The Price of Family, The Cost of Love

The Price of Family, The Cost of Love

Gavin

5.0
Comment(s)
40
View
11
Chapters

The university acceptance letter, a full scholarship, felt like my ticket out of our forgotten town. I was Chloe Davis, and for eighteen years, I' d studied, dreamed of this escape. But when I showed it to my father, Robert, his eyes didn' t gleam with pride, but with a calculating hunger I knew too well. He announced a "celebration," but it was no party-it was a twisted auction. Middle-aged men, reeking of stale beer, assessed me like livestock, stuffing cash into my father' s pockets as he paraded me around. A churning dread solidified in my gut: I was the prize. My mother, Susan, stood by, a ghost of a smile plastered on her face, turning away when my eyes pleaded for help. When I tried to escape Frank Miller' s sweaty grip, my father' s fury erupted. "Smile, Chloe," he hissed. "Don't you dare embarrass me." Later, for a piece of pie, he backhanded me across the face, leaving me bleeding and dizzy on the kitchen floor. My mother' s only reaction was a sigh of annoyance before she followed him, leaving me in the dark. Lying there, the truth hit me: their "love" was a lie; I was merely a commodity. Then, from their bedroom, I heard it-the monstrous plot. "Frank wants to marry her... a fifty-thousand-dollar 'dowry.' Enough for Kevin's wedding." "She's a good girl, deep down. She just needs to understand that this is for the good of the family. It's her duty." My entire life, my body, my future, sold to an old man to pay for my cousin' s wedding and my father' s gambling debts. But the final dagger was my mother' s next whisper, my father' s rough affirmation: Kevin wasn't my cousin. He was my half-brother, my father' s illegitimate son with his sister-in-law, the golden boy for whom I had always been second, always sacrificed. Every childhood slight, every dismissal, every manipulation clicked sickeningly into place. They hadn't wanted me to succeed; they had kept me small, easy to sell. The girl who craved their love died on that cold kitchen floor. A cold, hard resolve took root: they had a plan for my future, a prison disguised as a marriage. But I had a plan too. They thought I was a compliant girl. They were about to find out how wrong they were.

Introduction

The university acceptance letter, a full scholarship, felt like my ticket out of our forgotten town.

I was Chloe Davis, and for eighteen years, I' d studied, dreamed of this escape.

But when I showed it to my father, Robert, his eyes didn' t gleam with pride, but with a calculating hunger I knew too well.

He announced a "celebration," but it was no party-it was a twisted auction.

Middle-aged men, reeking of stale beer, assessed me like livestock, stuffing cash into my father' s pockets as he paraded me around.

A churning dread solidified in my gut: I was the prize.

My mother, Susan, stood by, a ghost of a smile plastered on her face, turning away when my eyes pleaded for help.

When I tried to escape Frank Miller' s sweaty grip, my father' s fury erupted.

"Smile, Chloe," he hissed. "Don't you dare embarrass me."

Later, for a piece of pie, he backhanded me across the face, leaving me bleeding and dizzy on the kitchen floor.

My mother' s only reaction was a sigh of annoyance before she followed him, leaving me in the dark.

Lying there, the truth hit me: their "love" was a lie; I was merely a commodity.

Then, from their bedroom, I heard it-the monstrous plot.

"Frank wants to marry her... a fifty-thousand-dollar 'dowry.' Enough for Kevin's wedding."

"She's a good girl, deep down. She just needs to understand that this is for the good of the family. It's her duty."

My entire life, my body, my future, sold to an old man to pay for my cousin' s wedding and my father' s gambling debts.

But the final dagger was my mother' s next whisper, my father' s rough affirmation: Kevin wasn't my cousin.

He was my half-brother, my father' s illegitimate son with his sister-in-law, the golden boy for whom I had always been second, always sacrificed.

Every childhood slight, every dismissal, every manipulation clicked sickeningly into place.

They hadn't wanted me to succeed; they had kept me small, easy to sell.

The girl who craved their love died on that cold kitchen floor.

A cold, hard resolve took root: they had a plan for my future, a prison disguised as a marriage.

But I had a plan too.

They thought I was a compliant girl.

They were about to find out how wrong they were.

Continue Reading

Other books by Gavin

More
Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Contract With The Devil: Love In Shackles

Mafia

4.5

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

You'll also like

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book