Syren’s Rebirth
Book 4 in the Syren Series
By
Jennah Thornhill
Copyright
Syren’s Rebirth
The Syren’s Series Book four
Published by Jennah Thornhill
Copyright 2018 by Jennah Thornhill
All rights reserved.
©
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, songs and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is coincidental.
Written by- Jennah Thornhill
Edited by- Karina Boote/Maria Lazarou
Book Cover- Envy Design
Formatter- Karina Boote/Maria Lazarou
All rights reserved in accordance with the Copyright and Related Rights act 2000.
No part of this publication maybe be reproduced or copied in anyway.
Dedication
For my wife, Sienna.
Without you, this book would never have happened.
Thank you.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Prologue
Liam
Melissa
Chapter One
Liam
Chapter Two
Melissa
Chapter Three
Liam
Chapter Four
Melissa
Chapter Five
Liam
Chapter Six
Melissa
Chapter Seven
Liam
Chapter Eight
Melissa
Chapter Nine
Liam
Chapter Ten
Melissa
Chapter Eleven
Liam
Chapter. Twelve
Melissa
Chapter Thirteen
Liam
Chapter Fourteen
Melissa
Chapter Fifteen
Liam
Chapter Sixteen
Melissa
Chapter Seventeen
Liam
Chapter Eighteen
Melissa
Chapter Nineteen
Liam
Chapter Twenty
Connor
Chapter Twenty-One
Melissa
Chapter Twenty-Two
Liam
Chapter Twenty-Three
Melissa
Chapter Twenty-Four
Liam
Chapter Twenty-Five
Melissa
Chapter Twenty-Six
Liam
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Melissa
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Liam
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Melissa
Chapter Thirty
Liam
Chapter Thirty-One
Melissa
Chapter Thirty-Two
Liam
Chapter Thirty-Three
Melissa
Chapter Thirty-Four
Liam
Epilogue
Mel
Liam
Playlist
Acknowledgments
About The Author
Social Media Links
Other Books By This Author
Prologue
Liam
“I’ll be back I promise you, Steph. It’s only a meeting and if things work out for me and the band, then I will send for you.”
“I’m going to miss you so much, Liam. I know you have to do this, but I love you and I can’t imagine being here all alone, without you.”
Pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear, I cup her face and slowly lower my lips to hers.
Bolting upright in bed, the sweat now dripping from my brow, I think back over the vivid dream that’s just woken me. The day I left with the guys to try and make something of the band, was the day I left and never returned.
The look of sadness on her face is etched into my brain - I promised her I would never break her heart, I promised her I would always come back for her. Only I didn’t, and in the process broke two hearts.
Hers and mine.
Lying down, I close my eyes and try to fall back to sleep, but to no avail, it’s no longer an option. All I see when I close my eyes are her deep green ones, flowing red hair and freckles dotted all over her nose and cheeks.
We may have only been eighteen, but I knew then that she was the one for me, that she was the one that would keep my heart beating for the rest of my life.
Nowadays I have a few quid in the bank and women falling at my feet, but I don’t indulge. I used to, don’t get me wrong, it was the only way I could block her out; replace her face with someone else's. It was the only way I could forget that I had failed her, that I had broken my promise to her all those years ago. That I was just like every other man in her life. I walked away for my own selfish needs.
They say you don’t realise what you’ve got until it’s gone, well, I had it and lost it, and I’m never going to be the same again.
They say time's supposed to heal you, but it hasn’t done much for me.
Time just isn’t on my side.
Melissa
Watching them lower my sister into the ground has got to be the most painful thing a fourteen-year-old should ever have to see, but it’s not. The proper gut wrencher is listening to my two-year-old niece scream for her mummy, a mummy that’s never coming back. Having no idea why she was there one day and gone the next. No child should have to go through that, even if they not old enough to understand. Technically the brain tumour killed her, but in reality she never recovered from the day the love of her life walked out on her for his own selfish reasons. Making her promises that he had no intentions of keeping.
He left my sister when she needed him the most, but she was too proud to beg for him to come back. Steph was the most unselfish person I knew, always putting everyone else before herself, and now she’s gone. She’s never coming back. The day he left, he took her spirit with him, she was never the same again. Sure, she was the perfect mother to Bethany when she came along, but she gave up on life in general thanks to him. She never went out to socialize, never dated anyone else, then the brain tumour came along out of nowhere, and so she decided to give up altogether.
She wasn’t my sister anymore, she was a shell of a woman I used to know. Nowhere near the fun-loving Steph, I had grown up with.
My heart is broken, straight down the middle, and no amount of getting pissed with my friends from school or smoking the odd spliff is ever going to mend it.
