Signed The Papers: Watch Me Shine Now

mp cut through the darkness of

. She dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to rub away

rcing her focus back to the architect

her phone against the marble shat

lit up. Q

ing bass of a nightclub bled through

p with an urgency that made the hairs on Fa

id, her voice raspy fro

r. "My friend just got back from Paris. She was at

opped into the pit of her stomach. Her fingers tight

icture,

dripping with venom. "He went to the

Faith's lun

tip snapped, tearing a jagged, ugly black li

rom the phone. Quinn

ly pull the phone away from her ear. The blue

in from a distance, but the

er husband

lders were angled downward, protective and intimate. His large h

Faith had never, not once, receive

ile, flawless smile, was Eveline Craig. The perfect N

ysiological nausea

t. She clamped her free hand over

aty palm. It hit the marble co

ty, cavernous penthouse. No one came running. No

ed device. "He's a piece of trash. Do not let him do t

her throat. She picked up

" she wh

resse

er head, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the glittering,

ater. She had to grip the edge of the cold marble

forced her

ss art she wasn't allowed to touch. She stopped i

. The air inside was

he space was aggressively divided. Hartwell's rows of da

ted to the fa

twenty-inch suitcase. It was the only thing she had brought wi

a strobe light. The dizziness. The drugs in her system. W

convinced she had orchestrated the entir

o believe she was a victim too, his only response had been a ruth

ed out of

ristine white sofa. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping

antique grandfather c

Tick

the m

rature water, setting out two Advil on a napkin, waiting for the sound of the

s around another woman. Giving her the war

s way out of Faith's throat. It w

y, splashing onto the back of her

he dark, letting the saltwater track down her cheeks, m

bled

to a pale, ashen gray. The first sliver of dawn light pie

er stiff limbs

pathetic, lingering sliver of hope. She had believed that if she just loved him enough, he would eventually see her. But that grainy photograph had been the key, unlocking the brutal reality s