I muttered, my fingers straining against the unyielding handle. The metal bit into my skin as I rattled it again, my heels pivoting on the linoleum as a cold, prickling sensation began to climb up the back of my neck. Nothing. The door might as well have been solid stone. My pulse quickened, a warning bell starting to chime in the back of my mind. I spun around, my eyes flashing as I locked them onto the woman in the bed. Heat flooded
Elena's Point Of ViewMy mother shrugged her thin shoulders, casually wiping a drop of apple juice from her chin with the back of her hand. "Oh, please, Elena. Don't look at me like that," she said, her tone almost cheerful, as if we were old friends catching up over coffee. She took another bite, the crunch echoing in the small room. "You wouldn't see me any other way. I've been calling your office for six months and your little secretary bitch keeps blocking my number." The venom in that word was casual, practiced. "I had to do this. I had to get creative to get my own flesh and blood into the same room as me." I let out a short, hollow scoff, a dry chuckle that didn't reach my eyes. "So you lied. You had your little neighbor friend stage a full medical emergency. Wow." I shook my head slowly, feeling something hard and final settling in my chest like a stone. "Heather was right. She called it down to the exact syllable." Cynthia's face soured instantly, her comfortable demeanor t
Elena's Point Of ViewThe car crawled at a glacial pace down the crumbling street, the uneven pavement jolting me against the plush leather seat. I couldn't stop my eyes from drifting to the left, and then, there it was. The house. The exact peeling, off-white bungalow where my entire childhood had been systematically dismantled, piece by piece. The front porch was rotting even worse than I remembered, the old rusted screen door hanging off its hinges like a broken wing. The paint had faded to a sickly yellow-gray, and weeds choked the small front yard where I'd once tried to plant flowers, desperate to create something beautiful in that place of ugliness. Those flowers had died within a week… I'd been too young to know they needed water, and there had been no one to teach me. A heavy, suffocatingly bitter feeling washed over my chest, hot and thick, choking the air from my lungs. My throat constricted as memories I'd buried deep clawed their way to the surface.I ripped my gaze aw
Elena’s Point Of ViewFor a second, he didn’t move. He just stared at me, his gaze roaming over my face, my body, like he was memorizing every inch of me.Then… “Are you sure that’s what you want?”His voice was a growl, low and dangerous, like he was holding back something feral. I nodded, my thro
Jaxx’s Point Of ViewThe weight of Roman’s words sat between us like a loaded gun.“It’s about your grandfather,” he’d said, and even now, the echo of it rippled through my skull.I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to roll my eyes so hard they might stick. The old man, always the old man. He neve
Elena’s Point Of ViewFor a split second, the words didn’t feel real. My brain scrambled, tripping over itself, as if reality had bent into some impossible dream. My chest rose and fell, breath trapped halfway between panic and disbelief.This had to be a dream. It had to. My mind grasped for logic
Elena’s Point Of ViewI sat cross-legged on the bed, the duvet a mess beneath me, papers scattered across the sheets like a storm I hadn’t yet cleaned up. Folders stacked half-open, receipts folded into worn envelopes, property documents with my name scrawled on the edges, everything I’d quietly co







