IN THE HANDS OF TIME

IN THE HANDS OF TIME

peteralfred

5.0
Comment(s)
19
View
10
Chapters

"What do you think you're doing?!" Raye asks the moment the door closes behind them, her vision glazed with controlled fury. The corner of his mouth tilts to a smile, unfazed by her outburst "Getting you back". ~~~ Raye and Kohen are childhood friends turned lovers, but obstacles threaten their adolescent love and an unresolved misunderstanding drives a wedge between them for good-or so they think. What happens when their paths collide once more and they're forced to confront the past?

IN THE HANDS OF TIME Chapter 1 Beginnings

Rachel Sawyer was perched with her legs crossed on the Anderson mansion's library soft carpet. With her was 'The Secret Garden.' She took advantage of the collection of books in the mansion while her mother tutored the family's son.

A shadow fell over her page and she looked up, annoyed.

"Do you mind telling me what you're reading?" asked the boy with a head of curly brown hair of which green eyes peeked out curiously, standing right above her.

"Don't you need to be in your study room?" Rachel asked, clutching the book to her chest.

Kohen shook his head, "Nicole allowed me to spend some time off, so she can take a break." He always referred to Rachel's mother by her first name. "What are you reading?" He repeated the question.

"Nothing of your interest" Rachel answered unbothered.

"How can you be so sure of what might attract my attention?" He sat down next to her without waiting for an invitation. "You don't even know me."

"I know that you are overindulged," Rachel snapped back as she moved away. "And that you made Mrs. Peterson quit last month by putting frogs in her purse."

A grin spread on his face showing the dimple on his left cheek. "They were toads." In an effort to hold back, Rachel could feel the corners of her mouth pulling back into a smirk. "That makes it worse." "I'm bored," Kohen said, lounging on his back. Rachel chose to ignore him and his idle chatter, focusing back on her book.

After a stretch of silence, Kohen sighed "You're really no fun".

Rachel squinted. "I am plenty fun. I simply think putting amphibians in people's possessions does not merit as entertainment."

"Prove it," he said, leaning closer. "Prove that you are fun."

That challenge made Rachel feel something she couldn't explain. A certain kind of determination. But it was a challenge that needed to be undertaken. She kept her book open and pushed it aside.

"All right. Let's go."

Twenty minutes later, the two of them found themselves dangling from the limbs of the huge oak tree that graced the Andersons' backyard, their laughter on the summer breeze.

"I told you that I could climb higher!" Rachel shouted down at Kohen who was struggling several feet below her.

"That is because you weigh nothing," he puffed, trying to hoist himself up another branch. "I bet in a strong wind you would float away!"

Rachel gave a roll of her eyes. "Excuses"

As Kohen reached for the next branch, he made a slip with his foot. His very breathable moment of hanging from the limbs of the tree with his legs in the air seemed like an endless one.

"Kohen!" Rachel shouted after him. Her voice was taut with worry.

He grunted and swung his legs to reclaim a steady position on the branch and grinned at his victory. But his delighted smile vanished through the grimace Rachel exhibited.

"Did you actually care about me, Sawyer?" he beckoned playfully, a fusion of sarcasm and adoration present by calling her surname in a peculiar manner.

"No," she said and frowned; her heart still racing. "I just didn't feel like explaining how you broke your neck trying to show off to your parents."

His grin returned. "I wasn't showing off."

"God you're always showing off." She replied while beginning her careful descent. "And it is so annoying."

Once safely back on the ground, Kohen playfully nudged her shoulder. "So same time tomorrow?"

Rachel tried to maintain her serious expression but wasn't able to. "Maybe. If you can try to keep up."

"Oh, I can keep up," he replied confidently and smiling the whole time. "In fact, I bet at the end of summer, we'll be best friends"

Rachel rolled her eyes "I already have a best friend."

There was a brief pause. "You don't." Kohen responded with the casual confidence of someone stating that the sky was blue. "You read books instead of making friends. But that is fine, now you have me."

"I never agreed to that. I don't become friends with individuals who don't respect my books," Rachel objected, though there was no opposition in her tone.

Kohen shrugged. "You didn't have to. I decided for us. And my parents believe fiction is a waste of time."

Rachel's eyes widened, visibly scandalised. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

Kohen looked shocked for a moment before he was swept with laughter.

As she made her way to the house, Rachel battled a smile.

"For a person who's homeschooled, you're not very smart," she said reflectively.

Kohen's jaw fell open in mock offense. "Take that back!"

"Oh, catch me," Rachel teased, then took off for the house, laughing as she went.

Kohen ran after her, his longer legs easily covering the distance. "Just wait, Sawyer! This is war!"

It was six months since Rachel and Kohen had first met. In spite of their opposite views of the world, the two were fast becoming friends, a relationship that would shape their destiny for better and worse.

But for now, they were merely Rachel and Kohen-the pampered son of the more affluent class Andersons and his tutor's daughter.

