Beauty and the Bad

Beauty and the Bad

Alice Marie

4.8
Comment(s)
26.1K
View
18
Chapters

What would you do, if you had the chance at a second life? Chloe Byrne has lived her life playing by the book, never stepping out of her comfort zone. Never partied. Never drank. Never kissed anyone. All that changes, when her father is taken from her in a fateful car accident. Chloe and her mother now have to up-root their home, and forget their old lives. Chloe now has a second chance at a new life – as Haley Quinn. Who exactly is Haley Quinn? A mysterious man, draped in dark ink and golden eyes, and he may just be the key to finding herself; Chloe or Haley. Would you take the chance at a second life, or watch it race by?

Beauty and the Bad Chapter 1 One

My life used to be normal. I had normal parents, went to a normal school, and had normal friendships. Never had a boyfriend, or skipped class, or even stayed out past curfew.

One person, in one accident, one fateful night, changed all of that. Because one person, decided it was okay to drink and drive. Because of that one person, and their stupid one-time decision; I lost my father. My mother lost her husband, and my grandparents lost their son.

After that night, everything in my normal life changed.

And became one hell of a life.

My mother sank to depression, and took whatever love knocked on her door; even the ones that tried to break them down. She started dating a younger man, who at my age of 16 was closer to dating me than her, but he liked the older woman.

Or should I say, the older woman who had money.

My grandparents were wealthy, and though we had decided as a family to live off our own income, they had left a large inheritance for my father, for when they had passed. The plan was to use part of it for my college, and the rest was to go towards my parents' retirement home.

But he was taken before they were, and we were given the money to help survive off one pay-check, tossing her dream retirement home out the window, and all her other plans for her future, and mine.

She thought she had found love in this young man, Jeremy, but only after a few months of dating him, she discovered he was a drug addict. Mostly addicted to coke, but dabbled with a bit of everything from time to time. My mother tried to look the other way, saying that he is 'sick', and she needs to help him.

But no matter how hard she tried to fight him to stop, he chose the drugs over her every time. And every time he came crawling back, because he was out of money and drugs, she would take him back with open arms. He would promise to get help in the morning, and then they would start their vicious cycle for another few months.

Those few months turned into two years, and things got way out of control. I thought my life had changed before, because of one fateful night.

I had no idea what else fate had in store for my mother and I.

Or how much death we would endure.

One summer night, Jeremy came home late, and he was distraught. My mother had stayed up waiting for him, and tried calming him down and asking why he was so upset, but he ignored her and demanded money. She said she didn't have much money left, and what she did, was to buy me new school supplies and clothes for my last year of school, which was supposed to start at the end of the summer.

He demanded she give him all of it, every last cent, or he was going to hurt her. She did as he had asked, but he had just become more enraged, screaming that it wasn't enough, and that he needed more. He started tearing through the house, turning everything over to try and find some secret stash he thought my mother was hiding from him.

I had hidden in my room the entire time, and waited for him to break down my door, yelling at me to give him whatever money I had made from my small part time job at the local community center, teaching dance to children. I tried to tell him I didn't have anything, and he slapped me across the face.

My mother had then come rushing into the room, and tried to get him to stop, but he was too enraged and blinded to even see her, so he knocked her down too. Jeremy had run out of the room when someone started to bang on the front door. My mother and I stayed in my room, and listened as he and another man argued loudly in the living room.

Suddenly, gun shots had went off, and we heard one thud on the ground. My mother tried to muffle our screams, and rushed back out into the living room to make sure Jeremy was alright, despite how much I had yelled at her to stat put until whoever was alive was gone.

It was Jeremy who had been shot, by some burly bald man, twice the size of my mother and I. He looked straight at her before she could make a move towards Jeremy, and I stayed hidden behind the hallway door, peeking through the crack.

"Speak a word of this to anyone, and I'll kill your entire family, " the man said to my mother, his words coated in a thick Irish accent, before he ran out the door and disappeared. My mother snapped out of it and rushed over to Jeremy, and cried over his corpse.

Despite what the man had said, she had immediately called the police; and told them everything. She gave them a clear description of the man, and everything she knew about Jeremy and their connection. Turns out, he had been Jeremy's drug dealer, and he owed money, that much had been obvious.

That was when my life changed for the second time.

The police were never able to capture the man.

My mother and I were placed into witness protection, and moved half-way across Australia. We had to up-root ourselves, and leave everything we knew and loved behind. I couldn't tell anyone where I was going, or why I was leaving. I wasn't even able to say good-bye to my friends or grandparents. None of them were able to know what was happening.

My identity was stripped.

I am no longer Chloe Byrne.

After that day, I became Haley Quinn.

Continue Reading

Other books by Alice Marie

More

You'll also like

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Roderic Penn
4.5

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.

