Yes, I'm having the author's note up here for once. Why? Because this chapter is VERY important so I want your every thought on it. Don't hold back. A lot of things you may have suspected, and a lot you may have guessed. So if you were a silent reader, this is the best time to not be a silent reader anymore 😅
Why is this chapter important? Because it's the most information you will receive about the past until everything is explained in the last book. So enjoy.
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Saint Agnes Academy was only a skeleton of its former self. Many of the bricks have fallen in, leaving odd ones hanging like the decaying teeth of a giant, ancient monster.
As Maxi stepped into the taped off building, she couldn't help the dread sipping down her spine like the constant drip of an IV. The only lighting came through the fallen-in roof and the main hall of what once were the dorms was filled with scaffolds, but she could still visualize the way it looked twenty-five years ago when she'd stepped in for her senior year.
So long. It has been so long...
And yet, the past had never truly left her. Not since she met him and everything came crashing down.
A different image ruined the one of her last academic year. A large crowd right outside the huge doors, chanting, demanding change. That the Academy no longer accept people throwing fat checks at the faculty over the ones truly intellectually gifted. People like Nicholas Harkin.
And using the crowd, Snitch Gravel had made his grandest and final move. It had started with only a few well-placed people turning violent, shoving and swearing. It was amazing how so little managed to lead to a general riot, a stampede, looting, and finally and explosions that had rocked the school and left it the ruin it was today.
Maxi shut her eyes, trying to drive the images back, the feeling of agoraphobia as people pushed her from every side. The despair drowning her as she was almost trampled to death. Her and her unborn child. Kyle had been a magnet for danger even before he was born.
She bit her lip hard and forced herself back into the present. The scared little girl alone in the crowd was long gone.
After all the spilled blood and the damage, no one wanted to associate with the school anymore. No one would trust the faculty to keep their children safe.
And no one knew what happened to Snitch Gravel after that. Except for her.
His vengeful shadow followed her out, kidnapped her children and continued to make her life hell long after school was over. Long after she thought he was finally gone. As it turned out, he never left. And maybe within these walls was the perfect place to end him.
Maxi tightened her grip on the handle of the pistol she'd placed in the pocket of her trench coat. The chilly wind only intensified the freezing sensation brought by too many memories.
You can do this.
She should've done it a long time ago instead of hiding behind Freider, burying her past and hoping it would go away. It hadn't and it was time to own up and finish it. That is, if he even showed. What if he just wanted to kill her, make it look like an accident? It wasn't hard in this godforsaken place. All it took was for a brick or one of the scaffolds to fall at the right time.
The fear sent bile to her mouth and her fingers twitched. Had she fallen into a trap?
"Huh. Didn't think you'd actually show."
She jumped at the too familiar voice. A voice she hadn't heard in so many years, she'd almost forgotten how it sounded. Almost.
"I'm no coward." She glared in his direction and he finally bothered to come out into the open.
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Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)
Adventure"It's never going to end, is it? The rivalry, the hatred, the madness. Not even now. Not even after so many years." It has been three years since the last jewel was recovered, and the Agency seems to have put the project to rest. They have a new tar...
