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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 73✍🏾📚❤️ #SylLit #WIP #livestory 📖💓 #marriedwife #demandedconsensual #darkromance

AUTHOR NOTES: I know you’re shocked to see another chapter so close to the last one, but if you watched my video, I’ve been trying to wrap up the story.

Getting through Blaque and King – one after the other has been difficult, but I pushed through. In the final print, a lot more things will change the feel of these chapters, but I wanted to focus on what El and Iris were feeling more than the side characters.

Still, I was able to put in the things I needed to put in, and I hope I can get through all of this and get them back together.

I’m happy I can release this around the Super Bowl, so for those who didn’t want to watch it because they ditched the Lions when my team should be playing, then you can read this chapter instead.

Sorry, it’s not longer.

Asum was moaning in pain and then screamed as he pulled the blade out of his leg. “You bitch!” He rose to his knees, clutching his wound, and hissed, “Have you lost your ever fucking mind?! That was the only copy?! The only notes on everything!” 

Blaque threw the remnants of the burned journal on the ground and pierced the old man with a disgusted look. “As long as that’s the only copy of the formula, there’s nothing to worry about. Take the car with your daughter and get the hell out of dodge, Asum. She’s in the locked container in the back, and the money is in the passenger seat. I’ll send that little boy to you when I get him.”

“H-How do you know where I’ll be?” Asum asked hesitantly.

Blaque turned her back to him. “I’ll always be able to find you, old man. Always.”

Asum shivered in fear before limping away.

Blaque started looking around. El knew they were too far away to see in the shadows even with the best vision, but why did Blaque immediately stop looking around when she faced them and a cruel smile plastered on her lips?

Kicking the burned remnants of the journal, she said, “Now no one will have the formula, Big Brother. And you’ll never get your Paradise to agree to be with you. You’re the demon’s offspring, and you can either join me or wait until the end when I come after you. That’s what you get for helping that little terror.” She spat on the ground. “And once I kill that bitch you can forget stepping foot in this city ever again.” Blaque ground up the burned remnants slowly, and El could see King’s hand tighten more around the bar. “And don’t think you’ll ever find the old man. You send anyone after him, and you’ll be sorry.”  

They watched her walk out the same path as Asum had before either one moved, and El was sure he held his breath the entire time. It was only after a minute that El even put down the gun and relaxed, realizing every cell of his muscle had been strained from the moment he entered this ruined building.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” King hissed, handing El a burner phone. “Hearts can find each other, unfortunately, but I don’t think she knows you were here.”

“I have to get Iris,” El said urgently, returning his sniper to the protective bag. He turned in the direction of getting the lift up to his car, determined to catch up with Asum wherever he was. What do you want me to do with this?”

“I’ll give you two months. Get your affairs together, and I’ll need that formula. Don’t fuck me on this, El. You know the consequences if you don’t stay two steps ahead of Blaque.”

“Who is the little monster Blaque is so angry about? I heard her mumble something in New York about wishing she’d killed the little monster before you got to it.”

King smirked. “Sometimes, it’s true when they say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The little monster is helping me get back in the city without the rest of the family finding out I’m here.”

As usual, the man was as evasive as ever, but El had other problems and wanted out of this family. Digging any further could drag him down in the Heart Family’s mess.

After handing King the earpiece, El put the phone in his pants pocket; he asked, “What about your family, King? Don’t you fucking care she plans to take everyone out one by one, or are you hoping she’ll finish the job your father started and you almost accomplished?”

King stiffened, cutting his dark eyes at El with irritation, but then relaxed with a smirk, putting up the earpieces and collapsing the listening device. “Little sister told you about what I did to get kicked out of the family, huh? She must really like you.” He started to walk away from the lift.

His phone chimed oddly, and El looked at the text message from an unknown number. He knew who it was from: “It’s your little sister.” 

King stopped in his tracks and waited. 

El read the message out loud. “Your wife is waiting for you.”

At the exact moment, a sound alarm alert from his new office indicated that someone was in there. 

“Do you think it’s a trick?” he asked King. “There’s motion in my new office. Someone is in there.”

“The minx fooled the father.” King frowned. “You go find your bride, and I’ll contact you. I need to find out what else she is up to.”

El’s phone chimed again, and it was a message from his partner sending a video clip. “How are you going to find-” He looked up from his phone and stopped himself. 

King was nowhere around.

The lift continually looped, and El could return to the surface. His heart was racing out of his chest, not in exhaustion but with panic and hope as he prayed King was right –  Blaque had not given Iris to her father. 

Quickly, El reached the car and paused slightly, seeing a note on the windshield. 

“She’s with you” was written in Blaque’s hand. On the back of the note, lips were pressed on the paper with the lipstick his bride had been wearing this morning. His thumb moved over the print, and he took a deep breath. 

He’d know those lips a mile away. Jumping in his car, placing his sniper rifle in the box under the back seats when he usually took the time to put it in the trunk, El took off toward the office at full speed. After parking, he wanted to sprint out of the vehicle and get to his offices. Iris had to be there, which was why the alarms were being set off. 

***

You can think your way through this, Iris assured herself. 

She had figured out the most challenging problems and made analytical judgments about a company’s actions years in advance. Why couldn’t she figure out Blaque Heart? The woman was a paradox, but that was what Iris was good at—figuring out the difficulties to win.

