"Things will never be the same again."
Gneiss Underwood never thought that he could have a shot of a normal life.
Growing up in an environment where everything defied sanity, guns and loneliness were his normal companions, if not danger and Death h...
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" Sometimes, strength is the courage to give up."
Number Eighteen
All Faye wanted was to be normal like anyone else. She envied those whose problems were passing calculus, confessing to the person they like, or whether their shoes match with their clothes. Sure, she wanted attention more than anyone else, and she would choose music over food. She's sassy, self-centered, immature... and so were other girls. So why? Why was this happening to her?
Was happiness too much for her to ask? The very thing that many others took for granted, couldn't she at least get a bit of it?
Growing alone as an orphan, Faye survived by being more upbeat and more confident than most. After all, if she didn't smile, she would be sulking and sobbing her eyes out in one corner. Her parents wouldn't have approved of that. They wanted her to succeed. To reach her dreams. To become the star that shines the brightest.
She resigned herself to an empty life in the show business. At least there, her fans needed her. She had long abandoned trying to be average.
Until Jared Hudson came along.
He was a part of her past. He was the bully of her childhood. They never got along. Enemies. Rivals. They would bicker and get under each other's skin whenever they're together. Above all, he was the one who filled the painful void inside her.
Without knowing when or how, she had fallen madly in love with the blond smartass.
When later she learned that the Jared she knew all along was a fraud, she was devastated. It was like the foundation holding her sanity was destroyed by a grenade, by dynamite, by a nuclear bomb, and she had no other path to take but to fall into oblivion.
But she didn't.
She knew that if there was one thing that wasn't a lie, it would have to be the bond formed between her and the pretender, Gneiss Underwood. She knew that they love each other. More than they would ever admit. It wasn't mere admiration or infatuation or lust. He had become her life. That was the reason why she allowed herself to fall into the hands of Creed.
Faye knew in the bottom of her heart that Gneiss left Creed in order to protect her. For years, he watched over her. She wasn't simply a mission. She was his priority. His eyes told her that – entrancing blue orbs filled with passion and determination, eyes that never once looked away from her to gaze at another.
To her, their love was more real than anything in this world.
But now, that very world was shattered.
In spite of everything, Faye smiled for him. Even as he stepped out of the room, possibly her life, she smiled as sweetly as she could. Even when tears came running down her face, she had the stupid smile plastered on her face. Her heart wasn't breaking; that would be putting it mildly. It was worse than any words could describe. Pain. Loss. Grief. Insanity. Her very soul was torn apart.
