Written in Red

Protecting the family was my primary objective. Then she wrote to me and protecting her is my only purpose.

She's worth waiting for. And I've done that long before her soft words on lavender-scented paper made the nights easier to survive. She was my obsession before I had even caught her attention. 

Before I had ever touched her.

Her letters started as a distraction. A reminder that outside these bars, concrete walls and bloody promises for revenge, there is still something soft enough to touch without destroying it.

Now, I'm out and she's better than I could have imagined.

Beautiful. Intelligent. Cunning.

Way too good to drift closer to the family I've spent years trying to protect her from.

She is already in danger and it's my fault-even when I swore to myself that I'd stay away to maintain her safety.

The second she takes on a new client, she unknowingly ties herself to the woman responsible for my imprisonment. I warn her in the only way I know how.

I slip into her office. Into her house. Into every corner of her life she keeps pretending hasn't been tainted by my family.

She says I'm crossing lines.

The problem is, I know exactly how far I'm willing to go for her.

I should let her go before she gets buried with the rest of us. 

Instead, I claim her piece by piece, pushing her to the edge of her restraint until she stops pretending she doesn't crave the darkness staring back at her.

The deeper I dig into the secrets threatening my family, the more I realize she isn't collateral damage.

She's the center of it all.

The woman I thought I was protecting? She might be the key to the family's future.

She wants to walk on the dark side. She wants the family to accept her.

But I wasn't patient for all these years just to lose everything I've worked towards.

So tell me, Stephanie.

Are you my redemption... or my undoing?