Continue Reading

You'll also like

He Thought I Was A Doormat, Until I Ruined Him

He Thought I Was A Doormat, Until I Ruined Him

SHANA GRAY

The sterile white of the operating room blurred, then sharpened, as Skye Sterling felt the cold clawing its way up her body. The heart monitor flatlined, a steady, high-pitched whine announcing her end. Her uterus had been removed, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't clot. It just kept flowing, warm and sticky, pooling beneath her. Through heavy eyes, she saw a trembling nurse holding a phone on speaker. "Mr. Kensington," the nurse's voice cracked, "your wife... she's critical." A pause, then a sweet, poisonous giggle. Seraphina Miller. "Liam is in the shower," Seraphina's voice purred. "Stop calling, Skye. It's pathetic. Faking a medical emergency on our anniversary? Even for you, that's low." Then, Liam's bored voice: "If she dies, call the funeral home. I have a meeting in the morning." Click. The line went dead. A second later, so did Skye. The darkness that followed was absolute, suffocating, a black ocean crushing her lungs. She screamed into the void, a silent, agonizing wail of regret for loving a man who saw her as a nuisance, for dying without ever truly living. Until she died, she didn't understand. Why was her life so tragically wasted? Why did her husband, the man she loved, abandon her so cruelly? The injustice of it all burned hotter than the fever in her body. Then, the air rushed back in. Skye gasped, her body convulsing violently on the mattress. Her eyes flew open, wide and terrified, staring blindly into the darkness. Her trembling hand reached for her phone. May 12th. Five years ago. She was back.

Betrayed Bride: Claimed By The Brother

Betrayed Bride: Claimed By The Brother

Reilly Mcardle

I arrived at the hotel with Julian's favorite takeout, ready to surprise my fiancé before our big merger. But the moment I swiped the keycard, the silence of the hallway felt heavy and wrong. Inside, a red-soled stiletto lay on the marble floor-the same one I'd watched my best friend Lila try on at Saks last week. Through the cracked bedroom door, I watched Julian's back arch as Lila looked me straight in the eye and smiled, wrapping her legs tighter around him to mock my heartbreak. I fled to the penthouse to hide, only to find Grafton, Julian's "crippled" brother, waiting in the dark. To my horror, the man who was supposed to be paralyzed stood up from his wheelchair, gripped my chin with cold fingers, and forced me to sign a contract that gave him control of my family's shares. He knew about my mother's secret medical bills and used them to buy my silence, effectively turning my life into a calculated game of corporate chess. The betrayal tasted like acid, and the injustice of it all burned in my throat. My fiancé was a liar, my best friend was a thief, and the man now controlling my fate was a predator who had been faking his disability for years. I couldn't understand how everyone I trusted had turned out to be a monster. I was trapped between a man who cheated on me and a man who wanted to own me, with no way out and no one to turn to. But when Julian came looking for me, Grafton didn't hide; he stood tall, looming over me with a possessive glint in his eyes. "Help me destroy Julian," I rasped, realizing that to survive the Faulkner men, I had to become the most dangerous player of them all.

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

Xiao Wang

The rain in Detroit was slick with grime when my family finally came to fetch me. They didn't want a reunion; they wanted a sacrificial lamb to marry into the Kaufman empire to save their failing business. I thought I was just being sold off, but the limo ride ended under a dark overpass where six hired thugs were waiting with chains. My own sister had ordered them to "break my spirit" so I’d be a shaking, pathetic mess by the time I reached the altar. They called me "Detroit trash" and sprayed air freshener when I sat on their leather seats. My stepmother wanted a video of me begging for my life, and my father was ready to trade me like a used car to a man everyone called a "vegetable." They expected a submissive country girl, unaware that I was a high-level "cleaner" who could snap a radius bone before they could even scream. When I finally reached the Kaufman estate, I found my fiancé, Barron, slumped in a wheelchair, drooling and silent. But as soon as the doors closed, the "invalid" grabbed my wrist with a grip of iron and whispered a command that changed everything. I didn't understand why my own blood was so desperate to see me destroyed. What had I ever done to deserve a hit squad and a forced marriage to a man they thought was a corpse? But Barron isn't a vegetable, and I'm not a victim. We just touched down at the Moon family gala in a matte-black helicopter, and as the doors slide open, the "broken" bride is about to show them exactly what happens when you throw away the wrong daughter. "If we're going to crash a party," Barron whispered, his eyes burning with lethal clarity, "we should make an entrance."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
IN THE HANDS OF TIME IN THE HANDS OF TIME peteralfred Romance
“"What do you think you're doing?!" Raye asks the moment the door closes behind them, her vision glazed with controlled fury. The corner of his mouth tilts to a smile, unfazed by her outburst "Getting you back". ~~~ Raye and Kohen are childhood friends turned lovers, but obstacles threaten their adolescent love and an unresolved misunderstanding drives a wedge between them for good-or so they think. What happens when their paths collide once more and they're forced to confront the past?”
1

Chapter 1 Beginnings

12/04/2025

2

Chapter 2 The Merger

12/04/2025

3

Chapter 3 Reunion

12/04/2025

4

Chapter 4 New Dynamics

12/04/2025

5

Chapter 5 Homecoming

12/04/2025

6

Chapter 6 Past Nemesis

12/04/2025

7

Chapter 7 The Girl Who Stole

12/04/2025

8

Chapter 8 Are You A Couple...

12/04/2025

9

Chapter 9 Home

18/04/2025

10

Chapter 10 Familiar Strangers

18/04/2025