Sometimes when I think about the past, I fall apart inside.

My father always said that in life we had a lot of choices to make but there some decisions that almost impossible to make. One of them was to accept or run away from the past. I used to ask which one was easier and he'd reply none. They were both equally hard, but only wise choose the right one. He said you could run away from your past all your life, but it always catches up to you, slowly but surely.

"Accepting your past may be hard, but once you have, you will come out stronger than you could ever imagine." Those were his exact words. Right now I wished I'd listened to him.

Everything and everyone stopped moving. I wanted to run; I wanted to escape the madness that seemed to be closing in on me. It's like I'm drowning, but no one hears me scream, I'm falling, but I never hit the ground.

The only thing that seemed to exist was me in my pit of endless despair; all my worst nightmares were coming alive. The room started spinning; I couldn't breathe everything was closing in on me. I needed to leave this room before I fainted.

Bella nudges me in the side, and I look up to find everyone staring at me. "Is she deaf?" someone mocks. I soon realize that is Ivy who just spoke. I focused my attention on the slender redhead; she had green forest eyes, plump lips coated with dark red lipstick. She was beautiful, but like almost all wealthy women she wore too much makeup that made her look like a clown than anything else.

I avert my eyes from Ivy and look at Jax. I gasp when I find he's already starting at me, his gaze made me shudder.

Mr. Valentine looks at me with a glare on his face, "I said you are dismissed, Miss. Black," he said in an aggravated tone. I dash out of the dining room and head to our rooms. I walked into the room and laid on the couch trying to calm my nerves.

Jax Valentine was a name that made me tremble with fear. He'd been one of my mother's regular customers; he was extremely sadistic. Jax lived on the pain on others, and he'd taken a liking to me much to my dismay. He'd treated me like an animal and my mother she didn't care. Tears burn in my eyes as I remember the things he'd done to me.

Bella and Livia walk into the room looking worried. Bella scans my face as if trying to find hidden answers. "Is he one of them," She asked softly as she took a seat on the floor next to the couch. I nod slowly, they both knew about my past. During our many years of friendship, we'd meet many of the men that paid huge amounts of money to use my body. "I'm going to kill him," Livia sneers she stood behind Bella with crossed arms wearing a scary scowl on her face.

"Please don't," I plead. They didn't know what Jax was capable of; he was the devil's child. There's fire in his eyes that I'd never seen anyone possess. There was no light in him; he's empty and heartless. I could still remember every little detail about him, from his jet black hair to his cold gray eyes. He was lean, but he had a bit of muscle. He'd beaten me like an animal like I had no feelings like I had no value or worth. Like I was dirt on his feet, and my mother didn't care.

"V you can't keep doing this. You need to stop running," Bella urges. I've been running all my life; I couldn't stand up to my past it held too many secrets, too many nightmares. Sometimes I wish I could do it, walk around without a care in the world. I wanted to be happy; I'd forgotten what it felt like to feel joy.

All the light that I once opposed was snatched away from me. "Violet let yourself live again your mother is dead, no one is going hurt you anymore," Livia states. My mom had died in an accident, or at least that's what my dad told me.

After all those years of suffering, she put me through I still couldn't find it in me to hate her. I've spent countless nights lying in bed thinking of what I might have done to her for her to hate me so much.

I was a victim of my stupidity. "You won't understand," I said to Bella and Livia. We looked at each other in silence. "You haven't told us what happened in Xavier's office," Livia states. I gulp wondering how I would tell them the news about Rose.

"Well, you see Xavier said Rose is-" I stop and look at them with tears in my eyes. "Rose is what?" Bella asked eagerly. I stay silent for a while trying to decide how to tell them. I take a deep breath and then I finally speak, "Rose is dead," I mumble and wait anxiously for their reaction.

Bella stands up from the floor and begins to pace around the room, repeating the word 'no.' Livia stands there frozen too shocked even to speak. I sat there in silence, Bella falls onto the ground letting out a sob.

