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Please continue reading if you’ve read the story starter – a very long Chapter 1 – and you’re ready to dive into the story with me.

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About the story: (short description. Click here for longer)

“Let Me Love You” is a tale of love and sacrifice and a poignant story of self-discovery, celebrating the human capacity to find love in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Please enjoy the current WIP of Iris and El. This will be published freely up to a point, like in the old days, and then the entire book will be posted for full download. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the companion stories. (Wicked Chances, Dreams of Reality, The Convenient Wife, The Other Side of Love, She Works Hard for the Money & Ravenous)

Enjoy, Your Author, Sylvia Hubbard

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Read more: Let Me Love You – Chapter 51✍🏾📚❤️ #SylLit #WIP #livestory 📖💓 #marriedwife #demandedconsensual #darkromance

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Now I’m setting you up… this is a writer’s warning… I’ve always hated those books where they dissolve over miscommunications and ex-something drama when it’s time for the couple to break up. I wanted to change the game in this one and try something new. Iris’s life is terrible in Detroit. And the only way to make it better – the only solution – would be to leave so her father can no longer use her. We can say until we’re blue in the face that El could protect her, but could he? Against her father? A man who has controlled her since birth?!

Love is love, but evil is evil, and her father means to do whatever he has to do; on top of that, he’s not just going to let her leave town with Clem… now that his other son is missing because of Blaque.

So what’s a girl to do? Leave, right?

what do you think?

