Unbreakable (Pretty Liars #2)

by K.A. Knight

I’m going to find him, and when I do, I’m going to kill him once and for all. This time, there will be no doubt, no burial, just his rotting corpse at the end of my gun.

Pain is a constant, Novaleen. It is how a person deals with it that interests me. Some conquer it and wield it, while others crumble and fall. So tell me, daughter, when I make this hurt, and I will, are you going to conquer or fall?

“I know, and he won’t be for long,” he vows. “I will fucking kill him for what he did to you and my brothers. I’ll bring you his fucking heart on a goddamn platter if it will stop this.” I must look confused because he slides his hands up my body to cup my face. “This vagueness, this nothingness, you pulling away from us to protect yourself and drive off the hurt—guess what, Nova? It hurts, so fucking let it. Do not shut everyone out just because you’re scared.”

“You don’t think I still have nightmares about him? I see his face every single day of my fucking life. I wear his cruel intentions on my skin as scars, and my heart is heavy with dread and the idea that he could hurt those I love again.”

“You didn’t. I did!” he yells, and when I turn to face him, his eyes are brimming with tears.

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“I failed them, Nova. Don’t you see?” he rants. “When Bas died, I couldn’t protect D, and he withdrew, not feeling anything. He was like a machine, and I couldn’t stop that. You did! You brought him back! I couldn’t stop Jonas from descending into madness, but you did. I couldn’t stop Nico from blaming and hating himself, cutting himself up every day, but you did. I couldn’t get Isaac to look after himself and let the guilt go, but you did. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and yet, you did.”

“And you couldn’t begin to look in the mirror and maybe see that it’s not all on you to save them? That you can’t protect them from everything? You were so focused on saving them, you were losing yourself.” I grip his face. “I see it, Louis, and I refuse to lose you, so I’ll fucking fight for you, for them, but don’t you ever lessen what you did for them. You’ve looked after them. They are alive and a family because of you. Neither of us has failed, nor are we to blame, and together, we will do this. You’re right, I was withdrawing, but I won’t. I won’t hurt you like that. I’ll endure the pain for you, for them, because I love you.”

“What if I don’t deserve your love?” he murmurs.

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“You deserve to be loved and so much more. We all deserve to be happy, but we know we have some things to do before then and we will. When we survive, which we will, we’ll do it together. It isn’t all on you, Louis. We follow you because of our trust in you, but that doesn’t mean it all weighs on your shoulders. Let us help. Let your family share the burden.”

“Yes, you do. You need to fight. Nico does as well, so you are not the only one. Reading all that is not easy, and it leaves you feeling frustrated and useless, so get it all out, and then we will get back in there and you will eat.”

You are not alone, Nova. You will never be alone, so stop acting like it. We are in this together, my love. You will remember that or we will remind you every single day we are alive.”

“We’ve got you, baby. We’ve got you. If you need us to hold you while you cry, if you need us to burn the world at your side, or you just simply need this to help you work through your emotions, then we will. We will do anything because we are a family. We don’t just get the happy emotions, but the bitter ones too. Nothing is ever too much for us, so stop shielding us and pushing us out. We want it. We want every brutal, raw edge. We can take it.”

“What if I can’t? What if I can’t take it? What if I’m not strong enough?” I admit.

“Then we will be strong for you,” he promises, stroking my cheek. “But, Nova, you are the strongest person I have ever met. Strength isn’t measured by how tall you stand, but by how beautifully you break and get back up, and you, Nova, have been broken so many times, only to put yourself back together and keep going. You still believe in good, in love, in hope, and right and wrong despite the world never d...

“Then it’s fucked,” I joke, “because I’m not a hero, Louis. I never was. I’m just a scarred, angry woman try...

“Maybe you started as that, but now you are so much m...

“Now you are one of us. You saved that man in there. You saved every single one of us. You walked into gunfire with our family to stop the experiments no one else cares about. You are magnificent, Nova, and not in the way your father always wanted you to be, but in the way that makes me love you more. You are real. You’re flawed, emotional, and stubborn as hell but so fucking strong, I feel awe just being around you. No matter what is thrown at you, you never stop fighting, and that, Nova? That is what he can never take away from us or understand in all of his experiments. He wants to better humanity, but he didn’t realise that by torturing you, by destroying you and letting you be reborn in the flames, he had already achieved that. You, Nova, are the best person I’ve ever and will ever meet....

I’m beginning to realise that pain is the whole reason we live. We hurt and love and do it all over again. Otherwise, why are we fighting so hard every day to make the most of the life we have?

Love doesn’t have to be grand and beautiful; it can be this, a man willing to fight for you, willing to show up every day and put in the work.

Life isn’t perfect—fuck knows I know that better than anyone—and it hurts you over and over, but I truly believe it never throws more at you than you are willing to endure, an...

You just have to be strong enough, brave enough, to hold on tig...

