AllFreeNovel
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December 20th
11:44 A.M.
Samara Patrick parked her car outside her brother’s house.
She was simultaneously both happy to be here and dreading going inside.
It wasn't that she didn't love her big brother. She did love Fin, very much, she just always felt so inadequate around him. It was hard to live up to his example, especially given the mistakes she had made. She could live a hundred lifetimes and never make up for that.
Both she and Fin had lived the same rotten childhood, and yet her brother was a successful doctor, married to the woman of his dreams despite the rocky road they had to travel to get there, with a beautiful son who would be two in just a couple of days.
Fin had it all.
And she had …
Nothing.
Well, notnothing. She had a job she adored as a computer expert for a private security firm, she had a small group of friends that she loved and were very important to her, and she had her brother … kind of. She should be more grateful for what she had and not wish for things that could never be.
Besides, it was Christmas time, a time for happiness and peace and goodwill toward everyone. Her nephew’s birthday was Christmas Eve, and two of her best friends were getting married on Christmas Day. She had plenty to keep her busy through the holidays, so she didn't have to think too much about Christmas.
Despite the joy that you were supposed to feel at this time of year, Samara had never had a real Christmas. She’d never had a real Christmas tree, she had never hung a stocking by thefireplace, or left cookies out for Santa, or sat around with her family Christmas morning opening gifts. Growing up, she barely had a family let alone one who put on a big Christmas lunch.
As much as she would like to think that one day she would find her happily ever after, she had resigned herself to the fact that a family wasn't in the cards for her. It wasn't just that part of her believed she didn't deserve it, because she couldn’t deny that if a chance at love and happiness came along she wouldn’t reach for it with both hands, it was just that she had to accept that not everyone got a happy ending.
Samara climbed out of the car and debated grabbing her coat. She didn't really need it, it would be warm inside, but it had been pouring snow every single day since December 1stand it was absolutely freezing out. At least Ashley would be thrilled. Her best friend Ashley Fallon would become Ashley Watson on Christmas Day when she married her best friend turned lover. Ashley was obsessed with snow and had planned an outdoor wedding. She had been worrying—seemingly unnecessarily—that there wouldn’t be any snow fluttering down around them as they said their vows.
She was happy for them, thrilled really, they deserved all the happiness in the world, especially after what they had gone through last Christmas, she just wished that maybe one day she might be the one who was getting …
No.
She wasn't doing this.
It was Christmas, she would survive it like she always did, and once it was over life could go back to normal.
“Samara.”
It wasn't so much hearing her name that had her head snapping around, but the tone of the voice.
Her name had been whispered with a sort of reverence that sent the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight up.
She knew who it was.
Well, not specifically, she didn't know his name, but he had to be the man who had been stalking her for the last five months. He’d been sending emails, and texts, following her on social media with fake accounts, and whenever one was closed down he just started another.
So far, he had never entered her real world.
Until now.
Now he stood before her.
He looked so ordinary, nothing like the image she had built up in her mind.
He had brown hair, cut short, large brown eyes that were currently staring at her like she was about to become his new prized possession. His skin was scarred and mottled like he had suffered from bad acne when he was a teenager, and one of his ears had an unusual scar in it as though it had been ripped apart and sewn back together at some point.
Samara knew how to shoot, but she didn't have a gun on her. Working with a bunch of bodyguards, they had made sure she was trained in self-defense even though she didn't work in the field. She opened her mouth and drew in air, ready to scream as loudly as she could.
“Don’t, Samara, please,” the man said, pulling back a corner of his coat to expose a gun. “I don’t want to shoot anyone. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want us to be together.”
