Shadow

1

Hello everyone! Welcome to the sequel, Shadow! When I started Loss, I didn't think it would become so popular that it would have a second book. But, here we are now thanks to all of you!

I appreciate all the support and love everyone has shown! Hopefully, this book will be just as good as the first! *crosses fingers*

Alright! Enough of my ranting!

Enjoy!

{+}{+}{+}

Marinette's P.O.V

We all have our secrets.

Whether it's for our own selfish reasons or to protect the ones we hold dear to us or even both.

Sometimes, we just want to leave secrets in the past and forget it ever existed. But, we can never escape something stuck with us for the rest of our lives. A stain that can never be removed or a scar that will never heal.

Sometimes, it's hard to trust people blindly when they could stab you in the back at any moment without you knowing. Secrets could tear families apart and break even the strongest of bonds that could've taken many years to build.

Sometimes...

...naïvely looking at the light of innocence is blinding, never revealing the true darkness of the shadows lingering right behind you.

I know I didn't see it coming...again.

{+}{+}{+}

No One's P.O.V

Salem, New Jersey

Detective Dylan Gutman sat in his office sorting through some important papers, each page held the record of an adolescent for a specific job he was assigned to a few years ago. Through that amount of time, he was able to complete most of the missions required for his assignment.

Yet, Dylan couldn't take all of the credit. He wouldn't have been able to complete most of them without his partner.

Knock knock

"Come in," Dylan said, setting the papers aside as the door opened. A younger male within his mid-twenties poked his head into the room before entering, closing the door behind him. Dylan nodded his greeting, smiling when seeing his fellow partner.

"Good evening, sir," the young male greeted, professionally before sitting in the chair across from his boss's desk.

"Evening, Paul," Dylan said before noticing the folder in Paul's hands, "Whatcha got there?"

Paul placed the folder on the detective's desk and opened it up.

"Well," Paul began, sorting through the information within the folder, "I've recently discovered some very important...information."

Interested, Dylan glanced down at the papers in curiosity and asked, "What did you find?"

Paul pulled out a cutout section of a newspaper and showed his boss. Dylan skimmed the newspaper cutout, seeing a picture of a Chinese woman and sentences of a foreign language he couldn't read. The detective's eyes looked away from the newspaper cutout and at his partner.

"What language is this? What's this have to do with anything?" Dylan asked.

It's French," the young assistant answered. The detective nodded, knowing his partner was from Paris, France until moving to America around the time they were both assigned this assignment. It was no surprise that the young man knew the language.