Authors: C.S. Janey
Surrender To You
Surrender To You ©2013 by C.S. Janey
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by Cover Pub (
Editing by Danielle Taylor (
First Edition: September 2013
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DEDICATION
~*~
To my family and friends, who haven’t once told me that I’m insane for doing this. I love you.
Stefan never thought she’d come home…
After five long years, she’s within his reach and he’s determined to find out what she kept hidden from him, while hoping that his own secret won’t tear them apart again.
Simon never expected to fall in love with her…
Asking her out had been impulsive, but suddenly the Doctor is falling for this woman who makes him ache like nobody else ever has and he’s determined to make her his.
Elizabeth never knew she’d feel so strongly for two men…
Torn between the love of an ex she pushed away in the past and the love of a new man that makes her feel alive again, she must make a decision that will ultimately result in a broken heart for one of them.
When tragedy strikes, will she be confident in her final decision?
CHAPTER ONE
“Don’t you miss me?”
“You know I do. But you’re the one who left me…”
“I didn’t want to, but you refused to let me in. You’re the reason I left.”
“Doesn’t the pain I was in mean anything? I needed you and you walked out, even after all the promises you made.”
“I just finally went the direction you told me to go every day. I simply gave you what you wanted. I left because you told me to.”
“You leaving isn’t what I wanted! You weren’t listening! You never listened!”
“Maybe the problem was that you weren’t saying anything worth me listening to.” He turned and walked away with a shake of his head.
I slid to the floor, the knob of the kitchen cabinet slicing into my back, giving me another scratch on my body to join all the others that reminded me of the pain I couldn’t manage to get rid of as I sobbed into my hands.
The sound of my cell phone ringing jolted me out of the eerie dream I’d been having.
Rolling over, I picked up the flashing phone to see a random area code I had never seen before. Figuring someone from work could be calling me on a personal line, I slid the green phone icon across, putting the phone to my ear, shielding my eyes from the bright sunlight that filled my room at the same time.
“Hello?”
“Ellie?”
Oh, god. That voice. It haunted me in my slumber, but hearing it in for the first time in five long years sent my heart careening out of control. I hated my body for responding to it, for recognizing the need for him that I’d only admit to in my dreams.
Say something, fool. He’d been the one to leave in the end, hadn’t he?
I cleared my throat and scowled even though he couldn’t see me. “What are you doing calling me, Stefan? How did you even get my number?”
I’d changed it within hours after he’d left, never wanting to hear from him again. The jerk.
“Ellie, please don’t be like that. I’m not…” His voice broke and I felt my heart twist as I realized something was wrong. “I’m not calling you because I want to.”
Ouch. Well, he’d always been honest if nothing else.
“Why are you calling me then?”
“My mother…” I could hear him swallow, even as fear gripped my heart in acknowledgment of the bad news I had no doubt I was about to hear. “She’s…dying and wants to see you. She begged me and I couldn’t tell her no.”
Shocked, I didn’t know what to say.
Stefan’s mother, Liliana, had been a second mother to me. Really, she’d been a second mother to a lot of people. The nicest woman in town, she was the mom everybody who didn’t have a mom wished they had. She’d been best friends with my mother. Stefan and I became fast friends when our mothers ended up spending a lot of time together in the wake of both of their marriages falling apart.
Of course, one thing led to another with Stefan and I ended up falling madly in love with my best friend.
Worst idea ever.
Our relationship disintegrated, much like the ashes left over from a bonfire, and our friendship came to an abrupt end. An end that sent me fleeing across the country to escape the excruciating pain in my heart.
The horrible reoccurring dreams affirmed how much I still suffered from the explosive end to us. The fact I continued to dream about him tortured me day in and day out.
“Ellie? Are you still there?”
“Uh…yeah,” I replied while rolling out of bed. “I’m not really sure I can get the time off…”
He let out a deep sigh and I knew it was of irritation. It was a sound I’d heard all too often near the end of our relationship and I winced. I had always been disappointing him then and it seemed nothing had changed.
“I figured that in five years you’d have changed, even a little, but I can see you’re still just as selfish as always.”
His statement pissed me off. He had a way of doing that to me. Nobody else could ever come close to making me burn with anger as he did.
“Yeah, because you’re just mister perfect aren’t you? I have a life and a job. You know, to pay my bills with? I didn’t go to college and work my ass off to just lose my job because I need to immediately leave town!”
Now I was shouting. Taking a deep breath, I winced as he cursed on the other end.
“Look, I didn’t call to fight. She wants to see you. The least you could do is come home to visit her. I’m sure your work would understand. All you need is the weekend.”
They would if I explained. My boss loved me and he’d understand, but paying my bills had nothing to do with not wanting to go.
In truth, I didn’t want to see Stefan. I didn’t want to be near him because it meant I’d have to see his face and hear his voice in person.
But I couldn’t let Liliana down. She’d been there for me when my world fell apart. She’d kept my secret even when it had broken her heart and I wouldn’t let her down, even if her son had walked away when I’d needed him most.
“I’ll be there as quickly as possible,” I said softly, hanging up before he could reply.
~*~
Knowing exactly who had given him my phone number, I dialed up my mother.
“Hello! Waller residence.”
“Mother, it’s me. How many times do I have to tell you to just look at your caller ID?” Ugh, I knew I sounded like a bitch but Stefan calling me had just ticked me off.
“I just pulled the phone out of my pocket and opened it, not even bothering to look. It’s awfully early where you are, why are you calling me?”
“Oh, you know, because maybe you gave Stefan my number and he rang me up this early?”
“Ah.”
I’m sure that if it were at all possible, steam would have come shooting out of my ears. “Ah? All you have to say is ‘ah’? Why did you give him my number?”
“He said that his mother insisted he call and tell you. I kept trying to tell you myself but you are always so busy, so I figured maybe you’d answer the phone if it were from an unknown number…”
When her voice trailed off, I felt annoyed. She always acted as if she were inconveniencing me and even though she wasn’t, I couldn’t seem to convince her otherwise. Then again, I had moved to the other side of the country so maybe I’d given off the impression I didn’t want to be bothered.
“So you’ve known for how long and it takes him calling me for someone to tell me Liliana is sick?”
She scoffed. “If you’d have answered my calls, I’d have told you sooner. It’s not exactly something I wanted to leave on voicemail.”
“Well, work keeps me busy. Some days, I don’t even get home until it’s way too late there with the time difference and all. It’s not like I don’t try.”
Liar, you don’t try. You were avoiding her phone calls.
I hated when my inner voice scolded me. As if I needed another reminder of what a failure I was at being a daughter and a friend. Well, at everything really but now was not the time for a pity party.