Page 7 (1/2)

Chapter One

Ashley

I wasn’t used to being important

All my life, I’d been told how useless I was How I’d destroyedthe perfect man How men didn’t want a woman with a kid Before we moved to Crude Hill, I either hid out in hts camped out at a park, or down by one of the lakes while she pretended to be a single woman

I did all of that out of love

I loved my mother

So much

She was the worst and best person inA one frole to luxury He was a married man with a fahter, and for a short ti was perfect Or as perfect as it could have been He’d told eive While he hadout of the palm of his hand, he had a whole host of other plans for me

Strange how life turned out

The same man who held the threat of hter I befriended I didn’t do it on purpose E She was the best friend I never had before She didn’t have to stick up for me, but she did

She was the first and last person to put her life on the line for mine It was because of her that I was alive

Staring across aze away fro I would be sick if I didn’t

Earl Valentine

E, but now, for whatever reason, I’d been taken I was locked away on a boat Damn it I hated this

Why did people think it was so cool to go out in open water?

It was fucking scary

Sickness swirled within ut All I wanted to do was throw myself overboard and vomit

I didn’t

I couldn’t

The door was firmly locked from the outside

Fucking fuckers

I hadn’t eaten in hours

What was this gaame? I’d met Earl once, and I couldn’t even be sure if it was the same man

Seven years ago, at the party that had changed my life, I’d danced with a man He’d held me, stared at me, and for a short time, I’d felt like the only person who had existed in his world

Was it the same man?

I’d thought about him often over the years

This hat I’d turned into A woined a