 by Bella Jewel.jpg)
Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Not knowing if he’s alive or dead, Willow has suffered through the hardest time of her life. With no ending in sight, it almost feels like she’ll never breathe again. Jagger saved her, gave up his life for hers, and left her alone and broken. Then, without warning, the gang left her, too. Leaving her with nothing. No one.
That is until they decided to show up again, out of the blue. They want to help. They're giving her hope. Can she get Jagger back? Is she willing to risk her life for him? Is she willing to give it all up to save him? She’s not the same person she was a year ago, things have changed, she has changed. But she still holds a piece of him close, a piece of him he hasn’t yet met.
Their son.
Can she risk both of them, to save the man she loves?
Come on this wild conclusion to the Dark Brother series and fall in love all over again!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
WILLOW
GRIEF, THEY SAY, COMES in five stages.
The first: denial; the stage where a person will continue to tell themselves they feel fine, they’re going to recover easily, nothing is happening.
The second: anger; how could I let this happen? How could they let this happen? I hate everyone, they will pay for this.
The third: bargaining; I’ll change my life, I’ll fix everything, I’ll change who I am just to make this better. I’ll do whatever it takes, anything in the world, to make this go away.
The fourth: depression; I can’t live, I can’t breathe. The days are long, the nights ... longer. Nothing feels right. Everything is empty. The bottomless pit that is your stomach goes on, and on, never seeming to let up. It’s like you’re drowning.
The fifth: acceptance; I can’t change this situation. Pure and simple. I live with it, or I choose not to live with it. Either way, it is what it is.
Right now, I’m at stage four: depression. I’ve been at stage four now for about six months. I can’t seem to move past it. I lost myself when I was returned home. In the beginning, I was determined, I did everything possible to try and resolve the situation. I made calls, begged gang members, bribed people for information, and did everything in my power, at that point, to save him. Then I got angry—blinding rage filled me day and night, and I couldn’t move on, I couldn’t stop blaming myself, and everyone else for what happened. Then came the bargaining, I tried everything to make myself feel better, to ease the pain inside. I begged, I pleaded, offered to lay down my life to ensure someone helped me, but no one did.
Nobody knew how, that’s the brutal and honest truth.
Now, depression. I’ve lived with depression before, so it’s nothing foreign to me. Oddly, I’m dealing with it better than the previous three emotions. In fact, I’m dealing with this stage quite well. I was sure when I got back that I’d crumble and fall back into my old ways, and, for a while, I did ... until Cody. He changed my life, he made the sun begin to shine again. He gave me a reason to live. He gave me a reason to push myself from my bed each day and put one foot in front of the other. He gave me a reason to breathe. He became my everything, and I would fight to make sure nothing ever happened to him.
Cody is my son.
I didn’t know I was pregnant when I first returned. In fact, I didn’t know for three months. It wasn’t until I snapped out of my grief and realized it had been a while since I’d had a period. When I did the test, I sat staring at the two pink lines for over three hours. I was numb, I felt nothing. The usual ‘how did this happen?’ or ‘how will I break the news to him?’ didn’t pass through my mind. I had no one to break the news to. I had no emotions. I couldn’t think about anything except the tiny lines in front of me.
The two lines that would change my entire world.
Ava and Jenny were my rocks through my pregnancy. They took me to my appointments, fed me well, made sure I took my vitamins, and held me when I let everything shut down because I just couldn’t take it any longer. When labor came around, they were both by my side as I welcomed Cody into the world. Cody became my sunshine. He’s gorgeous and a spitting image of Jagger. His eyes are that beautiful light blue, and his hair is dark and thick. He has my lighter skin, and he is the happiest little soul I’ve ever met.
During my pregnancy, I couldn’t cope living where I was, so we packed up everything and moved to the beach. To the ocean. To a place where I’d attempt to find myself again. I really tried, I chased down everything I could to get Jagger back, but it was of no use to me. The gang wouldn’t support me; instead, they supported their bosses words. Their loyalty won out, and I was on my own with no other choice but to do as Jagger asked—run away and forget about him. I’d never forget about him, but I also knew there was no other option.
Right then, I needed to be what my son needs.
Ava and Angel had a huge falling out right before we left, because she wanted him to come with her, but he refused. He chose his gang over his girl, and it broke her heart. Not that I could blame her, but I understood Angel wasn’t going to leave at a time like this. He couldn’t just pack up and run. I told Ava to stay, but her mind was made up and she’s more stubborn than anyone I know when she has decided something.