Aligned: Volume 4
Authors: Ella Miles
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Caroline
Chapter Thirty-Four - Caroline
Chapter Forty-Eight - Epilogue - Landon
Copyright © 2016 Ella Miles LLC
All rights reserved.
Editor: Jenny Sims Editing4Indies
Cover Designer: © Hang Le
byhangle.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Aligned: Ever After
This is a free bonus novella to everyone that is on my mailing list. It will be exclusively available to those on my mailing list and will not be sold on Amazon or any other site. It is not necessary to read to understand the Aligned story and have a satisfied ending. It is just a free bonus book to say thank you to those that have supported me. It is an extended epilogue from the Aligned series and tells Alex and Landon’s happily ever after. Sign up to receive your free novella here:
ellamiles.com/alignedeverafter
Coming August/September 2016
Sign Up to get the Free Novella here:
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Ethan
I tried to get rid of the monster. I thought we could escape the darkness by starting over. I thought we could put our pasts behind us.
The demons found me, though. The urges came back. There is no such thing as redemption. I can’t be saved.
I tried to put my urges to rest. But the need to inflict pain is too strong to resist. I can’t hold back any longer.
I can’t be saved from the monster because I am the monster.
Alex
23-489-37562-30 ... The numbers from my tattoo play over and over in my head, but I don’t know what they mean.
It was Ethan. I stare at the computer screen in disbelief. It can’t be. He couldn’t have done the horrible things to me. He’s my husband. He’s supposed to love me. I take a deep breath and get up from my bed, leaving the computer screen with the evidence behind.
I walk to my kitchen needing a glass of water. My hand shakes as I pour the glass of water and bring it to my lips. When the water is gone, I place the glass back on the counter surprised by how steady my hand has become after simply downing the water.
It was Ethan. He raped me. He lied to me. He had another man convicted for his crime, and then he had the balls to marry me.
I expect tears to fall. I expect sobbing. I expect untold sadness, but it never comes. I don’t mourn the loss of my husband. I’ve mourned the loss long enough.
It was Ethan. He hired the people that tried to kill me in the car attack. He faked his own kidnapping. I don’t have the evidence, but I know he was the one who did this. He wasn’t trying to help me that night. He was trying to get rid of me because he knew I had figured out that he was my rapist.
I look down at the scars etched on my body. I look down at my leg that I can never get back. Ethan did this.
I scream as the anger overwhelms my body. I run to the couch and take off my prosthetic leg. I fumble with it instead of taking it off smoothly like I always do. When I finally get it off, I throw it and watch as it crashes into the far wall. I look down at my disfigured body. He took my memories from me. I will never remember my mother. I’ll never remember my life before. All because of him. This pain. This ugliness. It’s because of Ethan. He did this.
“I hate him. I hate him. I hate him,” I scream over and over.
I pound my fists into the couch trying to get my anger out. Trying to prevent it from taking over every nerve in my body. The pounding doesn’t prevent it, though. Instead, it drives the anger wild as it spreads through every fiber in my body until I’m shaking. I slowly bring my hand up to touch my face that is burning red. I take a deep breath trying to calm myself so that I can think rationally, but there is no thinking rational. Not today.
All I see is Ethan dying at my hands. That’s all I want.
I lean back on the pillows that are now empty from all the stuffing being ripped out. It was Ethan. He attacked me in my own home. He made me think I was going to die, again. He hurt me. And then he blamed it all on James.
I throw the empty pillows to the floor. They float slowly to the floor not bringing me nearly enough satisfaction from the motion. I squeeze my hands into fists and then release them. I do this over and over. It’s not enough, though.
I know Ethan did every horrible thing that has ever happened in my life. I close my eyes, and that’s when I see it. His eyes. They are dark black and empty. His eyes change from the dark brown he normally wears to dark black every time he attacked me. It was him. I may not have the evidence to prove it. All of the evidence may point to Daniel as my supposed rapist, to Alfie King as my supposed attacker, and to James as my supposed attacker and robber, but I know it was Ethan.
