Chapter 1After I Came Home

Three years ago, the man I loved most sent me away, exiling me from the country.

Three years later, I was finally allowed to return.

But I no longer loved Donovan Blackwood.

Still, everyone looked at me with warning in their eyes.

"Aurora, are you still trying to get your claws into Donovan? Still trying to ruin things between him and Victoria?"

"Three years abroad and you haven't learned a thing. Donovan was too soft on you; he never should have let you come back."

"Exactly. A venomous creature like her belongs in a jail cell, or dead and buried overseas."

I just watched them in silence.

But then...

I heard a piece of news, and my world shattered.

I started mumbling, over and over.

"Mike."

"Have you seen my Mike?"

"Please, don't be dead."

"You promised you'd come back for me."

I was lost in a haze of madness for a long time.

Finally, no one thought I was acting anymore.

Donovan pushed through the crowd and held me tight.

But his hands were trembling.

"Aurora, what's wrong?"

"Who is Mike?"

"Please, don't scare me like this."

* * *

I had been back in the country for less than an hour.

My phone had already lit up with more than a dozen warning messages.

"How dare you show your face here again?"

"Didn't anyone teach you a lesson over there? You're begging for it."

"Too bad the plane didn't explode and kill you."

…

I ignored the messages.

I just opened my laptop, went to my email, and quickly typed a new message.

It was simple.

"I made it back safely."

I hit send. The profile picture on the other end was a black void.

There was never a reply.

I stared blankly at the screen.

Hearing footsteps, I shut the laptop.

A woman with her hair in an elegant twist stood in the doorway. My mother.

"Rory, why are you looking at your mother like a stranger?"

I remained lost in thought for a moment longer.

My mother wiped a tear from her eye and left.

That night, I heard the sound of things crashing in the study.

"Is she blaming us?" my father's voice rumbled.

"She's the one who pushed Miss Prescott down the stairs. Victoria was in a coma for three months."

"Stop it," my mother's voice was sharp.

"It's all in the past. Donovan and Victoria are about to announce their engagement. We can't have any trouble now, not at a time like this."

The hand holding my water glass trembled slightly.

I turned and quietly slipped away.