Blaque should be no different. 

Iris needed to get her brain together and quit being fearful. If Blaque were going to torture her, she would have done horrible things by now. The woman had walloped Ernest’s wife without a thought, killed Dwayne, and had an agenda to kill her entire family. 

The vehicle stopped abruptly, and the driver’s door slammed while the hatchback opened simultaneously. 

There were clamps on the box, and she waited patiently for Blaque’s next move. 

“I’m going to open this lid, and you’ll hand my phone out and take this blindfold,” Blaque ordered. “Do it well because you don’t want me to do it for you.”

Iris thought the request was strange, but she didn’t protest and did as instructed. The phone was snatched from her hand, and a silk cloth was pressed into her palm. Putting the blindfold over her eyes in the narrow box was a squeeze, but Iris managed to do so. 

“Now get out,” Blaque ordered.

Why would this woman have her cover her eyes and now get out? Was this torture? Give Iris one last time to be out of the box, feel mother nature on her face, and then send her back in the box forever. 

It took her a moment to find footing and get to the street level without falling over. Blaque never offered a hand, but once Iris had both feet planted on the ground, her shoulder was firmly gripped, something pressed on her lips, and then she was gently shoved a couple of steps away from the vehicle she had been inside.

“I think you’d appreciate my methods,” Blaque said.

Iris didn’t want to appreciate anything about this woman, so she chose not to say anything. 

Blaque explained herself. “Pendylyn was going to die anyway. I could smell the cancer a mile away, and she would have chosen to live instead of having the baby. The garlic hallow bullet I made myself was honorable.”

“You don’t know that was going to be her decision. Babies change women. The person you knew her as could have become a whole different person once she held that baby.”

“Did it change you? When you held your baby?”

Iris stiffened tightly and shivered at the same time. Speaking about her past mistakes was nothing she ever felt comfortable with, but she needed to finesse Blaque without the bullshit. The woman knew when she was being lied to, and Iris couldn’t lie, and she had to be honest about her feelings. 

“I try not to remember, but knowing I had the honor to be a mother affects many of my decisions now. It allows me to have immense feelings of guilt.”

“And you take shit because you think you deserve shit,” Blaque said. 

“I probably do.” She shivered again, and this time, it wasn’t because she was cold, but that feeling of the past and holding that tiny human in her arms was overcoming her again. 

“And this one?”

“I don’t know if I’m preg-” Iris gasped as Blaque yanked her hand out and put something in there. 

“You are. And El knows you probably are because he wanted it as a way to keep you.” Blaque retook her hands and bound them so tightly behind Iris that she was sure she wouldn’t feel her fingers after a couple of hours. “I can smell the fetus a mile away on you.” 

Confused, she asked, “Keep me? Why would he-“

Blaque cut her off. “You’ll have to ask his stupid ass for his stupid decisions, but he’ll never come right out and tell you? And you know that. But I didn’t stand you out in the cold to discuss this, Iris,” she said with irritation.

“I thought you took me out of the box to cruelly watch me enjoy the last time I’ll feel the sun.”

Blaque sniggered. “That thought crossed my mind.”

“Or did you want to impress me because you killed Pendylyn with Brazillian garlic?” Iris asked proudly. “If it had been enough of that garlic when the hollow point exploded inside of her, no one would have been able to save her or the baby. Her vitals would have suffered immediate shutdown. Was that you being benevolent for her or the baby?”

There was no response, but she knew the evil woman hadn’t left. Perhaps she had impressed Blaque by shelling out her knowledge from the plants Aunt Rose had given her. 

After more silence, Iris determined, “Either way it goes, your niceness is only for you to sleep at night, not anyone else, but I’m sure you know that. This isn’t the first time you’ve decided on an expectant mother. And you could kill me in so many ways for speaking my mind, but I know you want to be at least able to face El and say at least you didn’t kill me. I think it’s odd you want his approval but give two shits about your family anymore. Is it because he accepts you as you are? And you need him to like you like this while your family wants you to conform to their standards?”

Blaque grabbed her arm harshly and shoved Iris down into something hard. Iris was used to this, and even though it hurt, she wasn’t surprised her outburst had gotten her a punishment. 

“Shut your mouth, Iris Folsom, until you hear something. Then I’ll advise you to make as much noise as possible.” 

Something slammed above her, and her surroundings became darker. She was still outside from the cold. She felt all around, but inside, something—another trunk? Her hands were bound awkwardly behind her, and Iris was uncomfortable lying on her back or side. She was forced to lay on her stomach, which prevented her from feeling or moving around. The space was so tight she couldn’t stretch her legs out either, and there was a hard case to the back of her. 

Knowing she could now be in her father’s clutches pushed a dark cloud over her soul. She probably would never see Clem or El ever again.

Thinking about the possibility of a baby, the dread increased because, under her father’s clutches, he would take the baby and do whatever he wanted.

Most likely, her father would name the child Folsom, and if it was a boy…

It was a boy.

She felt El could only give her a boy.

With Blaque helping her father, Iris knew El would never find her.

Perhaps she had let too much of Iris out of the box with Blaque, and this was her punishment? Thrown in some steel can to die very slowly?

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) 2025 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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