Anna's fiance is dead. Her best friend is set on making her feel better and solving the mystery surrounding Tyler's death. Anna however seems to have a different opinion. She doesn't see the need in finding Tyler's murderer, even though the law is set to punish the killer. Anna's strange perspective about this is what pushes Eloise to finally unravel the mystery surrounding this death. Will Eloise survive the truth she is so eager to find? Or will she desperately wish to turn back the hands of the clock and stop herself?
Eloise
'The word sorry does not fix everything. Infact, it fixes nothing.'
It was why I got so angry everytime my best friend, Anna crawled back to her abusive fiance whenever he apologized and promised to be a better person.
I couldn't understand it. I couldn't understand her. She said she loved him. If you love someone, you crave happiness with them and you find it together but Anna only got scars from Tyler.
It is always the Tylers...There has to be something wrong with that name and everyone that answers to it.
It was just a week to Anna's wedding. A wedding I had despised so much even before it will happen. A wedding I had hoped and prayed to God that will not hold. A wedding that Anna looked forward to so much despite the fact that Tyler, her fiance was beating her almost everyday since they got engaged.
Just like yesterday, i remember the day Anna introduced this man to me. It was a Friday. The first thing Anna did that day that got me really upset was the fact that she was very late to our date. Of course, I had always known that Anna was never early to any event no matter how important the event might be. I was already used to excusing her normal 10 or 15 minutes lateness but that particular day, she was almost an hour late. With my new black YSL bag in my hand, I was just about to leave the restaurant when my best friend walked in.
Not only did she walk into the restaurant in an amazing black new dress that I had never seen on her and which looked like an overkill for a platonic best friend date, She walked in holding the hands of a dark haired man whose energy did not sit right with me the moment I set my eyes on him.
With a stop in my tracks, I looked from the dark haired man in a funny looking patterned suit to my best friend who definitely had some explaining to do.
"Eloise" She had started nervously. "This is Tyler, my boyfriend"
My heart stopped it's music for a second as I tried to digest what Anna had just said to me.
'Boyfriend?'
"You are joking, right?" I had asked her. "Is this some joke?"
"No El. I've been seeing him for sometime now"
I remember what I had felt in that moment. The overwhelming sense of betrayal that I tried to suppress and hide as I looked at the beautiful eyes of my best friend.
Her hair was perfectly done, sleek. Her nails were freshly done too. It was more than obvious to anyone who cared to notice that Anna had carefully prepared for that night. It made me ask myself mentally if all her physical preparations were for my hangout with her or for her 'special' date with this strange man she called her boyfriend.
"You Just felt that it was normal to hide it from me that you had a boyfriend while we go out every Friday night, get drunk and blab about how we don't ever get into a stable relationship with a man?"
She had looked at me apologetically, like she wanted to say 'she had no choice' but I was thankful that she didn't say that because it would have been a lie. She had her choices and she picked what she thought was best for her and whatever she thought of our friendship.
In reality and to anyone from the outside, the whole thing would seem like it was not my business but Anna was my best friend. She knew how much I loved and care for her. She also knew everything about me and not being in a relationship was one highlight of most of the things we talked about. So, finding out after all of this that she actually had a man in her life and was hiding it from me made me feel like 'maybe I was not exactly the best friend I thought I really was'.
Without asking much questions, I swallowed and searched in the deepest parts of my spirit; a welcoming smile which I offered to Tyler and said "Hi Tyler, my name is Eloise".
That was all I ever said about the guy. After that, I had to settle for only the things Anna choose to tell me about her relationship with him. Discovering that she had a boyfriend at all was like an eye opener for me. I noticed how much Anna was willing to hide things from me, especially when they were things that involved Tyler or their relationship in general. I decided to stop asking because her actions said it loud and clear that 'It was not my business'
While I was in my own space for months, trying to figure out this new weird behaviour from my best friend, she hit me with the news that she was getting married to a man i was sure she barely knew and was not happy to be with.
In the deepest part of my heart, I wanted to protest. I wanted to finally let Anna know that I was not in the slightest, in support of her relationship or marriage to Tyler but the tone she held while giving me the supposedly good news was that of finality. She didn't need to spell it out for me that it was not a plan that was open to change and that she already made up her mind.
I decided at that point to just be the kind of best friend Anna wanted me to be. I would be happy for her and support whatever decision she made. Afterall, it was her life and if it made her happy, then maybe it was not all that terrible.