Even if it hurts like hell to do so. Even if in the end, you are giving them the...

Trust, I’m finally understanding, is the scariest thing of all. It’s so easy to b...

I have theirs, though, and they have mine, and if I let them . . . I think they just ...

“We are not your enemy, Nova. We love you, and we can take everything you throw at us. You can always work out those emotions with us without worrying. We feel it too.”

I take his hand and let him pull me up, choosing to let him save me.

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“Baby, come back to me,” I purr, feeling his hand tighten on my throat as mine drifts up his chest to his face. He shakes his head, but I hold on tight, digging my nails in. “It’s me. It’s your Nova.”

“Good, and I don’t love someone who doesn’t deserve it. Fuck what they did, fuck them, fuck them all. I’ll kill every single one if it will help you sleep.” I lean in. “But you have to stay with me, fight with me. He’s dead, Jonas, and soon they will all join him for what they did. I can’t change the past and what happened, but I promise I will never let them hurt you again.”

“This is not just down to you. Even if you knew where he was, we wouldn’t let you go. It’s not on you to save the world, Nova. When will you realise that? Think it through. Your father loves to play games, and this is just another one. We were playing along unknowingly, and enough is enough. We don’t play anymore. We break his fucking rules and play by our own.”

“That we do, so be a good girl and come all over it for me. I want your cream in my ass while you fuck me.”

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Isaac stands there, and his mouth drops open. With a confused chuckle, he starts to shut the door.

“Nope,” is all he says and then he’s gone,

“Yes, for you. All these years, you wasted your life on research that even your own government has turned its back on. You have no one to trust, no one to share it with. You are completely alone. These people follow you out of fear or obligation, nothing more. Everything you have done will be for nothing. No one will remember you, and no one will mourn you. You will simply disappear like specks of dust in the light.”

“No, it’s not real. Please, please, don’t leave me all alone. Please don’t leave me, Annie.”

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“I need my girls!” he snaps, angrier than I’ve ever seen him. “Screw me. Leave me to die and go get her. That’s an order.”

Aw Bert 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Even then, though, she protected us and made a deal to keep us alive. She should have let him kill us because living without her is not possible.

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“Miss Ana . . . She was a force to be reckoned with. She was kind, funny, and very talented. When she was a kid, she would come up with the most profound things, and I knew she was going to change the world.” He hiccups but straightens with purpose. “She saved me, an old man with nothing to live for. Those two girls became my world. I watched her grow into an incredible woman who was so kind, generous, smart, and determined, but she was aching. She missed her sister. I never saw her happier than when she got Miss Nova back. They were always destined to be at each other’s side. Without her, there will be a hole. I’m so glad I got to see you grow up, Miss Ana, and fall in love and stand for what you believe in. I’m so very proud of you. I have loved you since the moment you took my hand and declared us friends when you were four years old, and I will love you until the moment I lie in the ground at your side. I will find your sister, our Nova, and I will bring her home. I will uphold your dying wish. I hope that in the next life, you find the peace and happiness you deserve with Sam, Miss Ana, and now I will wait for the day when I pass on and into your waiting arms.”

“Nova loved Ana more than anything in the world. Everything she ever did was for her sister, to keep her safe and give her a chance at a normal life. I never knew what true love was until I saw them together.”

“I will never forgive myself for failing you, Ana, or your sister, but your death will not be in vain. I promise you that. We will make them pay, and I will spend the rest of my life trying to heal your sister’s broken heart with every ounce of love inside me. We can never fill the hole you have left, but we will keep her happy and loved until you two meet again.”

“The world is a cruel place,” Dimitri says. “I hope now you have peace. If you can hear me, find a man named Bas. He will love and protect you, and when our time comes, we will meet you both on the other side.”

“Love lives on in those who love you, who outlive you. I know Nova will never let your love or your life ...

Jonas nods. “I’m sorry we couldn’t save you, but w...

“Together,” Lou...

“We are, and when we do, we’ll burn the fucking world for her.”

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After all, we have something to fight for now, which we never did before—our family, our heart, our reason to live.

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I need my Nova, and if I have to kill every single person who gets in my way to get her back, I will, and when I find her father? I’m going to torture him to death for hurting the love of my life.

no matter what he does now, he can never replicate that kind of pure horror and agony again? He took the only person in this world I have ever risked everything for and loved so completely. I’m a shell, existing in nothing but physical pain. I revel in it, however, because it’s better than the pain in my heart.

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If this is just a snippet of what our lives will be like without her, then we won’t survive it. It will break us, and our family will wither and die without our heart.

“My girl. The love of my life. She was on that plane. She was taken. You said you read about men doing everything they can for their love, and that’s what I’m doing. I love her more than anything in this world. She’s my family. She’s my everything. I can’t lose her.” I know my voice cracks, but I let her hear the truth. “Please, Sarah, I just need to know where she went, I have to find her.”

Hold on, baby, we are coming. Just hold on a little longer.

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