Worth The Trouble ✓

Ch 1. The Fuckening

Song: Sink Into The Floor // Feng Suave

Just wanted to thank you all for adding the book to your reading lists/libraries.

Without further ado, here's the first chapter:

Just a reminder, Amber is 23 which means Dylan is 35!

•••

I was sitting on the small round table Dylan built me when I first moved into the apartment. It was crammed into the corner of the kitchen and had three, wooden chairs surrounding it, the fourth one was set in front of my desk. The apartment was small, something I wasn't normally used to having grown up in a castle of a house, but I liked it.

Dylan insisted I move in somewhere else, somewhere that didn't have exposed bricks for a wall in the living room. I told him that I wanted to pay for my own apartment, and this was what I could afford with my position as the assistant to an editor.

Although he was wary, he accepted the fact that I wanted to work for what I own, just like papa did. My brother flew over once every three months to make sure I was fine. Sometimes, he'd bring Antoine and Rose with him, other times he brought me furniture to replace my worn-out ones.

Last year, I walked in on him installing a flat-screen TV onto my living room wall while his five-year-old son sat on the couch and watched. Although I sometimes got mad when he'd barge into my apartment and redesign it, I understood that he was just trying to make me comfortable. I also knew he was just visiting me because he missed me, and not because he had business to attend to.

I didn't mind his visits, though, since his hugs always felt like home.

My seat in the corner of the kitchen, on the round table, served to be a sense of comfort for me. Being surrounded by two walls made me feel cozy and warm, something I needed while I read the email I received on my phone.

My eyes ran over the screen one, two, three times to make sure what I was reading wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Having had enough of reading the email, I turned off my screen and pinched the skin between my eyebrows.

"Fuck me," I whispered as I tried to digest the information I'd just read. I looked around the kitchen and my eyes landed on the pen to my right. Before I knew it, the stylo was hurtling across the kitchen and the cap fell off as it hit the wall.

I glanced at the clock and saw that Adam was going to be home in five minutes. He didn't live with me, mainly because I wasn't ready for that, but he always dropped by every day to see me at five o'clock sharp, right after he finished working. Adam Hindley and I met in university, and we've been dating for two years now. He always found a way to make me laugh, even when I was pissed at him. He just genuinely made me happy.

I got up from the corner of the kitchen and put my phone, yet another gift from Dylan, in between my legging's waistband and my hip. I filled the kettle with tap water and flipped it on as I pulled out two mugs from the cabinet above it.

I dropped two tea bags into the mugs and waited for the water to come to a boil before pouring it in. I just finished mixing the sugar into the beverage when I heard the door open. I smiled at the sound of him removing his jacket and made my presence known by walking into the living room with two mugs in my hand.

"Hey, babe," I greeted him, leaning up for a kiss before pulling away to hand him his mug of tea. He drank it with milk like a criminal would, and I briefly considered cutting off all ties with him when I first found out.