The only way I’m ever going to fix myself is by getting out there and living, live for the both of us. Live my life the way she would want me to.
Chapter One
Liam
“For once, can you not be a twat, and grow the fuck up!” I tell Max, as I crack him one up the back of the ear. That man is nearly twenty-eight years old, and he doesn’t act a day over twelve. If he wasn’t so good at his job, I’m pretty sure Connor would’ve kicked him out of the band years ago.
“What?” He looks at me as if what he’s doing is a normal adult thing to do.
“A child plays with snot, not a fully-grown man,” I say, disgusted with his behaviour.
“Oh, stop you're whining will ya. It’s funny. Watch.”
He then proceeds to roll the disgusting slime between his fingers, before he flicks it at some unknown dude sitting right in front of us.
He’s beyond gross.
We’re all currently dressed to the nines at the yearly music awards, this isn’t really our thing, but the last album was such a
success we had no choice but to attend. If I’m honest, we’re lucky to even have a career to go back to after everything our band has been through over the years. If it’s not Connor, his addiction or his crazy personal assistant, then it’s Johnny needing an emergency kidney transplant thanks to getting shot by his girlfriend’s mobster father. Things don’t ever run smoothly for us, so we’re taking this amazing chance by the balls and not letting it go. It’s just what we needed right now. Even if we don’t win, the nominations alone will give us the boost we need.
Shaking my head at the man child beside me, I turn away from him and his snot flicking and give Johnny a nudge.
“Seriously!!! Please tell me again why we keep him in the band?” I ask him quietly.
Looking over at Max, Johnny snorts out a laugh.
“And before you say, it’s because he’s good at what he does. I’m pretty sure, there are plenty of others out there who we can replace him with?”
I’m only joking, but I say that part a bit louder so he hears me, which he does, then he turns, gives me a scowl and flips me off.
“Will you be bloody quiet, your category is up next,” Allie warns me.
I look at Connor, who’s stony-faced and is clearly sweating buckets over this nomination. I can’t blame him, this one is the one he will kick himself for if we don’t win it.
Best song of 2018.
It’s a hard one to win, but the song we’re up for is one that Connor wrote for Allie.
You Are My Life.
The song that shot us straight back to number one. If we don’t win, he’ll blame himself, it’s what he does. It will play on his mind, and he’ll constantly think how he could’ve made it better.
The answer is, he couldn’t have made it any better; it was his best material to date.
I look across our table, and I watch Allie, her love for Connor shining bright in her eyes, as she tries her best to reassure him that no matter what happens, the song is amazing.
Sitting at our table, with the exclusion of the idiot on my right. All I see is love everywhere. Johnny has Karina by his side and even though Max is a man child half the time, I’m grateful every day for what he did for John. If it wasn’t for him, Johnny wouldn’t be here with us tonight. Celebrating with us, watching his son grow up and being someone's husband.
With that said, when I see all the lovey dovey shit in front of me, it makes my heart ache. I could’ve had what Johnny and Connor have, I did have it once. If only I had kept my promise to the one person who loved me and knew me better than anyone.
Stephanie Wright.
We were high school sweethearts, both of us the nerdy kids in the class. I was good with math and my drums, she was the book geek who lived for her animals and helping out at shelters in her spare time. Then came the day I received the news that we were leaving for LA for a meeting with the record company that were interested in us. We never thought for one minute that one day we would make it big, but we did. And I left with a promise to have her brought to me, but as things progressed, I never got the chance. Before I knew it the years had passed and I didn’t have the guts to just turn up out of the blue. The thought of having the door slammed in my face and being rejected, only made my fear of returning even worse.
I couldn't even ask the guys what to do, because none of them even knew about her. Come to think of it, I don't know why they never met her. They only knew of her by name, which I hardly ever brought up as they would throw digs at me and say things like ‘pussy whipped’, or ‘under the thumb’.
A hard shove to my shoulder brings me out of my daydream. When I’ve blinked a few times, taking in all the noise around me, I’m pulled to my feet. Then grabbed by my upper arms, and before I can register what the fuck is going on Max is in my face screaming.
“We fucking won L, we fucking did it!”
The last few hours have been totally crazy, we bounded onto the stage to accept the award for best song and watched as Connor gave some emotional spew about how it wouldn’t have been possible without us, Allie and of course our fans.
We then performed our winning song to a packed-out Royal Albert Hall. The crowd went exceptionally wild before we were escorted off the stage and directed into two waiting cars out the back to take us to where we are currently sitting -The Montezuma Club in South Kensington.
It’s small and intimate, yet it still gives us the enjoyment of a fabulous night out to celebrate our win.
Sitting in our VIP booth, I take a look around our table and sigh. Although it’s not their fault, I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy when I see them together with their wives.
