Page 77 of Sage Haven
But I still couldn’t bear that it was my doing that put her in that state of mind, she wasn’t living like she used to.
And she didn’t deserve this.
Hurting people like her wasn’t what I did.
It wasn’t supposed to be who I was.
And yet—here I was.
A stranger in my own skin.
The more I watched, the worse it became.
Every hour that passed made the truth about her clearer.
She was caught in this mess without knowing how deep it ran. A pawn in a game far bigger than anything she could comprehend. She just wanted to survive. Maybe even find peace.
But Klay wasn’t going to allow it.
He and his brothers.
Predators.
Men who carved out empires from flesh and fear.
It wasn’t just about business with them.
It was about power and control.
My mother’s best friend had been one of their father’s victims.
Twenty-four years old.
A wife. A mother. Manipulated into debt. Forced into submission and terrorized until there was nothing left but bone and obedience.
She’d tried to run. Tried to break free. And their father made an example of her.
I’d seen what was left and I never forgot it.
My mother told me about the call she got that night.
Her best friend sobbing, begging for help.
Telling her about Harry Ovitt—Klay’s father.
About the threats.
And the next morning, she was gone, like she’d never existed.
And my mother grieved her in silence.
But my mother’s best friend wasn’t the only one. Not by a long shot.
She was just the one I knew.
And that made me swear vengeance.
They became my mission.