Abandoned Ex-Wife: Now Untouchable

Abandoned Ex-Wife: Now Untouchable

Tao Yaoyao
5.0

My five-year-old daughter was dying in the ICU, her heartbeat replaced by the continuous, electronic scream of a flatline. I gripped her cold hand, my throat sealed shut by a terror so absolute I couldn't even cry out. I dialed my husband Grayson's private number, the one reserved only for me and his assistants. He declined the call instantly. A second later, a text buzzed against my palm: "In a meeting. Do not disturb. Stop calling." Five miles away, Grayson was at a luxury gala, adjusting his silk tie and laughing with Belle Escobar. He told her I was just being "dramatic" and using our daughter's "fever" as an excuse to avoid the event. He had no idea Effie's heart had already stopped. When I finally reached our penthouse, soaked from the rain and carrying Effie's small socks in a plastic bag, Grayson didn't even look at me. He snapped at me for ruining the hardwood floors and asked if I'd left Effie with the nanny just to "feel sorry for myself." Three days later, while I buried our daughter in a small, lonely ceremony, Grayson was at the Hamptons. Belle posted a photo of him golfing with the caption: "A mental health day with the boys." He didn't even attend the funeral, but he returned home demanding I clear out Effie's room to make a study for Belle's son. The injustice burned through me until there was nothing left. I swallowed a handful of sleeping pills, desperate to join my daughter. But instead of the darkness, I woke up to blinding lights and the scent of Grayson's expensive cologne. I was standing in a ballroom, wearing a blue silk dress I had already burned. Above me, a banner read: "Happy 5th Birthday Kaiden & Effie." I was back, exactly one year before the tragedy. This time, I wasn't going to be the grieving wife. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

Woke Up Married To A Secret Zillionaire

Woke Up Married To A Secret Zillionaire

Amelia Rivers
5.0

I went to the New York City Clerk's office to handle a simple administrative matter, but the woman behind the glass handed me a nightmare instead. It was a certified marriage license from Clark County, Nevada, filed exactly three months ago. My vision blurred as I read the name in the spouse field: Baxter Noel. I was legally married to the ruthless billionaire whose legal team was currently suing me for intellectual property theft and trying to destroy my career. I remembered the conference in Las Vegas and a drink that tasted far too sweet, followed by a twelve-hour black hole in my memory that I had chalked up to exhaustion. When I sought help at my family's estate, my stepmother and sister didn't offer comfort; they stole my passport, shredded my clothes, and framed me for academic plagiarism to strip away my university fellowship. Even Baxter himself looked me in the eye with cold indifference, claiming he didn't know me and promising to have me arrested for fraud if I ever showed him that document again. Within twenty-four hours, I was homeless, jobless, and being hunted by the most powerful man in the city. I couldn't understand why a man who "eats people for breakfast" would be caught in the same trap as a struggling scientist like me. The confusion turned to pure terror when I looked at the witness signature on the license: Gene Mcclain. My mother, who was supposed to have died in a car crash ten years ago, had signed that paper with a fresh, trembling hand only ninety days ago. "I am holding a grenade, and I have no idea when the pin was pulled." Standing in the biting November wind with nothing but a laptop and a marriage license, I realized I was just a pawn in a much deadlier game. I stopped running and began to fight back, determined to use my unwanted status as the billionaire's wife to uncover the truth about the mother who came back from the dead.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Beauty and the Bad Beauty and the Bad Alice Marie Romance
“What would you do, if you had the chance at a second life? Chloe Byrne has lived her life playing by the book, never stepping out of her comfort zone. Never partied. Never drank. Never kissed anyone. All that changes, when her father is taken from her in a fateful car accident. Chloe and her mother now have to up-root their home, and forget their old lives. Chloe now has a second chance at a new life – as Haley Quinn. Who exactly is Haley Quinn? A mysterious man, draped in dark ink and golden eyes, and he may just be the key to finding herself; Chloe or Haley. Would you take the chance at a second life, or watch it race by?”
1

Chapter 1 One

10/04/2019

2

Chapter 2 Two

10/04/2019

3

Chapter 3 Three

10/04/2019

4

Chapter 4 Four

10/04/2019

5

Chapter 5 Five

11/04/2019

6

Chapter 6 Six

13/04/2019

7

Chapter 7 Seven

15/04/2019

8

Chapter 8 Eight

18/04/2019

9

Chapter 9 Nine

18/04/2019

10

Chapter 10 Ten

22/04/2019

11

Chapter 11 Eleven

28/04/2019

12

Chapter 12 Twelve

02/05/2019

13

Chapter 13 Thirteen

10/05/2019

14

Chapter 14 Fourteen

16/05/2019

15

Chapter 15 Fifteen

25/05/2019

16

Chapter 16 Sixteen

31/05/2019

17

Chapter 17 Seventeen

03/06/2019

18

Chapter 18 Eighteen

04/06/2019