Book Title: Unbreak Me
Author: Maria Vickers
Publisher: Self-published
Narrator: Andrew Joseph Perez
Release Date: March 10, 2021
Genre: Contemporary paranormal (One of the MCs is a ghost)
Trope/s: Second chance, ghost story
Themes: Moving on, loss, forgiveness
Length: 6 hours and 14 minutes
It is a standalone story.
Buy Links
Also available in Kindle Unlimited and paperback
Two broken hearts, one wandering soul.
Blurb
They were supposed to be together forever. That was the plan, but through a cruel twist of fate the night before their three-year anniversary, Tex Davis lost the one man he would ever love, Memphis King. A year has passed and he still hasn’t been able to move on. Everyone tells him it’s time, but what do they know? Memphis was his partner in love and life. Losing him, broke Tex.
Tex has been given an opportunity to move from New York to Seattle. His friends and family are encouraging him to take it, but he has already decided to decline the offer because that would mean leaving Memphis behind.
Then something happened.
Whether it be fate or something else, Memphis came back to him. Tex’s first love is supposed to help him move on, but not even Memphis can bring himself to force Tex to let him go.
Is it so wrong to want to spend forever with the person you loved most? Both hearts are begging to be unbroken.
Racing down the sidewalk, bumping into people and narrowly missing others, he ran past his apartment building and stopped a block away. A crowd had formed, police lights were making the buildings around them glow red and blue. No! Something told him that it was Memphis, but it couldn’t be. He elbowed people out of his way, desperate to prove that it wasn’t his lover, the other part of his soul. They weren’t moving. He shoved and pushed, not caring who yelled or threatened him. One guy grabbed him by the shoulder and jerked him backward and shook him. Tex used both hands to thrust the stranger away. He had to get to the front of the crowd. The anxiety was overwhelming him now, and he had to fight to stay in control, had to rein in his panic because there was a chance that it might not be Memphis.
The crowd eventually spit him out, throwing him into the back of a policeman. “Back up,” the man ordered with a thick Bronx accent.
Tex somehow found enough words to ask, “What happened? Who was it?”
“Doesn’t matter,” the other man grumbled, his tone of voice made him sound almost bored, which did not sit well with Tex. How dare he? Bored? Someone was injured and it could…
Straining to see beyond the officer in front of him, Tex scanned the area, and finally, his eyes landed on a form, a long lump, lying in the middle of the street, covered by a white sheet. The material was turning red from the blood, and a small river of crimson flowed away from the body toward Tex. “No,” he whispered, trying to tell himself that it wasn’t Memphis, it couldn’t possibly be Memphis. And right then, on this mild spring day, with the echoes of horns, birds, and people surrounding him, a small breeze wove its way through the buildings in Manhattan and lifted the white sheet that covered the body, giving everyone a glimpse of the horror under the once white linen.
Memphis.
It was Memphis.
Tex blacked out.
* * *
Opening his eyes, Tex blinked once, twice…and a third time. Where was he? “Memphis?” He could have sworn he heard his lover’s voice calling to him, but this wasn’t their apartment, and it certainly wasn’t their comfortable bedroom. This bed definitely wasn’t big enough to fit both of them with ease.
Although, now that he focused, it was a hospital bed. What was…? And then he remembered. Memphis. Blood. The sheet. Lying in the middle of the street. Dead. Memphis was gone forever.
But hadn’t he just heard his voice? Couldn’t have possibly been, and if it hadn’t been Memphis, he didn’t want to wake up either. Sliding his eyes closed again, he tried to hide in the dark oblivion. Too bad it didn’t last forever. It didn’t even last very long.
* * *
“Tex? Come on. I know you can hear me.”
Tex listened to the voice and obeyed, but he didn’t want to. It wasn’t the deep, gravelly voice of his boyfriend. Instead, it was Memphis’ sister, Christy. After waking up and realizing he would never get to see, hold, love Memphis again, Tex could no longer pretend that Memphis awaited him at home. “What?” he choked out, trying to hold back the tears and pain.
“Tex,” Christy whimpered. The look in Tex’s eyes showed a broken man. Her parents had called her whenever they received word about Memphis, and then Tex’s parents called and said he had been taken to the hospital too. It wasn’t fair! Memphis shouldn’t have died. The punk kid who decided to steal the car and drive drunk should have been the one to die! Vindictive? She didn’t give a flying fuck! Her brother was dead. Never again would she hear his teasing remarks about her blue hair or about her short stature. Never again would she get to see him smile. Never again would she get to see the pure unadulterated expression of love on his face whenever he glanced at Tex. Memphis had found his split apart, as their grandmother called it, and now he was gone because some kid acted like a damn selfish asshole.
“He’s gone,” Tex whispered the words, tears burning his eyes, and when his lids could no longer contain the water, they flowed down his face into his beard, trailing down the forest of hair to his neck. He ignored them, could barely feel them because he felt completely and utterly numb except for the torture in his heart.
Maria Vickers is a bestselling and award-winning author who currently resides in St. Louis, MO with her pug, Spencer Tracy. She has always had a passion for writing and after she became disabled in 2010, she decided to use writing as her escape. Life is about what you make of it, you have to live it to the fullest no matter the circumstances.
From a young age, she has always loved books and even dreamed of being an author when she was younger. Growing up in the Navy, she used to weave tales for her siblings and her friends about anything and everything. And when she wasn’t creating her own stories, she had a book in her hand. They transported her to another world. She hopes that her readers will have the same experience when reading her stories, and that, in some way, they can relate to her characters.
Getting sick changed her life forever, but it also opened doors for her that she thought would always be out of reach.
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About the Narrator
Andrew Joseph Perez is an actor, singer, stuntman, and advocate based in Los Angeles. Originally from a suburb of Sacramento, he studied Drama at Seattle University before working regionally in theaters from San Francisco, CA to St. Petersburg, FL. He’s toured internationally with Armed Forces Entertainment and has voiced characters for Netflix, Playstation, X-Box, and others in projects ranging from Dynasty Warriors to Gundam. In addition to his performance work, Perez is also an advocate for the disabled and a fundraiser and partner with the Movember Foundation, fighting Prostate Cancer, Testicular Cancer, and suicide in men worldwide (mobro.co/andrewjperez).
You can find him on Instagram and Youtube @andrewjosephperez, and on Twitter, Facebook, and the web @andrewjperez or andrewjperez.com. Follow, subscribe, and stay tuned for upcoming projects, or join his Patreon, also @andrewjosephperez, for exclusive behind-the-scenes content, extras, and secret releases and updates.
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