Shattered Dreams, Stolen Lives

Shattered Dreams, Stolen Lives

Roderic Penn

5.0
Comment(s)
150
View
11
Chapters

The world first saw the crash. A cherry-red sports car, crumpled like a can, embedded in the ornate gates of the prestigious Blackwood Art Gallery. Inside, I was slumped over the wheel, a faint, serene smile on my lips that made no sense. Gallery staff rushed out, their faces pale, trying to pull my eyelids shut. They wouldn't stay closed. My wide, vacant eyes stared out, refusing to be silenced. The police called it a tragic accident. The powerful Blackwood family issued a brief statement, an attempt to smother the truth with their influence. But truth has a way of finding cracks. An intern leaked my autopsy report: tongue surgically removed, knees bruised with calluses, stomach filled not with food, but with gnawed animal bones and phlegm. My death became a national nightmare. People raged online, demanding #JusticeForJaneDoe. I watched as a wispy, translucent soul. Dr. Alex Peterson, the medical examiner, refused to be silenced, seeing past the official story. "This wasn't an accident," he said. "She delivered a message." Pressure from city hall mounted, ordering him to close the case. Then, something impossible happened. The stitches meant to keep my eyes closed snapped, and they opened again, a silent act of defiance. The internet erupted. My spirit couldn't rest. People began digging, finding old articles about "muse-slaves," human beings treated as living art objects. It felt terrifyingly real. Dr. Peterson defied his superiors, ruling my death a homicide. With public outcry, a full investigation began. But every lead was a dead end: no wallet, no phone, disabled GPS, conveniently malfunctioning cameras. I longed to scream names, places. The public's patience wore thin, protestors demanding answers. Then, a radical idea emerged: a "Memory-Reader," a device to access the last images in my brain. Against all odds, the authorities agreed. My body, cryogenically preserved, was placed on a stage. The Blackwood family sat in the front row, an obscenity of feigned innocence. Among them, Michael, my brother, with a troubled look in his eyes. Dr. Peterson fitted a chrome helmet to my head. The monitors flickered to life. Static. Chloe Blackwood's dismissive voice echoed, "What a waste of time. This is boring." But then, a jolt. The static cleared. The world was inside my head. A dimly lit room. My parents and a shadowy figure. "She is the price," my mother said, emotionless. "A daughter for a pigment. We can always have another." A collective gasp filled the auditorium. The truth began to unfold.

Introduction

The world first saw the crash.

A cherry-red sports car, crumpled like a can, embedded in the ornate gates of the prestigious Blackwood Art Gallery.

Inside, I was slumped over the wheel, a faint, serene smile on my lips that made no sense.

Gallery staff rushed out, their faces pale, trying to pull my eyelids shut.

They wouldn't stay closed.

My wide, vacant eyes stared out, refusing to be silenced.

The police called it a tragic accident.

The powerful Blackwood family issued a brief statement, an attempt to smother the truth with their influence.

But truth has a way of finding cracks.

An intern leaked my autopsy report: tongue surgically removed, knees bruised with calluses, stomach filled not with food, but with gnawed animal bones and phlegm.

My death became a national nightmare.

People raged online, demanding #JusticeForJaneDoe.

I watched as a wispy, translucent soul.

Dr. Alex Peterson, the medical examiner, refused to be silenced, seeing past the official story.

"This wasn't an accident," he said.

"She delivered a message."

Pressure from city hall mounted, ordering him to close the case.

Then, something impossible happened.

The stitches meant to keep my eyes closed snapped, and they opened again, a silent act of defiance.

The internet erupted.

My spirit couldn't rest.

People began digging, finding old articles about "muse-slaves," human beings treated as living art objects.

It felt terrifyingly real.

Dr. Peterson defied his superiors, ruling my death a homicide.

With public outcry, a full investigation began.

But every lead was a dead end: no wallet, no phone, disabled GPS, conveniently malfunctioning cameras.

I longed to scream names, places.

The public's patience wore thin, protestors demanding answers.

Then, a radical idea emerged: a "Memory-Reader," a device to access the last images in my brain.

Against all odds, the authorities agreed.

My body, cryogenically preserved, was placed on a stage.

The Blackwood family sat in the front row, an obscenity of feigned innocence.

Among them, Michael, my brother, with a troubled look in his eyes.

Dr. Peterson fitted a chrome helmet to my head.

The monitors flickered to life.

Static.

Chloe Blackwood's dismissive voice echoed, "What a waste of time. This is boring."

But then, a jolt.

The static cleared.

The world was inside my head.

A dimly lit room.

My parents and a shadowy figure.

"She is the price," my mother said, emotionless.

"A daughter for a pigment. We can always have another."

A collective gasp filled the auditorium.

The truth began to unfold.

Continue Reading

Other books by Roderic Penn

More
The Discarded Wife's Billion-Dollar Comeback

The Discarded Wife's Billion-Dollar Comeback

Romance

5.0

My life, carefully constructed over six blissful years with my amnesiac husband Julian and our sweet son Ethan, felt like a peaceful dream. I had found Julian injured on the roadside years ago, and together we built a loving, albeit simple, existence. Then, a sleek black car, a stark contrast to our humble Ohio home, pulled up outside, its occupants shattering our world. Julian's forgotten, aristocratic mother emerged, and with her presence, his lost memories violently flooded back. He looked at me, his wife, the mother of his child, and his eyes, once full of love, turned to chips of ice, dismissing our entire shared life as an "unfortunate chapter," a mere "embarrassment." His mother coolly offered me a shocking sum—a million dollars—to simply "disappear," while Julian stood by, silent, as his new fiancée, Veronica, openly sneered, calling me a pathetic "charity case." But in that moment of profound betrayal, something extraordinary happened: a terrifying premonition, a vivid flash of my future if I stayed. I saw years of excruciating humiliation, a desolate existence in their grand mansion where I was nothing but a servant, my beloved son Ethan tragically turned against me, and finally, my own confinement in a cold mental institution. The nightmare culminated with older Ethan, his youthful face twisted in pity, raising a syringe to me, whispering, "It's for the best, Mother," as darkness consumed me. Returning to the harsh reality of my porch, the raw pain of the present was strangely dulled, an old scar compared to the horror I had just witnessed. I knew with absolute certainty that I could not, would not, live that devastating fate again. So, when Julian's mother extended the check as a final dismissal, I met her gaze, outwardly calm but with a newfound, steely resolve. "Thank you," I said, my voice steady, then added my decisive condition: a fully funded MBA from a prestigious London university. This wasn't just a betrayal; it was my unexpected rebirth, a radical turning point to forge a future entirely on my own terms.

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Modern

5.0

I stood at my mother’s open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest’s voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone—he brought Charla with him. He claimed she’d had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

You'll also like

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison
5.0

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book