2026-08-06 23:05:32
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
THE VOICE FROM THE OTHER SIDE
The morning seemed to have found its smile again. Ariana sat by the window of the cab, her forehead almost touching the cool glass as Montiel Town slipped past in a blur of roadside stalls, school uniforms, motorcycles, morning vendors and buses coughing their way through the growing traffic. Beside her, Maria was talking. Talking so much that Ariana had already stopped trying to keep up. She smiled quietly. Her thoughts had travelled back to the morning. Only a few hours earlier, she had practically flown up the staircase toward Maria's balcony after receiving the message.The moment she had seen her friend, she had wrapped her arms around her. Maria had laughed so hard that the injured foot had nearly made her lose balance. The breakfast that followed had been louder than usual. Hope had returned to the house. The team had good news. Real news. The kind of news that could change the atmosphere of an entire dressing room. Ariana remembered her mother's reaction when Maria's message a
THE STRANGE WOMAN
LANDMARK ESTATE6:42 PMThe gates of the Ortiz mansion opened before the black sedan had fully stopped. Two uniformed guards stepped forward almost simultaneously, their polished shoes striking the driveway with measured precision. Beyond them, the estate rose beneath the fading evening light, its tall windows reflecting the orange remnants of sunset, its gardens trimmed so precisely that even the flowers seemed to know where they belonged. The dogs heard the vehicle before anyone else did. Their excited barking rolled through the compound. Then came the familiar sound of paws racing across stone. The rear door opened.Mr Alvarez Ortiz stepped out. For a moment, the sternness that usually accompanied his face disappeared. One of the guards hurried forward to collect his luggage while the dogs jumped around him, tails beating wildly against the air. “Easy,” Alvarez laughed, bending to pat one of them.The front doors opened. His wife emerged first. “Darling.” The word carried both reli
THE BOY BEHIND THE CARD
MONTIEL TOWN PARK5:08 PMFor several seconds, Ariana could do nothing but stare. The bottle remained stretched toward her, its clear plastic catching the last warm rays of the afternoon sun. She looked at it. Then at the stranger holding it. Then back at the bottle. It was an energy drink. Nothing more. Yet the circumstances made it feel like something far more mysterious. The man's breathing was calm. His posture carried none of the aggression she had imagined during that first startled second. He was dressed simply, though neatly, with a small messenger bag resting against his side. Ariana's fingers remained close to her chest. “Who are you?” The man lowered the bottle slightly. “My name is Joel.” Ariana didn't relax. Joel noticed.“I work for Jonas.” The name changed something in her expression. “Jonas?” He nodded. “Jonas Dawson.” Ariana's shoulders dropped by a fraction. Joel offered the bottle again. “He asked me to check on you.” Ariana stared at the sealed drink. “He couldn't
THE HAND THAT CAME FROM BEHIND
MONTIEL TOWN9:18 AM“Damn it.” Johnson stopped halfway up the narrow staircase. His fingers tightened around the strap of his bag. “Hopefully he won't see this again.” He glanced down at the corner of the envelope peeking from between two books. The proposal. The carefully prepared words. The words he had written for Vivian. The words he had rewritten twice because the first version had sounded too desperate and the second had sounded too cold. Now, carrying it out of the basement felt like carrying a secret with a heartbeat. Johnson pushed the envelope deeper into his bag and continued upward. The staircase opened into the barbershop. Morning sunlight streamed through the front windows, falling across the polished mirrors and chrome equipment. The familiar smell of aftershave, shaving cream and hair tonic floated through the room, mixed with the faint hum of the electric clippers.Two customers occupied the waiting chairs. Mr Emerson stood behind one of the barbering stations, caref
THE MESSAGE THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
MONTIEL TOWN8:10 AMThe spoon slipped from Ariana's fingers and struck the metal basin with a sharp clatter. She paused. For a few seconds, the only sounds in the kitchen were the faint ticking of the wall clock and the soft rattling of leaves outside the window. Then she bent down, picked up the spoon and continued washing. Her hands moved automatically. Her mind was somewhere else. Coach Edward. The words from the team's WhatsApp group had refused to leave her head since yesterday.‘COACH EDWARD HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH LEUKEMIA.’Ariana had read the message several times before she could even understand what she was looking at. Maria had been beside her then, the phone trembling slightly in her hand. Neither girl had spoken. Their earlier laughter had disappeared so completely that the room itself had seemed to become unfamiliar.Coach Edward had been more than a coach. He had been the man who stayed behind after training to correct their mistakes. The man who made them run another
A STRANGER IN THE AISLE
MONTIEL TOWN1:35 PMThe afternoon breeze came rushing down the long stretch of road, lifting tiny clouds of dust from the edges of the sidewalk and sending dry leaves tumbling lazily across Ariana's path. She walked with one hand wrapped around the strap of the small shopping bag hanging from her shoulder, while the other held the folded list her mother had given her that morning.The sun was bright, but the breeze softened its heat. Tall trees lined portions of the street, their branches swaying above the road and casting broken patches of shade across the pavement. Motorcycles weaved between cars, vendors called out to pedestrians from beneath colorful umbrellas, and somewhere in the distance, the impatient horn of a bus pierced through the afternoon noise. Ariana barely noticed any of it. Her thoughts were still with Maria. She could almost hear her friend's voice from earlier.“Ariana, this toe is finished. My football career is finished. Tell the coach to replace me.”Ariana had
You may also like
Rhodia River - In the stream of love
Anderson José10.4K viewsMarried at First Sight
Gu Lingfei32.4M viewsDark Days Under a Black Sun
Desmond Baiden 2.2K viewsThe Billionaire’s Secret Guardian
Chizurum Enyinnaya2.3K viewsHighSchool of Billionere
Lev Bodgan3.9K viewsLailah: The Milestone
Zuxian7.3K viewsHE BROKE ME FIRST
DMARTIN337.4K viewsReborn Beneath The Ice
L.A. MONROE 333 views