Although, throughout the preparation towards the wedding, I noticed the occasional fall in Anna's mood. It was like she was being condemned to live a life she didn't want. Everytime I asked her what was on her mind, she waved it off with a smile and made it look like I was overthinking whatever it was that I noticed. It hurt me so much that Anna refused to let me in.
At a point, I started suspecting that Tyler might be blackmailing Anna into marrying him. It was the only explanation as to why my best friend will still want to go through with the wedding, despite suffering so much in the hands of such an ugly Tyler.
When I woke up that morning in Anna's bed, it was to her scream of horror and the crash of her phone against the bedroom floor where we had slept in together after our late night shopping yesterday.
"Anna?" I called as i turned in the bed and looked at her horror stricken face while she stared at the floor where her phone crashed.
"What happened??" I asked again. Can she even hear me? "Are you okay?"
I stood up from the bed to shake her out of her shock but just as I was about to ask her another question again, My phone rang. My eyes went to the phone beside the bed. I decided to ignore it.
"Ahh!" She was in a moaning mess. She did not want to feel anything for this man. She hated him. His hands began to move all over her body. She gasped when he pulled down the back chain of her dress. The chain stopped at her lower waist, so when he zipped it off, her upper back and waist were exposed. "D-Don't touch m-ummm!" His fingers rolled around her bare back, and she pressed her head against the pillow. His touches were giving her goosebumps all over her body. With a deep angry voice, he whispered in her ear, "I am going to make you forget his touches, kisses, and everything. Every time you touch another man, you will only think of me." - - - Ava Adler was a nerdy omega. People bullied her because they thought she was ugly and unattractive. But Ava secretly loved the bad boy, Ian Dawson. He was the future Alpha of the Mystic Shadow Pack. However, he doesn't give a damn about rules and laws, as he only likes to play around with girls. Ava was unaware of Ian's arrogance until her fate intertwined with his. He neglected her and hurt her deeply. What would happen when Ava turned out to be a beautiful girl who could win over any boy, and Ian looked back and regretted his decisions? What if she had a secret identity that she had yet to discover? What if the tables turned and Ian begged her not to leave him?
Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."
Kaelyn devoted three years tending to her husband after a terrible accident. But once he was fully recovered, he cast her aside and brought his first love back from abroad. Devastated, Kaelyn decided on a divorce as people mocked her for being discarded. She went on to reinvent herself, becoming a highly sought-after doctor, a champion racer, and an internationally renowned architectural designer. Even then, the traitors sneered in disdain, believing Kaelyn would never find someone. But then the ex-husband’s uncle, a powerful warlord, returned with his army to ask for Kaelyn’s hand in marriage.
She thought she was the love of his life, and he became the love of her life that fateful day she had seen him at the pack's party. Selene Grace was only a replica of Alpha Leo's real mate, and when he spotted her, Leo immediately claimed her as his Luna in order to suppress the rumors of him being mateless. Being unable to conceive turns Selene's marriage into a nightmare, and as if that wasn't enough, Alpha Leo finally reunites with his long time lover and mate, rejecting a pregnant Selene as a result. 5 years later, Selene, a now successful doctor, receives an invitation to the moon shadow pack in order to rid the pack of a deadly disease which has struck it. Will Selene return back to the pack which had caused her so much pain, and what would she do when she realizes that she is mated to the Alpha who had betrayed her in the past?
Madisyn was stunned to discover that she was not her parents' biological child. Due to the real daughter's scheming, she was kicked out and became a laughingstock. Thought to be born to peasants, Madisyn was shocked to find that her real father was the richest man in the city, and her brothers were renowned figures in their respective fields. They showered her with love, only to learn that Madisyn had a thriving business of her own. "Stop pestering me!" said her ex-boyfriend. "My heart only belongs to Jenna." "How dare you think that my woman has feelings for you?" claimed a mysterious bigwig.
After my family's sinister plots collapsed, they lashed out at me, taking their rage to a violent level. Cornered and desperate, I married Jaxton—the town's most sought-after bachelor—due to an unplanned pregnancy. Love had no part in this marriage; I assumed he married me purely out of responsibility, his heart belonging elsewhere. The moment I chose to let him go and turned to leave, he grabbed me and pinned me down hard. "Jaxton, you promised you'd never touch me!" I snapped, glaring fiercely. His eyes flashed arrogantly as he leaned closer. "You're the one who started this!"