u/Competitive_Ice_8880

Anyone has the free link?

Anyone has the free link?

Anyone has the free link?

Chapter 1:The Promotion That Should Have Been Mine

I descended the staircase of The Plaza in a twelve-foot silk train.

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My cheating boyfriend of seven years went white as a corpse.

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His bourbon glass shattered on the marble floor.

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"Aurelia?" he choked out. "This isn't funny."

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First week back after the Christmas break, we flew into the New York headquarters for the annual board meeting.

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The Chairman beamed as he flipped through last year's performance reports.

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"Aurelia's been grinding it out in London for three years. Doubled our profits over there. She's the reason we're celebrating tonight."

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"Dominic, come on. Seven years with this girl. Isn't it about time you brought her home and put a ring on it?"

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The other executives jumped in, laughing.

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"Seriously, Dominic. Seven years is a long time. You can't keep a woman like Aurelia waiting forever."

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I gripped my pen a little tighter.

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A thousand nights alone in that London flat, and I thought the finish line was finally in sight.

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But Dominic just pressed his fingers down on a printed transfer order already sitting in front of him.

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"Tessa is being reassigned to headquarters. Aurelia will continue in her current position in London."

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His tone was cool. All business.

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"Tessa is still green. Some time at headquarters would be good for her development."

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"Baby, you wouldn't want people saying I play favorites with my own girlfriend, would you?"

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The room went dead quiet.

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Tessa was biting her lip, but she couldn't hide the gleam in her eyes.

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"Dominic, I really don't think this is right. Aurelia's been waiting three years to come home…"

Elena’s POV

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The rain was hammering the trailer roof like it wanted in.

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I cracked one eye open on the sagging couch and stared at the water stain spreading across the ceiling. Happy birthday to me.

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Something rustled on the coffee table. A handful of wild daisies, still wet from the woods, sat in a chipped mug. Next to them, a folded note in Mom’s neat handwriting.

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My beautiful girl. Eighteen today. I’m so proud of the woman you’ve become. There’s toast in the kitchen. I love you more than the moon. —M

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My throat went tight. I read it twice. Then I folded it small and slipped it into my back pocket.

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She’d left before dawn. Again. Working multiple dead-end jobs just to keep us afloat.

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I swung my boots off the couch and padded to the window. Grey sky. Grey woods. The trailer sat at the end of a dirt road, far from the packhouse, far from anyone who mattered. That was how they liked us. Forgotten.

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Are you going to mope all morning, or are we moving?

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Tara, my inner wolf, stretched in the back of my skull like a cat in a sunbeam.

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“I’m moving,” I muttered.

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I fished a stolen, half-crushed cigarette from my pocket.

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That is disgusting. Our lungs, Elena.

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“Your lungs are fine. Mine need this.”

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You are being dramatic.

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“It’s my birthday. I get to be dramatic.”

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She huffed and curled up again.

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I pulled on my jeans. Worn thin at the knees. Black T-shirt. Black boots, scuffed to hell but solid. I tied my hair back, platinum rope swinging past my waist, and caught my reflection in the cracked mirror by the door.

Anyone has a free link?