Little Broken Pieces

LITTLE BROKEN PIECES ISSA MARIE Copyright © 2023 by Issa Marie All rights reserved. No part of this book or any portion thereof may be reproduced in any form, including recording, photocopying, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or used in any manner whatsoever without the publisher's express written permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Resemblance to actual names, persons living or dead, events, or locations is purely fictional and entirely coincidental. This book is dedicated to the people who thought they didn’t deserve love, who thought they were too much, too loud, or too broken. I love you and fuck all the people who made you feel that way. “For You, YES” H.L.Swan “Just because he can’t love you the way you want him to doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you with everything he has.” -Landon to Tessa by Anna Todd Thank you for inspiring me, without you I would have never read nor written those first words, reviewed those first books, and started following my dreams. Here’s to my female Hardin. AUTHOR’S NOTE There may be some triggering topics in this book, we all have different triggers and this one includes off-page, suggestive behaviors that may be triggering for some. Including- trauma, PTSD, mental health, toxic behavior, and or relationships. There are also some aspects of the story that don’t match reality, for instance, how some features of cell phones work, etc. While I know this story may not be for everybody and I am not the best writer/author in the world, thank you for taking a chance on Alex, Kohen, and me. PLAYLIST Listen here CONTENTS Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Epilogue Acknowledgments PROLOGUE ALEX When is love enough? When will I ever be enough? I stare at the vase of flowers he left on the table and the note beside them. My eyes tear up as, ironically, “Flowers” by Lauren Spencer Smith blasts through the speakers in my bedroom. I don’t want to read it. I don’t want the apologies. If he loved me, he would be here with his arms wrapped around me as my tears fall. He would catch them and whisper, “Beautiful girls don’t cry, Angel.” Why isn’t he here to remind me? What the fuck is wrong with me? Everywhere I go, darkness follows. I try and try to be my best self and with Kohen, I was, wasn’t I? Who the fuck are you kidding, Alex? You are a broken doll, no one wants to play with a broken doll. I feel like I deserve this after the constant flow of mistakes I’ve 1 ALEX I sit here waiting for class to start, and all my brain is focusing on is how much I hate my first name. It’s a boy’s name and it isn’t even short for anything. What the hell was my mother thinking? It’s a random thought but, I have tons of those, thank you ADHD. My phone chimes in my purse and right on time, it’s Cora for her afternoon check-in. I roll my eyes as if I don’t love the check-ins. I’m lucky she loves my crazy ass, she is too good of a friend to me. Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve her. She loves every piece of the angry, fucked up mess that I am, and I don’t show her how much I love her enough! Cora is the calm to my storm. She knows what to say to defuse the bomb that is Alex Monroe. I open up the