"I built my business, my world, from nothing. Everyone thought I would fail, but I stood tall and showed them my worth and now they're envious of me. Imagine that! Me, Phoenix Mills, a woman to envy. If only they knew what I've been through to get where I am today. The hurt. The pain. They wonder why my walls are so high and hard to break but they don't understand what I've been through. They think I'm heartless but they're wrong. I'm just waiting for my knight in shining armour to prove he's worth my heart." Sterling Tyrell was everything. The World saw him as a hot shot CEO, a player, a ladies man and a sucker for a cute smile, but inside he was dead. His loneliness ate away at him every minute of the day, threatening to cripple the facade he had built. Nobody had been able to break through his defences but then he wasn't expecting the beautiful Phoenix Mills shaped tornado that crashed into his life. Will Phoenix and Sterling save each other or will their past demons keep them apart?

Chapter 1 Meeting Phoenix Mills

"Dad! Please stop.... I'm begging you," I sobbed uncontrollably. How could my dad do this to me?! I'm his daughter for Christ sake! I looked at him and all I could see was his desire to satisfy himself.

"Shut up, you whore. You're just like your mother. A conniving little bi**ch! Stay still and I'd be done with you in a while," he roared. I tried so hard to push him off of me but he wasn't having any of it. I was weak, defenseless; i was being preyed upon by my dad, someone who was supposed to protect me.

The deed was done.

When I finally felt him leave me, i thought it was over. I dragged myself to the corner of of the dark room, and cried my eyes out. A while later, the door creaked open and in came my dad with someone else behind him.

'Oh God, no...Not again' i said within me but I was more stunned at who was behind him. ALLEN!! Allen Martins-- my boyfriend. Was he here to rescue me? I wasn't done asking myself these questions when I heard my dad's horrible voice.

"Look who we have here. It's Allen! Aren't you excited?" I could see the dark intent in his eyes and how his lips curved into a devious smirk. Wait, what was he up to?

"Allen, please help me. Save me!" Allen scoffed at me. Why was i getting shocks today?

"Tsk, save you? Help you? Why would i do that? I think this is a very good opportunity to tell you this cause i never loved you, not even for a second. You were just a means to an end," he rolled his eyes at me with clear disgust in his eyes.

"Allen, why are you saying this? Did my dad put you up to this?" All the while my dad was having a swell time watching our squabble. I mean how terrible could someone be...

"No one put me up to anything. You deserve what you're getting, you low-life. I mean, who would date you? You're a weakling; you can't hold a candle against anyone,"

"Stop! Stop! Please….” Another round of sobbing began. He was right…

“Okay, enough of this. Let’s get straight to business,” My dad said to Allen and I saw the same devious smirk appear on his face.

“What? What business… What are you talking about?” Before I could stutter all my questions out of my mouth, I was being dragged to the bed in the dark room and another road of horrible deeds happened again..

Someone should kill me, please!!

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And I woke up, gasping for breath and clutching at my throat. I sat up from my bed and clawed at my skin. I stood up and walked with rushed steps to the vanity mirror in my room, looking at my body from head to toe, I dashed into the bathroom and had a thorough bath.

After my bath, I changed into another of my pajamas and went back to my room. I looked at the time and it was just 4:30am, I heaved a sigh and sat on my chair, reminiscing about everything that had happened to me. For as long as I can remember, while growing up, I’ve had the same recurring nightmare but months ago, I started seeing my ex too in my dreams and it always ended horribly. Another sigh left lips…

Who am i? My name is Phoenix, Phoenix Mills. I know my name doesn’t sound at all catchy but thankfully, I love it. I lived my name. If you know the story of the phoenix bird, and you know about my hideous past, you’d most definitely agree with me. I was molested by my father immediately he got custody of me in court. I was never allowed to see my mother, not even once after that. My parents got separated and I got the worse childhood ever. From age 8, I was molested everyday by my father. This was his way of venting his anger towards my mother on me. Long story cut short, I endured everything because I wanted to go to school and later have my revenge but that didn’t mean that I didn’t get affected psychologically by what he did; I was greatly affected. I hated the feel of boys’ skin on mine. I tried to limit the contact to a minimum.

Guess what, now, I own my own company, it may not be an empire but I’m still working towards it. It was during the start of my company that I met Allen Martins; the man I thought was the one until 3 months ago