Title: Saving Leah
Author: Misha Elliott
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 5, 2018
Cover Designer: Lori Jackson Design
Sometimes the only thing worse than revealing a painful secret is keeping it from the one who wants to save you. In time fractured bones mend and torn flesh heals. But what about a fractured soul? Years of abuse have left Leah scared and broken, in solitude with the only symbol of the person she used to be-her violin. While in hiding, she never expected to meet the handsome and alluring Asher. Can he save her before all is lost or will her secrets become the death of her? **WARNING** This book contains adult material including violence and sexual content intended for readers over the age of 18.
I carry uneasiness inside; it constantly mocks me, gnawing at me like a beast, desperately clawing to get out. It makes me a hypocrite, too. I blame alcohol and drugs for turning Ian into an abusive monster, but it doesn’t stop me from heading down the same path, trying to calm the beast inside. My nightly ritual of pills and vodka commences as soon as the first drink is poured. The pills help numb the pain; the drink quiets the memories and helps to erase the fear. You’re all I have. Those words of Ian’s haunt me, because he is also all that I have.
I reach for the bottle and tip it over, spilling vodka on the table. Grabbing two towels from the kitchen, I clean up the mess and take the towels to the laundry room, where I’m left in a quandary. I want to put the towels in the empty black basket in front of the washer, but Ian had a thing about wet towels in the laundry. It wasn’t allowed. In an act of defiance, I toss them in the basket and walk away. “You know better, Leah. Are you going to do what I said or do I have to show you again what happens when you disobey?”
It is a test of my will and my mind not to go back and wash them. Ian needs to get out of my brainwashed head NOW! I lean my head back on the couch, waiting for the effects of the vodka and pills to soothe me. This solution isn’t permanent, but it grants me a few hours of rest―if I’m lucky. Ian can no longer abuse me physically, but he’s still in my head.
My mind is a fertile ground for fear. Ian planted seeds and we nurtured them together; Ian with his abuse, me with my unspoken grief. Both fertilized my fear, and before long it spread, taking me over like the kudzu vine in the south, choking out everything else in my life, paralyzing me. I was too scared to do what I needed to save myself from it; it nearly killed me.
Misha Elliott is a nomadic soul, living all over the US with her Scottish husband. During their travels, she fell in love with the written word and put her hands on the keyboard to romanticize her journeys. When not writing you can find her at Scottish Highland games (she's there for the men in kilts) or at the beach...as long as it's not hurricane season.
