Ethan's POVI could hear the noise increasing slowly from downstairs, I had warned Layla this would happen. I tried to ignore it at first but then they had to be shouting for me to be hearing them this clearly. I put my laptop aside, stretched my limbs and walked downstairs. I got there to find Layla, Derek and Annabeth sitting round the dinner table, Layla's eyes were already in my direction by the time I reached them. She had most likely heard me coming. The discomfort they were putting her through was very evident on her face. I was already pretty much irritated, trying to work and being disturb by meaningless quarrel was very annoying. "I warned you." I said in my head as I looked at Layla, I was definitely going to rub this in her face later."You two know you're in another man's house right? A man who's trying to get work done and who has kids upstairs." They both shut and sat frozen with their eyes fixed on me. Personally I would have just kicked them out there and then. I
Ethan's POVI watched silent as Annabeth took a pause from her episode took a breathe and look at us, she seemed more composed but still rattled up. "I've got to leave." She said I shot off up the stairs"Why? Where are you going?" Layla called after her and follow her up.I turned to Derek, in less than a minute he'd wreak absolutely havoc on us all. This is why I didn't involve Layla in my conversation with Lucas, I didn't see her as weak, no but I also knew that certain matters are delicate so they should be handled delicately. "When did you figure it out?" "Last night. I was going to tell you guys first but..." I raised a hand to cut him off, it didn't matter if he wanted to tell us earlier or not what did matter was that we had found Sedar and he was awfully closer than we thought, this entire time."Wait, just wait." The sound of a door shutting and hurried steps called out attention. Annabeth was basically running down the steps with Cho is her arms, she was leaving with h
Layla's POV Watching Annabeth leave felt like my world came crashing down on me. I couldn't believe my eyes when Derek showed me that picture, immediately my mind clicked and made the connection it was like my brain just went into autopilot. It felt like the cinema all over again, realizing that Sedar had been so close to me again, I had been so close to death. I was thankful for Ethan who caught me before I fell, God knows him being there was what helped me calm myself down. Then Annabeth had started her meltdown, I had expected a shocked reaction but not something of that intensity, she looked like we just told her, her entire life was a lie. "Annabeth wait." When I had tried to grab her when she dashed upstairs she basically pushed me away and snatched Cho. My reaction to that was slow, what had I done wrong? I was in as much shock and disorientation she was feeling so why was I the one getting this reaction from her. To be honest I was disappointed that Ethan just stood ther
Layal's POV"Okay." Annabeth's weak response came from the other side of the phone. Thank heavens maybe my little speech had knocked some sense into her."Okay? so you'll come stay here right?" "Not yet, I'll stay with a friend for a while. I want to stay with you guys but I can't risk messing up your lives even more." she sounded tired and I decided to let this matter rest for now. "Which friend?, where's Derek?", he had taken her home but he never called back so I guessed he was still with her."He left a while ago."He left?! Could he be any more of an asshole. He comes, drops a bomb like that leaves the two of us in a mess and then just drops her at home to be by herself. What was all the love talk about if this was all he could do. "He left you like this?" I was really starting to direct the anger i fel towards Derek, which obviously wouldn't end well. "It's not like that, i asked him to leave me alone. He kept apologizing when he wasn't at fault and I knew letting him see me
Ethan's POV Layla held Aria's hand as they walked through the toys section of the mall, happily grabbing everything that caught Aria's eyes. It was good to be free again, to not be watching over our backs. It had been two months since Sedar was finally caught and even know it still felt unreal. He was such a nuisance for so long it was weird with him gone. All the drama we went through because of him. I remember Layla suggesting we go to Nicole out of desperation and frustration and to be honest I was about to give in but I knew good would come of exchanging oke devil for another. We decided to not go that far and I was grateful we didn't, unfortunately even if we wanted to it was too late. Layla got a call from a family about two weeks later that Nicole had ended her own life. The warden said she was constantly screaming to be let out and that someone should call me or Layla but they didn't because that was unreasonable. A while after she hung herself. Layla was frozen to t
(Layla's Pov)The soft morning light slipped through my window. I blinked my eyes, stretching my arms as I sat up. “Ugh… It's time to wake up, Layla.” I put on a smile while I got out of the bed.“It's going to be another hectic day,” I sighed, looking at my reflection in the mirror before I went to clean up.“Miss Layla, the breakfast is ready,” the servant claimed, knocking on my door.“I'm going!” I replied, and hurried to dress myself.However, as soon as I opened the door, and walked out of the room, Nicole brushed against my shoulders knowingly.Not again. I sighed inwardly, turning around to escape the situation when she pulled my sleeves, and smirked sarcastically.“You look as pale as a ghost.” She sneered, looking up and down at me when I shook my head. “Did you just wake up?” She gasped, enlarging her eyes when I pouted my lips. “Yeah, you don't have any work to do unlike me so, you don't care about when you wake up.”I smiled, matching her eye to eye, “It's just that I pre
Three seconds. No, no, no. I think five seconds was all I needed to realize what this jerk in front of me was doing. As I managed to pull back and recreate the separation distance, I collapsed onto the cold marble floor.I haven't had time to scream for help and he's already pulled my arm roughly, slamming my body onto the bed before laying back down on me.The scream that came out of my mouth was so loud that the man covered one ear. He repeatedly cursed me with harsh words to tell me to be quiet. Even so, I kept trying to escape. Until I kicked his side. The man whimpered in pain as he collapsed on the floor. Not forgetting the swearing and eyes glaring right at me.When I saw an opportunity to escape, I quickly got out of bed despite my unsteady state. I fell because the man's hand managed to grab my ankle, but I pushed him so hard that I managed to reach the door and get out of that horrible room!I gasped, not knowing where to go. The hotel hallway felt so deserted and long as if
It felt like there was a big hammer hitting my head repeatedly making the pain more and more uncontrollable in all parts of my head. The situation around me seemed to be spinning around making it difficult for me to just wake up my body. I repeatedly blinked my eyes hoping that the pain in my head would decrease. When I felt my surroundings return to silence, I realized that the ceiling above my head felt unfamiliar. Then another reality struck me, this was not my bedroom!As I sat up, I realized that underneath the blanket I was wearing, only a tattered shirt was still clinging to my body. What happened last night?Even more shocking, it made me clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming out loud. I saw a shirtless man sleeping beside me. He was lying on his stomach without me being able to see his face clearly because he was facing sideways.Who is he? Why am I here without clothes with a strange man?I whimpered as the pain in my head returned. Although the pain still ruled