When Love Became A Plot

ddle. Tonight, Liam Hayes, my husband of three years and a titan of the tech world, was the main event. He stood on the stage, a confident smile

stead, the massive screen behind him flickered to life, not wit

and my father was looking at her with a love so pure it was almost sacred. Then another photo flashed, and another. Each one was a sto

ld feel hundreds of pairs of eyes turning from the screen to me. T

Ava Stone

am do this? S

died. This i

so pale.

that started in my hands and spread through my entire being. My parents were gone, and this ma

e sound was loud in the suddenly hushed room. I pushed past

age, my voice barely a whisper. "Plea

once knew. There was no love there, no compassion,

ying through the microphone to every corner of t

d feel the cold radiating from him. One of his assista

s scanned the legal jargon, but the words that jumped out wer

e tech world. A young, brilliant prodigy Liam

y to Skylar, and I'll end this auction. Your parents'

s on the screen. He was using my dead parents, the most precious thing

ould barely hold the pen. "Why,

as if that explained everything. As if my l

ages on the screen, to the contract in my hands.

nature was a jagged, broken line, a testament to my shattered heart. I lau

he tablet from my hands. He gave a signal to the tec

, his fingers digging into my skin like steel clamps. It was nothing like the way h

he said, his

ul. I stumbled behind him, a prisoner being led away from her own ex