The Rejected Burden: Rising From The Shadows

, making it impossible to expand her lungs. Every time Grafton touched Bella's hair, ev

id. Her voice sounded distant, li

busy whispering something in B

into the plush carpet. Zoe started to follow her, but Isadora held up a hand, shaking

gold, empty for the moment. Isadora locked the door and slumped against it.

b that was clawing its way up her throat. She wou

water, splashing it onto her burning face. Her mascara was running, dar

It must have connected directly to the smokin

through it. Cle

got balls. Announcing a merger on Isadora's big

hovered over the fauce

He sounded relaxed, amused. "Isadora doesn't ca

way she looks at you? That's not 'sister' vibes.

shut. Please, Grafton. Def

oyed. "It is a little pathetic, isn't it? How she foll

silence that stretc

hed. It was a dry

ke a kid in a lot of ways. She needs me to look out for her. It's a lot of pressure,

urd

a p

ysical blow. Her knees actually buckled, hit

. She was a charity case. A weight he carrie

prickly. It was worse than the heartbreak. Hear

ldn't look him in the face knowing that

ntly, not caring that she was rubbing her skin raw. She l

d door on the f

the handle

rete hallway stacked with crates of liquor and bags of dirty

her hands and ran past confused busboys and kitchen staff. She

expected. It was pouring rain. A sudden summer dow

y door slamming shut behind h

d her hair, plastering it to her skull. The silk dress dar

ing on the wet cobblestones. She was shiverin

e were none. Just the endless rain and the dark,