I rush over to her and kneel beside her, wrapping my arms around her pulling her into a hug, "Rose can't be gone. She can't," she sobs into my shirt. "It's going to be okay," I cooed, lightly rubbing her back. Livia kneels beside us. I see a single tear run down her cheek, the sorrow in her eyes evident. "It's going to be okay Bella," she reassures, "But now more than ever we need to continue Rose's investigation."

Bella pulls away from me, sniffling a bit. She nods agreeing with Livia, "We should go now we have a huge advantage two people on the suspect list are in this house with us. We could follow them carefully," she suggests. "Okay let's leave now we could go through the back, so no one sees us," I said.

"What about the alarm? We have no excuse; the guards will never let us out," Bella said. "Don't worry about that I have the card Rose uses to disable it," I said smugly, pulling out the card from my pocket. She'd given it to me a week before she got shot, it's like she knew we would need it. "Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go," Livia orders. We get up and get all the things we might need. Once we're done, we leave the room and walk to the kitchen quietly and slide out if the back door.

Bella and Livia run over to the gate. Fortunately for us, there's no one guarding the gate. I run over the machine that controls the alarm and shut it down. I give the girls a signal telling them to go out. Once they're out, I put the alarm back on and quickly get out. We get take out our torches and head to the cabin. I walk to the cabin with shaky feet; I'd turned back numerous times to make sure no one followed us. As we approach the cabin, I let out a breath of relief.

"Okay let's get down to work," Bella said once we'd entered the cabin. I walk over to the desk and grab the paper that was labeled 'Suspects Info.' I hand it over to Bella, "There should be information about Ivy and Jax in there," I said. She passes some of the papers to Livia, while I look for the file labeled 'Clues.'

We sat there in silence scheming through the papers trying to find something useful. "I've got something!" Livia exclaims. "It says here that Ivy King is the daughter of Richard King the owner of a very powerful cartel in Russia, she might be the one leading the attack happening on the 5th of May."

"Violet didn't you say-" Bella stops talking at the sound of something falling to the ground. I shook in fear, somebody followed us into the woods. Bella stands up and grabs a touch. She looks at us and mouths 'I'm going.' I stand to my feet and take out the knife I kept in my pocket for emergencies after the incident with Abel and Rose's shooting I knew we had to stay protected. I didn't want Bella going alone. We stand to walk out of the cabin.

Livia grabs my arm before I can leave. She rises from her chair and walks out with us. I hold my knife tightly as we walk out, Bella turns her flashlight left and right, but we see no one. "There's no one here," she whispers. I'm about to speak when Livia let's out screams.

It all happened so fast, Livia falls to ground her leg bloody. Bella kneels beside Livia tending to her wound. I grab her flashlight and see a dark figure running away. My legs seemed to have a mind of their own; I run after the mysterious figure. My chest begins to burn, I know I can't run anymore. I stop running my breathing heavy, the person I'm chasing turns for a split second giving me a glimpse of their eyes. We look at each other, and then they dash off into the night. I knew those eyes.

I turn and make my way to Livia and Bella. I find them on the ground where I left them. "We have to go back to the mansion. I need to clean her wound," Bella says as I approach them. I nod everyone should be sleeping by now and hopefully, the guard on duty would be nice. Bella and I helped Livia up, we put her arms on our shoulders and make our way to the mansion.

As we approach the gate of the mansion, I smile when I see Steve. Steve was a friendly forty-year-old guard, I'd met him on my second day here, unlike all the other guards he smiled.

"What are you girls doing out here so late and what happened to Livia's leg?" he questions with wide eyes. I pause, thinking of a lie to tell him. "We went out to see the stars. It's something Rose liked to do, and we just miss her. We were playing around, Livia fell and cut her leg on a piece of glass," Bella lied, she's always been the best lair. "Okay, I'll let you off just this once but no more sneaking out," Steve said sternly. We nod, "Thanks, Steve," Livia said quietly.

He smiles at us and opens the gate. We walk into the house as quickly as we can. Once we've reached our room, Bella and I place Livia on her bed gently. "Get me the first aid kit," Bella orders. I walk over to the cabinet where the first aid is kept and take it out, passing it to Bella.

