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OVER~Zella Ace CONTENTSAlso by Zella AceAuthor’s CopyrightAcknowledgementsDisclaimerprologueonetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteenfifteensixteenseventeeneighteennineteentwentytwenty-onetwenty-twotwenty-threetwenty-fourtwenty-fivetwenty-sixtwenty-seventwenty-eighttwenty-ninethirtythirty-onethirty-twothirty-threePlaylistAlso by Zella AceAbout Zella Ace ALSO BY ZELLA ACE(Future Publications in Order):Heaven Has EyesHit on YouInfamousThe Way You Left ThingsPair of ThreeTornPierce (Pocket of Air Trilogy, Book #1)UnguardedEthan ((Pocket of Air Trilogy, Book #2)Three WordsSammie (Pocket of Air Trilogy, Book #3) AUTHOR’S COPYRIGHTCopyright © 2023 by Zella Ace. All RIghts ReservedAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFirst of all, I want to thank the Lord. My faith is very important to me, and He has guided me through every hardship in life. I look forward to the future because He is there to hold my hand at all times.Second, I want to thank the two people that mean the whole world to me: my mother and sister. They have supported my decision to pursue writing as a career following my a diagnosis in 2017. I haven’t been able to hold down any jobs since then and they’ve been unfathomably understanding and supportive of my shortcomings.Third, I want to thank all my readers, because of the time you take to read my books and review them. It’s not necessary to purchase any of my books or review them, please know that.Finally, I want to thank my diagnosis. Fuck you kindly, Psychotic Depression!Thank you also to those who contributed that was not mentioned here. DISCLAIMERAs I’ve said in the previous pages, my faith is very important to me, but this is not Christian romance. As of this writing, I have no plans to publish any in the near future. However, that might change. Refer to my “Also by Zella Ace” page for my future books in publication order (this also might change).My books contain mild spice, so if you’re looking for pure erotica, this is not the book for you.Do note that since I am a Singaporean, the novel is written in British English, so some words are spelled differently.Triggers in this book include: depictions of depression and anxiety, attempted self-harm and alcoholicism. prologue It was over as soon as it started.The snow was, as usual for that time of the year, unbearably heavy but they still found the time to head out anyway because Mom was in a foul mood all day. She had been lounging around the house, sulking after more rounds of nitpicking on how the kids' grades have been slipping, on how their irregular waking hours made it hard for them to have family meals together and how nobody ever seemed to pick up any of the chores for her when she asked even though she was clearly exhausted from cooking. Ryan came up with the brilliant idea to have dinner at his favourite family restaurant which happened to be around the corner. Dad, expressed his disagreement after one look out the window, saying that the weather was too unfavourable. Mom, however, lit up at the suggestion and sat straight up at her armchair, pleading with him to let them out of the house this time, as they'd already been cooped up for days from all the snow. Isabelle was completely ambivalent about the entire thing, and stayed out of it even though Mom was egging her on to try and convince Dad. She eventually relented and said that it would’ve been nice to have a piping hot meal after spending the whole day freezing and buried in schoolwork. Dad’s eyes softened and the decision was made. They began to prepare for a night out and headed out as soon as Dad shoveled the snow away from the car. They ate to their hearts’ content at the family restaurant, chatting noisily away. Dad had wanted to head home early in case the weather made a turn for the worse but Isabelle insisted on some dessert, which he ordered for each of them in the end. When it was time to leave the restaurant, they were smiling like Cheshire cats, and approached the crosswalk which used to be a comforting sequence of black-white-black but was now a blanket of white.Then it happened.Ryan darted out to the road. The pedestrian lights were still red, but they thought nothing of it because he enjoyed crossing before it turned green but only after the lights for the traffic had turned red. He relished the idea of being one step ahead of other pedestrians and it was something they were used to. Then it struck Isabelle that the traffic lights were still green. She looked between the lights of the crosswalk and the traffic over and over again in horror, and called out for Ryan to stop, but her voice was drowned out by a deafening screech as a shower of snow flew skyward from the ground. The sickening crack of bone against metal rang out into the night as Ryan was thrown like a rag doll several metres away from the sedan that had skidded to a stop.Mom shook her hand free from Isabelle's hand. She let out a sound that was so alien that it would come to haunt her dreams for years. She sped towards Ryan, collecting him into her arms. She shook him violently, as if that could will him to open his eyes. Dad pulled Isabelle closer to his side. He tried to control and hide his shaking from her at the same time. One of his hands wiped at her face, and she realised that she had been crying the entire time. She clutched tightly to his coat, hoping to wake up from the nightmare. The