I can’t remember a time my skin was not blemished with black, purple, and blue. I don’t know what it’s like to breathe without the weight of fear on my chest. From a young age, I mastered how to lie and how to hide my pain behind a practiced smile. I was never told, but I’ve always known that I need to cover my punishments beneath pretty, pastel clothes and white pearls. I must always appear perfect. The perfect student. The perfect girlfriend. The perfect daughter. Some days, I meet those expectations. Some days, they change to something unachievable, and pain and fear become my whole reality. I wish I could run away, but with my family’s money and connections, I know they would find me. My past, present, and future have already been decided without my consent and it seems like death would be my only escape. So I don’t have any choice but to continue on with my perfect façade that grows harder and harder to bear when there’s no end to my misery in sight. That is, until someone unexpected offers me his hand in a moment I need it—a moment I can’t hold my practiced smile. Despite so much risk of being caught, I take it, and I follow him and his friends into their world of worn black leather, ripped jeans, and dangerous men on motorcycles. A world, as my mother would say, on the wrong side of the bridge.

I was supposed to die. It was all supposed to end. The pain. The fear. As I felt myself fading, I didn’t fight it. I was ready. But Mother wouldn’t let me go. Not because she cared about me. Because I was worth more to her alive. She left me broken and bleeding on the floor, assuming that I’d been beaten back into submission. What she didn’t know was that in my moments of disobedience, my rebellious acts of free will, I had grown close to three sons of Haven’s Rebels. Through them, I’d met my biological father. And neither he nor they will turn a blind eye to my suffering like so many before. I never intended to bring anyone into my hell, but now I’m not alone. I have people fighting for me. Making promises to protect me that I’m terrified to believe. For too long, I’ve been let down and disappointed. For too long, death was my only way to be free. What is so different now? Why are they different? \\\ Author Note \\\ This is the conclusion to Lottie's story but not the series. This story contains triggering content. For more details, please read the Know Before You Read page located in the beginning of the book.