I watched as she cleaned Livia's wound. I ponder on who the person in the woods could be. I knew I'd seen those eyes before; this was all too confusing. "V get some sleep you look exhausted, I'll take care of Livia," Bella said with a warm smile. Sending her a weak smile and lay on the couch. I stare up at the ceiling hoping that tomorrow will be filled with fewer problems. I feel my eyes grow heavy, a picture of my mother runs through mind before I fall into dark dreams.

******************

I woke up with a groan. I look around and find Livia and Bella have already left. I got up from the sofa and headed to the bathroom. I walk through the empty hallway, my mind clouded. I wished Rose was here maybe then she would explain what she meant by 'This story is about you each one of you' I'm sure neither Bella, Livia or I have met Mrs. Valentine, so how could we possibly have anything to do with her disappearance. Perhaps my dad would know he always seemed to have secrets I didn't know about. I had to talk to him.

I stop walking as I approach a door. Loud voices were coming out of it. Letting my curiosity get the best of me, I walked closer to the door, placed my ear on it and listened carefully. "Maria can't expect me to kill those girls!" someone who sounded like a man yelled. "Abel you have no choice," some else said sternly. I inched closer to the door at the mention of Abel; I knew this had something to do with Bella, Livia and me. As if we didn't have enough problems as it is.

"Those girls have gotten close to Xavier and his friends. If I kill them, it will draw too much attention. Maria can't make me do this!" Abel exclaimed. So many questions ran through my mind, Who was Maria? Why did she want us dead? It seems like everyone wants to kill us.

I squeal when I someone roughly drags me away from the door. My breathing stops when I see who pulled me. It was Jax; he stood in front of me in a fancy suit, his eyes were fixed on my body. A wicked smirk forms on his face, I shiver in fear at the sight of it.

"Don't you know it's impolite to eavesdrop?" he asked mockingly. I didn't reply. I was paralyzed with fear, what would happen if he recognized me? I knew I was strong enough to escape from his grip, but I was too scared to do anything. I wanted to slap myself cause of how weak I sounded.

"Not much of a talker huh?" Jax asked, I gave no reply. He nodded and said, "Good. I don't like girls that talk they all think their opinions need to be heard."

He moved closer to me and placed his hand on my waist dangerously close to my ass the other hand held my left arm tightly; I began to panic. "You're beautiful, no wonder Xavier couldn't keep his eyes off you last night," he said in a tone that made my skin crawl. I needed to get out of this situation, my first instinct was to run, but I knew that would only make him want me more. Like all predators, he liked the chase. He looks up at me with a charming smile. I once read somewhere that sociopaths opposed charming personalities. It made me think of Jax and wonder if this is how he got women into his bed, he'd charm them and pretend like a saint, but slowly the devil that dwelled deep within him would be unleashed.

His hands travel down on my body and rest on my ass, deciding that is going too far I find the courage to speak "Please let me go," I said quietly. He ignored my words and continued his actions; I begin to struggle out of his grip. He groans, "Struggling only makes it worse darling, accept the pain," he whispered darkly.

Images of the horrors he'd done to me flash through my mind, I feel tears burn in my eyes. My mind transports me to that hell, and I'm taken back into the darkness, "Please no, don't hurt me please," hot, salty tears ran down my cheek. My breathing becomes heavy; the room started spinning. Flashes of men using my body ran through my mind. I couldn't breathe, I fall on the door paralyzed. "Please don't, I'm your daughter you can't do this," I sobbed.

The last thing I see is Xavier before the darkness consumes me.

Author's Note (Please read)

Hello, Everybody. I finally updated. Tried to make this chapter long, I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Just wanted to let you know that updates are going to be slow cause I'm swamped, but I will try to update every Friday and Sunday.

Okay so Loving Broken hit 3K READS woohoo 🎊

I'm so happy I could faint. Thanks so much for all the support guys I appreciate it.

And a special shout out to emilymorgenstern31 thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave, they make my day. You all should check out her profile; she's really nice and friendly.