The cracking of thunder has begun. Pascal Van Der Braack’s world is being shifted. The once untouchable king of his empire is finding flaws within his intricately weaved web. The people he thought he could trust are scheming, and the mind he thought he knew best is beginning to confuse him. Life within Alexander White’s hands should have been so simple, there should have been nothing to come between them, but Lilah James’ arrival is causing waves of discord to rally against all of their peace. And now his past misadventures are showing themselves more clearly too, trying to tear him down but for the arrival of yet another quandary to negotiate. Pure love. “Never place yourself in the hands of someone you would not trust with your life, it will surely be your own demise.” Words he’s lived by all his life, words that are starting to ring truer than he’d ever imagined. Lilah. It’s 9am, and all I’ve been doing for the last two hours is staring blankly at the wall trying to find an explanation for the last year of my life. Sleep was minimal last night, in fact, non-existent really. I spent most of it tossing and turning, thinking and re-thinking. Visions constantly assaulted me of the streets, the terror associated with it, and then the eventual realisation that this was it... I remember the exact moment I decided to give up and just exist. It was while I was wandering along in the park one day. I’d eventually taken a seat on a park bench to just let the world go by. You know, the sort of thing all the other people do with their time when they amble along. I’d dumped my bags underneath the bench and perhaps just thought I could forget the fact that I had nowhere to sleep that night. Pretend I’d still got a life. Or maybe I just wanted to watch all the others having a good time, or maybe I just needed a rest. I don’t know, but I do remember the guy sitting down next to me. I remember him sitting there for a few moments and then inching himself away further up the bench. He didn’t look at me, he didn’t even glance. He just had that look about him that told me he was revolted by what had dared to be in his presence even though I was there first. As if I didn’t have any right to be in such a beautiful park at all. I’ll never let anyone make me feel like that again.