I hop back to my bedroom leaving my prosthetic leg on the floor of my living room. I climb back in bed, and I begin reading. I read everything.
I read all of my theories on who my rapist was. Each one was crossed off until I get to Ethan. Every time, I kept coming back to him. I searched everywhere in our old apartment looking for evidence. I searched in Laura’s house for evidence. I found nothing. Not until I searched his office at the law firm did I find something. And even then, I only found one tiny thing. One piece of evidence that he could never get rid of. The video. Video proof of the rape.
He couldn’t part with it; even though he knew if anybody ever found the video, it would destroy him. The video is on the file. I just don’t know if I can watch it.
I hover the cursor over the file for a long time trying to decide what I should do. I click it. I watch it. And it just makes me angrier. I can’t believe he did this to me. Except I can. I always felt a disconnect between Ethan and me. I didn’t understand why we were married. I still don’t understand why I married this monster. But I did.
My eyes stay glued to the video as Ethan pushes me into a closet at the bar. He’s holding his phone out and using it to videotape us. I watch my expression change from happiness at thinking he was just coming on strong and wanting a make-out session to fear as I realize what he really wants.
I watch myself scream before he covers my mouth with his hand. I watch as he jabs a needle into my neck. I wince and grab my own neck as he does. I feel the pain just as the woman in the video does. It’s as if I’m there in the moment, even though I’m not.
I watch as he sets his phone on a shelf in the closet so he can get everything on video to relive over and over. I watch my body go limp but not my eyes. I see every painful thing done to me. I see the pain in my eyes. I see the fear. He did this to me. When he’s finished, I pass out. He injects me again before leaving. I’m sure that second dose is what left me without memories from that night. The only thing I ever remembered was his eyes.
I have proof. Proof that could send him to prison for a very long time, proof that could release the man currently serving his sentence, but it’s not enough. Alfie is serving a sentence he may or may not deserve. But James … he is definitely serving a sentence that he doesn’t deserve. I don’t have anything that could set him free. Daniel told me not to go to the police. We don’t know who to trust. So I won’t. I won’t go to the police. I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save James. I don’t know how to make Ethan pay. I don’t know how to save myself.
I watch the video again. It’s just as painful the second time. I try to the match the video to my nightmares, but it doesn’t quite match up and I don’t know why. I finally resign to stop torturing myself with the video and save it to my computer before I pull the flash drive out and put it in my pocket. I won’t go anywhere without this file ever again. I need to know it’s safe.
That’s when I see it. The other flash drive. I pick it up and look at it. The flash drive Ethan gave me. The flash drive that supposedly has something on it so horrible about Landon that I won’t want to be with him. That I will do anything to protect Landon from this getting out.
I stare the flash drive. I don’t believe Ethan. I don’t believe anything on this flash drive would destroy Landon. I trust Landon. I love Landon. Nothing on this could ever change that.
I get up from my bed and hop to my closet where my suitcase is. I dig through it until I find my prosthetic leg made for running. I put it on and then walk to the bathroom. I toss the flash drive Ethan gave me in the trash. I don’t need to look at it. Whatever is on it is just a lie. A lie to bring me back to Ethan. I will never go back to Ethan.
I make my way out of my condo building and down the beach. The sun is setting over the ocean as my feet touch the sand. It couldn’t be a more beautiful night. How can the world be so beautiful when I’m going through so much pain? So much anger.
Landon is supposed to land in two hours. That’s all the time I have to figure out a plan.
I begin running across the sand. I try to let the beauty of the night heal me, but I soon realize I don’t need healing. I’ve already healed. Scars have formed, and I’ve accepted my body for what it is. Landon helped me do that. I made the right choice when I chose Landon over Ethan. What I do need is to let the anger go so that I can do what needs to be done.