Unknown (Unknown Identity #1) Read Free Page B

run away, to be alone with the right to be miserable without having to hide it for her friends and family.
    On the far side of the country, it was hard to let that get to her anymore. She, of course, had her box of memories; things that she wanted to keep forever that reminded her of how much she loved Michael and how great they had been together. To her, his death was a long time coming and this new move was just what she had needed to get some energy back into her veins.
    So she started writing again.
    Her agent was so happy to have her in New York City finally, and the thin-crust pizza-lover inside of her was just as glad to be in New York as well, but she was still lonely. It was something she couldn’t shake, regardless of how many events she was invited to or how many new friends she made… Ones who didn’t know about Michael, or about her alter ego.
    Her identity was something she guarded closely, so whenever she showed up to a book signing or a launch party, she always would lie and say that she was just a friend of Grant’s. While her identity was kept a secret, it was one of the things the media forever pressed and wondered about. No one knew, and it heated social media on the mystery.
    She had gone with Grant to one of the release parties and then a few more. He’d introduced her as a new editor of a publishing house. She was the beautiful new girl, but when she had nothing even be remotely interesting about herself to share, they gave up asking questions. After all, beautiful and successful women were all over New York, and people were always quick to move to the next hottest thing. When they found out that she wasn’t that next hot thing, they gave up on her.
    It was funny how people always made the excuses that were relatively the same. They needed to get another drink, had to go to the bathroom, or that they saw someone they knew. In the end, Leslie had taken in the experience, something that only writers really know how to do. It was a skill that was required for anyone interested in transcending the normal. It was a talent all writers honed and found themselves amused by. It was the art of observing people around them, and Leslie was often left alone, watching people at the parties more than actually getting in there and enjoying them.
    No matter how many friends of hers tried to get her out there to enjoy and become part of the life that she was given an opportunity to enjoy, Leslie always found herself drifting along the edges of the life she thought she wanted. Without Michael, it seemed so lonely and so empty. She missed him, the things he would say in those kinds of events and situations. She missed his wry wit and his sarcastic narration of everything around him.
    So, that brought her to the moment she was finally sitting in Grant’s office. For an entire year, she had drifted through New York, going to parties and events, taking in the local atmosphere, and eating at all the places that would actually give her a reservation. There were a handful of people in the writing community who knew her secret identity who had taken her to places and restaurants that she couldn’t get to in her wildest dreams even. All of this had done nothing for her, and in the end, she would end up at home in a lonely, empty apartment that was just large enough for her and her computer.
    It was in those lonely, quiet places that she would turn on Spotify and she would begin to work her magic, the kind of magic that was black gold to her agent and Grant loved her for. In the past year she had written seven novels, all of them coming without hesitation or without difficulty. When they asked for a revision or an edit, she would get it to them by the end of the week. Sometimes, Leslie would vanish completely and no one would know where she’d gone or if she’d even survived. Amber and Josie, who had introduced themselves as her neighbors, quickly became friends with her and were greatly concerned about these reclusive