The Lost One (Lost Series Book 1)
Read The Lost One (Lost Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Liz Lovelock
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Book 1 - The Lost Series
Liz Lovelock
The Lost One
Book 1 - The Lost Series
Liz Lovelock
Copyright 2014 Liz Lovelock
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, real people, and real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are products of the Author’s imagination and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, organisations or places is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the express written permission of the Author. All songs, song titles and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
Cover design by
Cover to Cover Designs
Formatting by
Swish Design & Editing
Editing b
y
Hot Tree Editing
Cover image Copyright 2014
To my Amazing husband Mark for all your support and allowing me to follow my dreams and to my two beautiful kids Amelia and
Cale, always dream big! I love you all!
A Note for the Reader
This book has been written using UK English and contains
euphemisms and slang words that form part of the Australian spoken word, which is the basis of this book’s writing style.
Please remember, that the words are not misspelled, they are slang terms and are part
of the everyday, Australian lifestyle. This book has been written using UK English.
If you would like further explanation, or to discuss the translation or meaning of a particular word, please do not hesitate to contact the author – contact details have been provided, for your convenience, at the end of this book.
I hope you enjoy a look into the Australian way of life.
ements
I have so many people to thank who have helped me in my journey. I don’t know where to start, but please know that this is in no particular order and that I’m sorry in advance if I miss anyone. Just know that I love you all!
Firstly, I would like to thank Jess Swann for reading those very first few chapters before anyone else and encouraging me to keep going because you wanted to know what was going to happen. Your words inspired me and pushed me to keep going.
Natalie Hatch for always telling me to write and to just keep going, even if it was for only ten minutes.
You are my go to girl when I’m in desperate need of advice or help, you give it to me straight and I appreciate that.
Felicia Tatum, your books were the first Indie books I read and I fell in love with the Indie community. I’m so grateful for your constant friendship and I’m so thankful to you. I love you my
rockstar friend from across the pond.
KE Osborn and
Kaylene, I honestly have no idea where to start with you both. Your constant support and friendship is one I truly treasure. Thanks for the kicks in the butt to get me motivated and to help me get over my ball of fears and nerves. Thanks for all the advice and for proof reading and formatting The Lost One. Thanks again so much! I love you both!
A special thanks to my friend Kat who encouraged me after attending IADU to keep going with my story and also for her insane mind, I love our chats when we go to dinner and the ideas you give me, especially the talk of scissors. Thanks so much for your friendship. I love
ya.
To my betas,
Kaylene, KE Osborn, Angie and Cheryl. Thanks for all your input and advice on how to make my story evolve. Couldn’t have done it without you all.
These next ladies I’m so happy to call my friends, Penny
Rudge, Lila Rose – who was the first to introduce me to MC books and now I can’t get enough! Natalie Gayle, Eliza Brown – my first REAL fan! Madison Street, B. Benfield, T.K. Leigh, Jennifer Ryder – for our sprinting sessions. Emma Fitzgerald, Velvet Reed, Lesley Jones and Dzintra Sullivan, I love you all and value your friendship and support. You have each helped me out in some way and I couldn’t have come this far if it wasn’t for each and every one of you. Thank you, all, so very much!
To Julie Hockley, the author who inspired me.
You are amazing and because of your books, it encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing. Thank you, so much!
To all the bloggers who always put their hands up to help me out especially,
Tash at Book Lit Love, Dzintra at Book Friends Forever, Angela at Books and Friendz, Lea at Feirce Fabulous Book Diva, Natasha and Rose at Forever Me Romance for my Cover Reveal, Kylie at Give Me Books for my Blog Tour and Melanie at Book Empire Promotions for my Release Blitz, and all the numerous blogs who have helped me out continuously by sharing my Cover, Release and Blog Tour with your followers. I just wanna give you all a massive hug and squeeze the hell out of you! Without Blogs like yours, it would be hard for us, as authors to get our books out there and achieve our dreams of writing and sharing our stories with the world.
A special mention to Donna, who helps me any way she can. She runs my blog for me when I can’t get on there and without her it wouldn’t function. I can’t thank you enough for reaching out to the number of blogs you did. I’m so grateful for your friendship and willingness to help me and support me. Love you girl!
HUGE thank you goes to my AWESOME cover designer Kari Ayasha at Cover to Cover Designs, she took what little information I gave her and turned my cover into a masterpiece. I love it! I can’t stop looking at it. Thank you so much for being awesome at what you do.
Another HUGE thank you to Virginia and Becky at Hot Tree Editing, you ladies made my first experience with editing not so daunting. I appreciate all the help and guidance you have given me by helping my book reach its potential. Thanks for all the time you have put into it and for answering my silly questions when I’m feeling like a nervous wreck. Love you both!
Last but not least I wanna thank my family, especially my sisters Melanie, Stephanie and Rachel (yes my character Rachel is named after my sister) for their support and for listening to me talk and talk about my book and other books, and to the rest of my family and friends for their support and encouragement. Also a HUGE thank you goes to my wonderful husband who supports me no matter what my dreams are, he is the love of my life and true number one supporter, and to my kids Amelia and Cale, I love you for putting up with mummy always being busy and when I need those quiet moments you always give them to me. I love my family so much and will always be grateful for their love and support.
About the Author - Liz Lovelock
23 September, 2010
I don’t know how I’ll get through this day. It’s like I’ve been living in my own personal kind of hell over the last two weeks. Since finding out my sister, Abby, is gone, my world is so empty. My heart feels as though it has been ripped out and stomped on a hundred times over. I never imagined my life without her. She was my best friend, someone I could always trust, and now…she’s gone.
Abby was a friend to everyone. On my bad days, I would find myself feeding off her happy, fun-loving spirit to help build me up. That is, until Jacob Smith came along and ruined her life, and mine
.
I knew things were not right with him. Every time I saw him, the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach set off alarm bells, but Abby was so happy after she met him. She said he treated her like a princess, always sending her flowers and bringing her lovely gifts.
One night when she came home after seeing Jacob, she had a bruised cheek. I questioned her about it, but she told me it was an accident and he didn’t mean it. From that night on, she began to shut down and close herself off from her friends, and even me. She would come home straight from work and shut herself in her room. She wasn’t there for me like usual, and wouldn’t let me be there for her either. I wanted to, especially when I heard her crying in her room late at night. She would never tell me what was bothering her. It hurt and made me angry how she wouldn’t confide in me.
The day she came to me and said she was planning to leave Jacob, made me super happy. I noticed a change in her during the weeks leading up to the day she was going to leave him. She was happier and brighter than I had seen her in months. But she was unsure how to tell him, she was scared of his reaction. He was the type who flew off the handle, and no one knew what would happen. She started opening up to me before she left, telling me what he was capable of. It gave me chills, sending shivers down my spine, to think of what he might do to her. I told her I was going with her, but she didn’t want me to come. Hurt and afraid, I gave in and let her go alone. That is why I am to blame for what happened. When she left that night, I never thought it would be the last time I would get to see her. Then she was gone, missing. My world has never been the same again, and my heart is broken, shattered into a million pieces. We searched for her, put flyers around and even went to the local television stations, but found nothing.
The hardest thing was hearing the police say they were now starting an investigation for a missing person since she had been gone for more than seventy-two hours.
When they interviewed me, I told them about Jacob and how Abby started coming home with bruises and how her personality drastically changed. I informed them of her plan to break up with him the night she disappeared. Upon searching his place, they found the locket I had given her for her eighteenth birthday in a pool of blood, along with blood-covered towels. He was arrested on the spot and charged with her murder.