Chapter one
Jade
Is that my phone? I pause in the shower, hands mid-shampooing my hair, foam everywhere. I’ve frozen, as if falling motionless is going to help me decipher the sound I just heard.
I’m pretty sure it was my phone. The noise was accompanied by a buzz, just like the vibration of my phone against the countertop by the sink. But I don’t recognize that notification sound. I swear it’s not one I’ve heard before. So why is my phone making strange noises?
Suddenly, memories burst into life. Oh my god. Last night, after hours of lying in bed mindlessly doomscrolling, I downloaded a dating app. It had to have been a strange fit of loneliness. And stupidness. What the hell was I thinking? I need to delete it immediately!
I scramble out of the shower, snatch up my phone… and then watch helplessly as it slides out of my soapy fingers. It smacks against the edge of the counter before plummeting to the tiled floor and landing with a sickening crunch.
I drop down to my haunches beside it. Carefully, I pick it up. The screen is smashed to smithereens.
A heavy despondency settles in my gut. I stare forlornly at my broken phone while the empty shower runs behind me.
What am I going to do without my phone? My addiction to it is probably unhealthy, but even so, I’m not ready to go cold turkey like this. This isawful.
Wait a minute. I am forgetting several important things. I’m free. I’m no longer on the run. I have money.
I can simply go out and buy a new phone. This isn’t a disaster, it is merely an inconvenience.
My, oh my, how my life has changed. It’s quite shocking. As well as lovely.
I’m home. With my found family. Ritchie is dead. The harem is no more. The drama of the past year is over. My life can finally begin.
It seems too good to be true. But it is. This is my life now.
I take a deep breath and pull myself together.
A few hours later and I’m wandering around the mall. It’s busy. But my incognito look is holding up. People are barely noticing me. I’m just a figure amongst the crowd, which is perfect. I wish it could be like this all the time. I wish I hadn’t been born the way I was.
I hate the way I look. The angles of my face are too sharp. My hair is an unnatural looking blond, so pale that it is nearly white. And worst of all are my eyes. Too large. Too bright. Too vivid. More like polished emeralds than real eyes.
I suppose I could learn to live with it, with being different, if people were not so drawn to my appearance. I’ll never understand why they find it attractive, but they do. Ritchie didn’t buy me for his harem for no reason. I’ve accepted that.
But I still hate it. I despise the attention. Being leered at, lusted after, objectified. It all makes my skin crawl.
I shouldn’t complain. It only means I need to cover up whenever I go outside. Hats, sunglasses, baggy clothes and slouching, these things are all my friends. After everything I have endured, it is hardly a hardship.
I take a deep breath and focus on savoring my freedom and enjoying my surroundings.
So much life. So much normalcy. Normal people with normal lives doing normal things. It’s bittersweet to see. Everything I’ve ever wanted, all around me.
But I’m getting there. I’m getting closer to my dream. I’m no longer on the run. I’m no longer a sex slave in a billionaire’s harem. I live in a shared house with my friends. I even had a job, before my life went crazy again. But now everything has calmed down once more, hopefully I can get another job soon.
Step by step I’m getting there. One day, I’ll have a normal life.
“Jade?”
The booming voice makes me jump out of my skin. I whirl towards it. My heart beats like a wild thing.
Tall, beefy, blond. Wearing the most ridiculous shit-eating grin anyone has ever seen. Blue eyes sparkling with a happiness so profound that it is a little disconcerting.
It’s Flyn.
My old work colleague from my brief stint as a normal person. The precious period of my life that I desperately want to recreate.
I can’t believe Flyn is here. Standing before me. He used to flirt with me incessantly, and I never could admit how much I liked it. Somehow he always managed to make it feel like it wasn’t my body he wanted, it wasmehe was flirting with. Maybe that was just wishful thinking, simply imagination on my part. But it was still nice.
