CHAINED HEARTS

ights, Late

r as she pulled up in front of the high-rise building. She'd imagined this moment a hundred times - her book finally being turned into a movi

sleek hair and confident strides. This place - Veloria Heights - was nothing

and her best friend tangled in bedsheets. Betrayal and grief had blurred into one crushing darkness. Every street corner in her hometown whispered memor

the car, the wind catching strands of her long auburn hair. She di

r literary agent had fought tooth and nail to sell the adaptation rights of her novel, Ashes & Bloom, to them. Lia had agreed

f polished marble and perfume far too expensive for co

supposed to meet with my agent and the pr

the elevator to the twenty-third

ank

clicking on the floor, shoulders squared. She didn

his ear but long forgotten. His assistant droned on in his earpiece a

with them. Dated a few - kept m

. Real. She moved like she had a storm inside

s," he said, interr

on the other en

Red-brown hair. Black blazer. C

ir

stion. Jus

lingering on the elevato

agent, Marla, introduced her to a team of producers and creative execs, most of whom she couldn't even remember five

tely, but her a

he door

d commanding without effort. He didn't smile

mooth like aged whiskey. His eyes - a cold steel blue -

"Mr. Maddox, we didn

rward and extended his hand tow

e heat of his palm sha

little empire." His lips cur

le. "Didn't expect the em

when it comes to th

stir low in her stomach.

k a seat across from her, his gaze never straying. L

t second... sh

ator alone, relieved to escape. But just bef

kt

cou

to the cor

've been through wa

ked. "Ex

lized." He looked at her, dead serious. "It

d. "Glad you

enjoyed it. I

sure whether to be fl

s intense with peop

nes I want to k

. She stepped out w

to erase Viktor Maddox's eyes from her thoughts. Men like him were dangero

had enou

new life. She was in control now. N

at a security camera screenshot of her

ting," he murm

sked, "Do you want me to inv

yes locked o

t. Let her

ew

the first chapter

O

you read