Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 47525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Sadie Pretty has spent the last several years of her life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder. Upon being considered for parole, she's sent to an experimental program with esteemed Doctor Ethan Weiss.
Two weeks in a secluded cabin is all he needs to determine if she's a risk to society, but every minute spent with her makes him question his own morals, and before he knows it, he's crossing the line in more ways than one
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
DR. ETHAN WEISS
There are three types of sinful criminals in this world: the Hummingbird, the Raven, and the Eagle.
The Hummingbird is the most forgettable (and by far the most irritating) of this bunch. It flutters from one petty crime to the next, breaking the law without any real meaning or purpose: shoplifting perfume and lip gloss, trespassing places after closing hours, or trying to cash bad checks that don’t even look real.
When it finally gets caught and caged, it panics. It sheds its cowardly feathers, swears it’ll never taste crime again, and then it spends the rest of its life blending in with the rest of society.
In other words, it’s a boring-ass bird, and I avoid taking therapy appointments with it at all costs.
Now, the Raven… the Raven is committed to its unique brand of insanity.
Reckless and untamed, it flies however it damn well pleases—never caring about consequences. Hell, it doesn't even believe in them.
In its mind, the crimes at this level are responsible for keeping the police force in business: Illegal drug labs in motels, million-dollar money laundering through donut shops, and high-level robbery of diamonds, government documents, and identities.
The Raven gets caught plenty of times, but it never flinches. Never cries about it.
It honestly can’t help the way its brain is wired, and the merry-go-round of ‘freedom-to-court-to-prison’ is too fun to ever get off.
There's something intoxicating about the way it behaves, the chaos it leaves in its wake.
I’ve studied this “bird” for years and always found it fascinating, but never quite satisfying. It can never give me enough. (Well, “he.”)
Or she…
But then there’s the Eagle…
The Eagle is the one we never see coming—the one everyone always underestimates until it’s far too late.
Her flight is steady, silent, and seductively strategic.
She doesn’t need to be reckless because she’s always in control. Her crimes are meticulous, planned years in advance, and executed with a grade of grace that makes you forget they’re illegal.
She never gets caught or caged, never even comes close.
Whether she’s a naturally-born psychopath or a perfectly sane woman playing the part, she’s untouchable—and that makes her lethal.
And fucking irresistible for someone like me…
She’s my favorite species to study, the one I’ve always longed to see up close.
But the Eagle refuses to land for anyone.
She circles from above, watching and waiting. And the second you think she’s yours, she vanishes.
Still, I’ll keep hunting her.
Because whenever I do catch her, I won’t just pin down her wings for a research study.
I’ll make damn sure she never flies away from me again…
—
THE ‘SADIE PRETTY’ VERDICT IS OFFICIALLY HERE
“She’s a cunt who deserves to fry in the chair…”
Those were the final shouting words of victim Jonathan Baylor’s mother before the bailiff escorted her away during the verdict reading.
Somehow, the judge let her previous outbursts of “Why the hell did you waste everyone’s time by pleading ‘not guilty?’” and “I hope your new cellmate rams a rusted pole up your ass every night!” slide by without a single warning.
Alas, it took just nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds for the jury to seal Sadie Pretty’s fate.
The woman once known for her striking looks, calm composure, and breathtakingly beautiful artwork on social media now bears a far uglier title: convicted murderer.
The courtroom practically vibrated with energy as the foreman read this final decision. There were cheers, gasps, even a few tears—while Sadie didn’t flinch. She merely stared straight ahead.
Calm, cold, and cruel.
Remember: She was the only one caught on camera entering and exiting The Baylor Estate, where the police would eventually find three victims and her DNA all over the scene.
No accomplice, no alibi.
Just Sadie.
And yet, she previously said ‘hell no’ to a plea deal.
Instead of serving a long sentence that offers a chance at tasting freedom someday, Sadie Pretty now faces spending the rest of her life in a tiny 6-foot-by-8-foot cell.
The real mystery was never who committed the crime, though. It’s why she ever believed that she would get away with it…
1
SADIE
“You might be behind bars, but at least you’re still breathing…”
That’s what the pastor says every time the local church group visits our cell block, like those words are capable of making us feel any better. Like they're filled with some magical fairy dust that will make us believe that living in this place is better than being buried six feet under the ground.
If he ever inhaled what this place really smells like—black mold, leftover asbestos from the seventies, sweat, and the sour stench of regrets—I think he'd bless us for wanting to die.
I've been locked up here—in the Tennessee Correctional Center for Women—for two thousand five hundred and twenty-four days, and I'm still learning how to survive.
Some days, it’s minute by minute.
Others, it’s hour by hour.
Thankfully, we’re on day six of a prison-wide lockdown, so I don’t have to worry about watching my back. I also don't have to force myself to softly whisper all the “positives” of prison before facing the mountain of negatives.