The Darkness Beyond the Daisies

Copyright The Darkness Beyond the Daisies Copyright © 2023 Cori Zahara All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form, not without written consent from the author. Except in the use of brief quotations in book reviews. This book is a piece of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, places or events are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, events or locations is purely coincidental. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. Dedication To my potential future mother-in-law, the woman who told me writing isn’t a real job. I hope this book proves you wrong. I’d worry about this getting me in trouble, but you never liked me anyway. Trigger Warning Every warning. All of it. Everything you can think of. The list is long, and this book is traumatic. Be mindful of your mental health. Please, do not proceed if you have any triggers, at all. This is your warning. A full content warning can be found on my social media accounts and webpage. Author Cori Zahara | Facebook PLAYLIST & INSPIRATION Lady Gaga – The Cure – Hold My Hand Barbra Streisand – Woman in Love Celine Dion – All Coming Back to Me Now Amy Winehouse – Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill Imagine Dragons – Demons – Monster Bonnie Raitt – I Can’t Make You Love Me Sam Ryder – All the Way Over George Ezra – Be Your Light Alphaville – Forever Young Florence and the Machine – Spectrum Niall Horan – Heaven Queen – Who Wants to Live Forever Kesha – Praying Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Love Oasis – Don’t Look Back in Anger Texas – Black Eye Boy Kansas – Carry On My Wayward Son Woodrow & Jolie’s scents were inspired by Devil’s Nightcap by Lush & Tallulahs Camelia Fragrance by Shay & Blue. List of Characters Jolie Woodrow Heaven – Hell – Woody Vanessa “Nessie” Heaven Wynter Heaven Ville Heaven Bonny the Bunny Bushy the cat Olivier “Ollie” Shance Remington “Remi” Cole Sylvia Teena Alerion Rubbichon (mentions only) The Monster with Gold Teeth Jolie’s Father (Maxwell) Contents Prologue 1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9 10. Chapter 10 11. Chapter 11 12. Chapter 12 13. Chapter 13 14. Chapter 14 15. Chapter 15 16. Chapter 16 17. Chapter 17 18. Chapter 18 19. Chapter 19 20. Chapter 20 21. Chapter 21 22. Chapter 22 23. Chapter 23 24. Chapter 24 25. Chapter 25 26. Chapter 26 27. Chapter 27 28. Chapter 28 29. Chapter 29 30. Chapter 30 31. Chapter 31 32. Chapter 32 33. Chapter 33 34. Chapter 34 Acknowledgements ABOUT THE AUTHOR All Works by Cori Zahara Prologue Hell–present day I stood in the center of a shithole miraged as a fancy office. Dark oak furniture lined the walls, hiding the percentage of the gally floral wallpaper. Velvet curtains brushed the hardwood floors as a gentle breeze crept in from a barely open window. They were emerald in color, mimicking and matching the odd accessories scattered in this room. I fucking hated any shade of green. I examined a trinket on the tabletop, some kind of crystal that shone in the sunlight. “You like pretty things.” The man before me snorted, as if in shock. “You’d never think it, not judging by your taste in women.”I ignored the jibe as it left his lips. It would be easy to kill the prick, but then I may not get what I wanted when ambushed by the scum that surrounded him. The dirty-looking man had an interesting voice, but an unpleasant smile, and what my mother would call ‘an ugly as fuck face’. His head was down, his pen latched to the paperwork in front of him. His black eyes danced a sinister dance over a series of photos. Photos of women covered in bruises and dressed in nothing but their damaged skin. My steel-colored irises watched him from across the desk as I dropped the crystal without care. It landed on its side; a slight crack appeared in the intricate design.My agitation caught his attention, pulling his gaze up to me. “You’re sure this is the one that you want?” the man’s European accent bounced off his scuffed gold fangs as he snarled at the photo in his hands. “She’s mine. She was already mine. You had no right to take her back.” “She was a return. Given back by your father in exchange for half of the money he spent on purchasing her.” “She wasn’t his to return. She was my gift.” “I’m a little surprised as to why you want her back. I mean, she’s only alive because. . .” “I don’t care why she is alive. . . but for as long as she is, I own her.” He examined the photo again. Staring at the scars covering half of the woman’s face. “These ruined her,” he worded as his dirty hand moved over the ink of the printed photograph. “I remember her. When she first arrived, she was worth much more. I’m assuming the scars on her face and body do not put you off? It’s a hard job for me to get even the most depraved of men here to fucking touch her. They like the pretty ones, you know?” “The scars don’t bother me, Mr. Badeaux.” I stepped forward, giving him my honest truth. Leaning down on the wooden surface, I stared him down, my eyes warning him to speed things up. “I gave her them. They were the only gift she ever received from me that she could keep. But now, I have another, so if you wouldn’t mind hurrying this along. . . I have somewhere to be.”“Of course, I understand.”