Page 1 of Past

Prologue

“Iwill let Tristan live if you do everything I ask from now on," he also adds, like an afterthought. Like Tristan doesn’t mean anything to him.I guess he never really has, he was always obsessed with me. It was me who looked after Tristan.

"No, Allie, don't," Tris moans in a cracked voice.

"How can I trust you?" I ask my dad.

"You can’t, my silly, little girl, but I will teach you who to trust and how to make deals. I will teach you how to run my business. All you have to do is forget your past. I did it once, you can too, daughter." Dad smiles.

I panic, having no idea what to do, and my face falls in horror as Tris kicks back at the man holding him and throws himself over the bridge. I see his eyes lock onto mine, showing me so much love and sadness. I scream, knowing there's no point, but I'm moving before I know what I'm doing. I saw where his arms were tied, and he can't swim like that. I look over at Elliot just before I jump over the gap. The man who was holding Tris doesn’t have time to stop me as I push him out of the way.

"I love you, Elliot, only ever you," I shout, and his face falls when he realises what I'm going to do.

"No!" I hear both Elliot and my dad scream as I jump after my brother into the dark, cold water.

Chapter 1

Allie

"This is pointless." Emilia sulks, pushing away her study books. I hold in a small chuckle as they nearly fall from the table, but she really doesn’t seem to care.

"I agree. This is difficult. Why does Professor douche-bag want a ten-thousand-word essay on this business shit?"I huff as a reply.

"Maybe because you pissed him off by asking if he had a wig on." She raises an eyebrow at me, and I laugh remembering his face.

"Yeah, maybe that was a bad idea, but come on; the man has really weird hair. It must be a wig," I tell her, and she laughs. I walk over to the fridge in the apartment I share. My roommates are Emilia, Gage, my best friend, Izzy, and her boyfriend, Blake. In all honesty, it’s nice to live with them all; we don’t have too many arguments.

"Want a drink?" I ask, getting a can of diet Coke out of the fridge.

"No thanks, Allie, I have to go out." She puts her long, curly hair up into a messy bun, which looks perfect even when she isn't looking at what she is doing. My roommate is half Italian, with very curly, dark-brown hair and golden skin that always looks like she just walked out of a sun bed. She really is very pretty, but she dresses in big hoodies and plain jeans all the time. I know she has a killer body hidden underneath those clothes somewhere, but she doesn’t care about that.

"A date?" I wag my eyebrows at her, looking at her plain black, baggy shirt and skinny jeans; I hope she isn’t planning on going on a date like that.

"You know I don't date. My family would kill anyone I tried to date, and I'm not joking." She laughs, but it sounds like forced humour.I know she has two older brothers and a very over-protective dad, who comes to check on her regularly.

"You need to get laid then," I say, sitting back down in front of my open laptop.

"So do you. Haven't you got another date with Gage tonight?" she asks. I inwardly groan at the idea of another date with my other annoying, but hot, roommate. Yes, he is hot enough to set any girl’s body alight, but there’s just something missing. There’s always something missing in every guy I try to date.

"Yeah, I have studying to do. Well, that's what I told him,"I tell her, and she frowns at me as I drink from my can.

"Right, what's wrong with him? Ever since I've known you, every guy you've been on a date with has some small issue so you don't bother again. Is anyone going to be good enough?" Her face softens when mine drops.

A face comes to mind straight away, with black, messy hair and dark-green eyes. Hell no, I can't be thinking about that pain in the ass. Yes, I may have been on a few dates in the last few months, but they have all been too nice or annoying. Or, there was that one who liked to talk about how hot his auntie is. That was a major turn off.

"I've only been on a few dates." I roll my eyes at her.

"I counted, it's been twelve dates in three months, and every one of them were attractive. Most of them sweet." She laughs when I shake my head at her.

"Well, they have all been boring. Gage is nice but only goes on about himself. He talks too much," I reply, chucking my empty can into the recycling bin. I have to admit what she is saying is true. I am way too picky. I really can’t stand guys who talk about themselves all the time. The boring conversations about how long they have spent in the gym. Gage is not the type of guy to be modest about himself, either.

Why is my first thought of a certain man, with an amazing body, who only says what he wants and doesn't talk too much? I haven't been able to stop thinking about him since he took my hand when my best friend was in labour with her son–his nephew. Everything went wrong a few months ago on that day. Luckily, she pulled through it, and my handsome little nephew, Jake, was born. Maisy may not be my birth sister, but we agree that she might as well have been.I grew up with her, and I love her like family anyway. I have an actual brother, but we aren’t as close as I am with Maisy.

My phone goes off in my jeans’ pocket, and I pull it out. As I look down, I see it’s Izzy King, my best friend.

Izzy: look at this cute outfit! Do you think Jake would suit it? X

This is followed by a cute baby outfit with dragons on it.

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