Page 1 of Unbroken

PART ONE

THEN

ONE

Blakely

Two years (and a few weeks) ago

Staringdown true evil changes a person. At least, it changed me. It was a swift and sudden change, and one that I was hopeless to fight once I learned evil like that existed in all its unyielding power.

It was jarring and harsh and relentless.

The type of evil that was reflected in my best friend’s eyes.

Or someone I once considered my best friend.

My heart leaped into my throat as I turned the corner into my bedroom. I staggered back several steps, my back hitting the doorframe leading into the bathroom.

“Hiya, Blakely,” Valerie murmured from across the room. She twirled a lock of her long, dark hair around her finger. Her other hand idly toyed with the gun on the side table. She sat in the chair like she was a fucking queen.

“What—”

“Am I doing here?” She finished for me. “Silly girl, you know what I’m doing here.”

I’d expected to hear from her—it had been too long since her last threat. But I’d been prepared for a text or a phone call. She hadn’t shown up before.

She’d been biding her time, lying in wait. I didn’t know what she was preparing for, but I knew it wasn’t good.

I sucked in what little breath I could manage as she leaned forward.

“I have a little favor to ask. It’s just a small one, nothing major.”

Like my life depended on my staying still, I stood, unmoving, against the door. I didn’t want to watch her, but I worried if I took my eyes off her for even a second, she’d take the opportunity to do something even my inventive imagination couldn’t come up with.

The woman staring back at me barely resembled the person I thought was my best friend. But it had been years since I’d considered her as such.

“I’ll cut to the chase since this is literally the last place I want to be right now,” she continued, standing and lazily grabbing her gun as she surveyed my bedroom. She glanced at the photos on my dresser and side-eyed the books on my shelves. “Tonight, you’re going to break them up.”

“What—” Again, she cut me off with a sharp wave of her hand and a just as cutting glare.

“I wasn’t finished,” she seethed, and I pressed harder into the doorjamb. “I don’t care how you do it, and I honestly don’t want to know either. Just don’t tell them I’ve been here or that we’ve been…chatting. Just figure out a way to get him to leave that little bitch. Are we clear?”

She turned the gun over in her hand, pretending to inspect it, but we both knew it was a threat. A not-so-subtle one that was meant to remind me what she’d do if I didn’t wholeheartedly comply.

A reminder that I had no choice but to do exactly as she asked.

Which meant finding a way to ensure one of my best friends ended things with his new girlfriend. All because Valerie was a jealous ex-wife.

I hadn’t met Hazel yet, but from what I’d heard, she was great. Luke was absolutely fucking smitten, and in the ten years I’d known Luke, I’d never seen him that way before.

Even when he was married to Valerie. Which was the exact reason why I had to break them up.

Valerie and Luke were only married for a few months, and saying their relationship was toxic would be putting it mildly. She didn’t take kindly to the divorce and made his life hell. But after restraining orders and the possibility of criminal charges, it eventually happened. And for the most part, Valerie stayed away, too.

Until she found out I was sleeping with Luke. The second it started, we knew it was nothing permanent or serious. Luke was in a bad place, and I wanted to be there for him. It wasn’t my intention to fall into his bed—even the three total times it happened—and had I known the repercussions, I wouldn’t have done it at all.

Valerie went ballistic, and what she’d done to me…I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, let alone the sweet girl Luke had only just met.

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