Read Faithless #2: A Tainted Love Serial for Free Online

about the story, just about the way it makes them feel. Some people stare, some people turn away in their own private grief. Some people lie and tell themselves that I’m just fine.
    I dig into my pocket and pull out my phone. There’s one last thing I need to do before I leave this life behind. Seven clicks of my finger against the pad later, and the phone began to ring. I sniffle and wipe away a river of tears, preparing myself.
    “Faith?” Noah asks through the phone. “What’s up?”
    “Hey, Noah.” I try to greet him with the pretense that everything is okay, but my sobs in between words betray me. “I need to tell you something.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “You have to take care of him,” I cry. “You have to take care of Luke.”
    “Faith,” he says softly. “What’s wrong?”
    I rush my forearm across my face, wiping away a combination of snot and tears. “I’ll be back someday. I promise.”
    “Where are you?”
    “Goodbye, Noah. I love you more than anything in this world.”
    “Faith, you’re scaring me.”
    “It’s okay. I’m going to be all right,” I say, unable to discern if my own words are lies. I end the phone call and hold the power button until the screen fades to black. Leaning down, I grab a duffle bag and sling it over my shoulder.
    Walking away from Old Town shouldn’t be this hard. I’ve always hated this town. Leaving behind Luke and Noah? That’s another story entirely, but this is the life I have to lead. The choices I shouldn’t have to make. I went from being accepted to Harvard to being a stripper—a whore for hire.
    And I’m terrified where this road goes. For the longest time, I loved her—my mother. And then one day, I learned that loving her was too hard. It was easy and more appropriate to hate her. But now, I fear I’m becoming her.
    I can’t be a mother. Not today. Not in a year. This kid inside of me will grow to hate me. It’s a cycle I can’t repeat. If Noah knew, he’d make me keep the baby, even while knowing that it’s Luke’s child. If Luke knew… I don’t know what he’d do, but I can’t take the chance that he’d want to keep it, too.
    So this is the life I have to lead, and I can’t do it here in Old Town. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to come back. There’s too much hurt. Too much pain. Too much confusion.
    A hundred fractures will eventually lead to a broken heart—that’s what someone once told me. That would imply that my heart isn’t yet broken, just fractured.
    I can’t begin to imagine the pain of a full-on break.

7
    PRESENT
    N ightmares —a form of unbreakable reality, where the darkest imaginings are brought into the light and given the wings of life. Nightmares—there’s no other way to describe it, the horror swimming through my veins and constricting around my heart to the point where breathing becomes a luxury.
    “Get out,” Noah says from behind me, his voice trembling.
    I shake my head in defiance and follow the only course of action I can wrap my head around. I turn and slam the door in Noah’s face but have already forgotten that it’s broke. He pushes through the door and grabs me.
    “Let go of me,” I scream and jerk away from him. For the first time, I notice the rest of the contents of the room. There’s a second chair parked against the back wall. A camera is perched atop a tripod and aimed squarely at the man. Along the wall beside the door, an array of tools—hammers, scissors, wire cutters, knives. “What the hell is this?”
    Noah chews on the edge of his thumbnail, his hazel eyes turning feral. His lips move before he’s prepared to speak.
    “Answer me!”
    “Revenge,” he says dryly and reaches behind him, pushing the door against the frame. He turns and kicks his boot against the bottom of the door, lodging it into the corner of the frame so that it stays shut. “That man doesn’t deserve your sympathy or your whining.” He looks over his shoulder, his eyes hunkered down with