your author, Sylvia Hubbard

“Is this yours, ma’am?” a security officer asked. 
Iris gasped, horrified at the cracked phone, and gurgled in misery. Salacious took the phone and waved the officer away. 
“I recorded their conversation implicating they did that to Damien, not El,” she said. 
“On this phone?” Salacious asked suspiciously.
“Yes! I swear, and I saw the injuries to Damien’s body. El didn’t do that, I swear! I was there, and if you obtain the real video, you’ll also see it. Someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, and you’re letting them.” 
He looked down at his injured hand and then back at her, his black eyes blazed with vengeance. “Let’s get to Damien’s room while his Daddy is down here. I want to see the injuries you think El didn’t do.”
“I can’t go out there!”
“I know,” Salacious said. “We’ll take the stairs to the third floor.”
She looked at his injuries again. “Are you sure you’re alright to do that?”
Salacious stepped on the initial step and winced, but he answered her as he waited for her to proceed. “They’re flesh wounds. Blaque wasn’t trying to kill me yet.”
Proceeding up the stairs, Iris inquired, “She’s going to kill you eventually?”
“You heard her. She said she is going to finish what her Daddy started. My uncle was trying to patricide the whole bloodline because he felt it was all evil. He started at his brothers and sisters and then started on the kids, but my cousin Lethal Heart stopped him.”
“Your uncle is in jail?”
“No, he’s dead.” His voice had no feeling, and she was terrified to look back at him because of his cold tone. 
“Wouldn’t Blaque feel appreciative of this?” she inquired. “This cousin Lethal saved her life, right?”
“Blaque is a selfish, jealous bitch, but she’s too good at killing and very good at avoiding being killed. King, her big brother, had a reign on her, and we weren’t worried, but from the looks of it, the bitch is unleashed, and we’re all in trouble.” 
“Your whole family?” she asked, almost reaching the next floor and seeing a glint in the corner.
“Unfortunately.”
“Shouldn’t you call someone in your family to warn them?” she asked as they reached the second-floor stairwell. This was where the conversation she had been listening to earlier had taken place, and Iris immediately went over to what had attracted her eyes.
“I notified Lethal. I’ll meet him after I finish with El’s mess,” Salacious assured her. “What’s that?”
She picked up what she was looking at – a lovely diamond and ruby earring. 
“That looks expensive,” he said, taking it from her. 
“Are you goin’ to keep that like you’re keeping El’s gun and my phone?”
“It’s safe,” he assured her, patting his chest where his inside pocket was. “Let’s go.”
Iris stomped up the rest of the stairs but paused, opening the third stairwell door a crack so she could see out in the lobby. Seeing no one hardly around, Iris stepped out in the hallway and almost bumped into her cousin again.
“Iris! What are you doing back here?” Essence asked but then saw the bleeding Salacious. “Dear lord, you look like you need a doctor, sir.” her voice was playful, but Salacious only mean mugged her. 
“This is Officer Heart. He was the one I was meeting in the lobby, Essence,” Iris explained. 
Essence led them into a small triage room and pointed to the oversized chair where Salacious was sitting. “Let me get you patched up.” Her cousin unlocked several cabinets to retrieve the necessary items to stitch up his wounds.
Iris closed the doors for privacy.
“I take it this is the one that helped you get to Damien’s room,” Salacious said, flinching as Essence worked on his leg.
“Please don’t get her fired,” Iris begged. “She was only helping me.”
“Whatever,” Essence said with great arrogance as she concentrated on Salacious’s calf wound. “Iris is a great resource, and I was merely showing how her products help me and my patients.” She gave her cousin a quick, wicked wink. “I’ve had permission, and it’s in my contract that I’m allowed to do so. The hospital administration understands that it would help me care for my patients better if I could discuss how I use their products with vendors on my list for my patients. What I’ve done with coma patients at this hospital is groundbreaking, and neither the administration nor my patients’ families have ever balked at my practices.” She shot Iris an ‘I’ve got you back’ wink. “What you should be worried about, Officer Heart, is that those wounds on Damien weren’t done by a man beating him only in the face. He has defensive bruises from a weapon.”
Salacious looked at her hard as if that would make Essence change her story, but her cousin held his gaze with a smirk on her lips, not at all intimidated. “You sure? Because if that’s the case, someone doctored the footage and is trying to plant your cousin’s boss in a very vicious crime.”
“I’m only telling you what I saw from looking at Damien Wexford’s wounds, sir. I also just watched the news and saw the footage of the beating. Is that all you saw, or is there more they aren’t releasing to the public?” Essence inquired.
“That is all the footage, and we’re having forensics look it over to verify if it was doctored.”
“Then yes, someone is trying to set her boss up, and if that’s the only evidence you have to coincide the assault, you’re looking at the wrong man. There was some weapon involved.”
Iris wanted to hug her cousin, but Essence was in the middle of a stitch on Salacious’s arm. 
The man sat there without a wince and relaxed while Essence worked on him. “I’ll take this evidence to the district attorney, get the recordings off your phone, and then go from there,” he told Iris. “By then, all the forensic reports should be ready.”
“And I’m not under arrest?” Iris asked.
“Not for now, but don’t get too relaxed. I’m still after your boss for other matters,” Salacious warned. “Let him know I have his gun.”
Iris kissed Essence’s cheek. “I swear we’ll have lunch soon.”
“Get my card out of my jacket, and I’ll talk with you much later, cousin,” Essence promised, with another wink, but couldn’t move away from treating the detective. 
After grabbing the card, Iris rushed out of the room, ducking around to the stairwell again to get to the second-floor stairwell, where she could return to the employee entrance. When she was in the car, she fished out her laptop in her large messenger bag purse and turned on El’s car. Just as she hoped he had Wi-Fi inside the vehicle her laptop could connect to, she emailed El, quickly typing up what happened. She also CC’d her aunt. 
She didn’t detail the phone call or who else Russell was speaking to except to mention that it could’ve been the council person. There wasn’t a reason to note that the council person’s wife was there because she didn’t want to discuss the debauchery of their conversation. 
Aunt Rose replied immediately, “Call me.”
Using the phone in El’s car, she knew Aunt Rose’s phone number by heart. 
After a few rings, her aunt answered. “If this officer does his job, then your boss could be free?”
“Yes, but that still doesn’t help El get the important deal.” 
The car dashboard lit up to show it was receiving a download. She smiled, seeing the map app open to show her directions to Chicago. She also noted the full tank of gas that would help her escape the city without stopping.
Worriedly, Aunt Rose asked, “Are you coming here?”
“After the Dwayne incident, I don’t think it’s safe,” she surmised. 
“Have you spoken to your boss?”
“No. I should go to Chicago instead and help El the best I can. I’ve done all I can do here in Detroit for him.”
Aunt Rose agreed. “I’ll see what I can do. Tell me again what Russell Wexford said he would do for the Bellini’s.”
“Aunt Rose, what do you know about business and land?”
“I’ve been around a long time and know many people. Just because I don’t leave my house doesn’t mean I don’t network, my love. On top of that, your helping me out with technology has helped me even more. I want to show my appreciation and help you out with this. Hopefully, he’ll help you out even more after all this.”
“After all this, I plan on leaving Michigan, Aunt Rose,” Iris insisted. “I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I think that’s best for Clem and I. My father will continue to find ways to use us if I stay.”
“And did you tell your boss this?”
“He knows, and he didn’t say anything.”
“I think-“
“Please,” Irise implored, cutting her aunt off. “I’m not going to be like my mother and believe something will improve if I stay. My hopes and wishes energy has run out. Starting a new life away from all this will be my best bet.”
“Fine,” Aunt Rose said stiffly. “But I will still help. Tell me what Mr. Wexford plans on doing.” 
Although Iris was skeptical of what Aunt Rose could help with, she confirmed the car’s direction to Chicago and told her aunt in detail what she was doing in the stairwell.

End of This Chapter | Post your thoughts in the comment | Let the author know what’s going on in your head

Let Me Love You (c) 2024 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
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