Johnny has Karina perched on his knee and is doing what I presume is dirty things under her dress. Glancing past the two of them, I see Connor and Allie in the middle of the room dancing like they are having sex with their clothes on - really sometimes these four make me gag. Then when I pull my eyes away from the two sets of love birds, I see Max at the bar with his tongue down some redhead’s throat and I freeze.
No!!
It can’t be?
My eyes and mind are playing tricks on me. Getting up from my seat, all of my senses are telling me that I’m about to make a complete dick of myself, but for my own sanity, I have to make sure. I start to shake, as the what if’s start to rattle around in my brain.
What if it’s her?
What if Max is roaming his filthy paws all over the woman that has had my heart for almost ten years?
The music and chatter around me turns to white noise, as I drag my sorry arsed self over to them. When I get there, I take the girl by the shoulder, pulling her away from Max, startling the pair.
“What the fuck, L?” He’s pissed off, it’s clear in his voice, but I ignore him. Looking at the girl, my eyes sweeping over her from top to toe.
It’s official, I’m going crazy.
“It’s okay, Max. If your friend wants to join in, he’s more than welcome,” she purrs, whilst at the same time she scrapes her long red painted nails down my cheek.
Pulling away from her advances, I start to stutter.
“I… I… It’s okay, I’m so sorry Max. I just thought she was someone else, that’s all. Look, I’m gonna shoot off, I’ve had enough for one night. Tell the others I’ll catch up with them tomorrow.” With that, I spin around and walk away as fast as my legs will let me. The urgency to escape takes over.
After I’ve managed to fight my way out of the club, I jump into the nearest taxi and hightail it back to my townhouse in Chelsea. At least when I’m on my own I can wallow in self-pity without anyone questioning me, I’ve been putting on a show for the last god knows how many years. Pretending that I’m okay, when on the inside my heart is shattered and my head is one jumbled, fucked up mess.
As each day, month, fuck, each year passes it gets harder to man up and go back home. Even though home is only half an hour away from where I live now, I’ve never, not even once been back since the day I left. I don’t speak to anyone from my old neighbourhood, not even my parents or my sister. They didn’t agree with us trying to form a band, they would always refer to it as nonsense. Calling everything about it, ‘Silly band business.’
Letting myself in, I slam the door shut behind me, at the same time slinging my jacket over the banister. Marching myself straight into the kitchen, I yank the cupboard door open where I keep my stash.
Pulling down a bottle of Jameson’s, I unscrew the cap and swig it straight from the bottle, not even bothering with a glass. What’s the point, it still tastes the same and does the job of numbing my thoughts exactly the same.
I walk from the kitchen into the open space living area, throwing myself on the sofa. What the fuck was I thinking marching over to Max like that?
I’m losing the fucking plot, I swear I am.
The more I drink, the more I think, which opens up more head space, and the temptation to go upstairs and drown myself in the memories I wish to forget.
No, Liam. Don’t do it.
I tell myself, but my brain isn’t listening to the sensible side tonight. Dragging my pathetic self-off the sofa, I head towards the stairs and climb them two at a time, stopping outside the spare room door. Before I can even stop myself, I’m unlocking it and turning the handle. As I walk into the room, I flick the light on and stand in the middle of the room. Letting my eyes adjust to the lighting, I blink a few times, my head starting to get fuzzy from the whiskey. Shaking the fuzziness away, I peel my eyes open properly and start turning around in a slow circle, taking everything in around me. There’s a reason I keep this room locked.
If anyone ever saw it, they would have me sectioned, or at the very least arrested.
Walking over to one of the walls, I run a lone finger down Stephanie’s photographed face, at the same time a silent tear escapes from my eye and runs down my cheek.
I don’t know why I torture myself, she’s only thirty minutes away. I can fix it, I know I can, but then there’s a part of me that knows too much time has passed, and me turning up out the blue could turn her world upside down. She could be married for all I know. Shit, she could even have children, I wouldn’t want to mess that up, not if she’s happy.
This room isn’t healthy, in fact a psychotherapist might even say it’s an obsession.
Everywhere I look, she’s there, she’s on every wall of this room either smiling, eating, laughing and some of them she didn’t even know I’d taken. Either way, I had every picture I have of her, whether it’s on her own or with me made into a wallpaper. Yes, it’s creepy. Yes, it’s not normal, so sue me. It was the only way I could keep her with me when she wasn’t there in person.
Chapter Two
Melissa
I’ve been sitting in the same position for the past hour and a half. At the kitchen table on the hard and not so sturdy bar stool. My arse is dead and my head is banging, but I will not give up. I need to keep looking for a new job. I’ve sent my C.V out online hoping someone will find me, save me doing all the hard work.
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