Author name: Hauda.A

HANNAH Connor didn’t give up. He never gave up. Sunday night—one day before Oliver’s birthday—I got a call from an […]

OLIVER Connor’s text sat on my phone, mocking me. Photos of Hannah. Recent ones. He was still following her. Still

HANNAH Connor’s text sat on my phone like a grenade. I have a proposition. I knew what that meant. More

OLIVER I transferred the money that night. Sixty-five thousand dollars. Cleared Hannah’s debt to Harlan Pembroke by Monday morning. She

HANNAH “Connor is blackmailing you.” Oliver’s voice was flat. Deadly. The kind of calm that came before violence. I nodded,

HANNAH I had one week to find fifty thousand dollars. Fifty. Thousand. Dollars. I made forty-eight thousand a year. Before

HANNAH He came back twenty minutes later. I heard his knock—different from Connor’s aggressive pounding. Quieter. Almost hesitant. I should’ve

HANNAH Thursday night, I was two glasses of cheap wine into forgetting Oliver King existed when someone knocked on my

HANNAH Tuesday was worse than Monday. I’d thought the first day would be the hardest. That once I got through

HANNAH Monday morning, I arrived at King Industries at 7:45 AM wearing my best armor. Navy suit. Hair pulled back