An Inside Look Into The One
Imagine you’re living your best life as the beautiful, beloved only child to The Bournes, one of the country’s most powerful, wealthy and influential couples, who even as they demand a certain level of perfection, absolutely dote on you; but then, one night, a person who looks just like you walks right into your home and single-handedly shatters the facade, before turning her murderous sights on you.
In Ashlee Cox’s thrilling tale
The One, Katie is unwittingly thrusted into a game of survival against her manic twin Sarah- whom she hadn’t even known existed but seems to have it out for her all the same.
For Sarah, life has been the exact opposite.
She has been moved from family to family, being rejected time and time again until it almost broke her.
Imagine enduring a harsh life fraught with danger, abuse and suffering that is only barely bearable because of the knowledge that you’re not alone- you have a twin sister out there who surely is also looking for you.
For Sarah, the worst day of her life was the moment she found out about her twin, because it gave her hope that one day she would reunite with her, but as time went by and more awful things happened, she realised that her sister was never coming to save her.
Feeling abandoned by the one person in the world that should never have done such a thing to her, Sarah is now on a mission of bloodied revenge and nothing can stop her.
What transpires next is a journey that will take both twins to the edge of their ropes and sanity as they play a game where there can only be one winner.
And both need to be the One.
“The powerful hold the other girl seemed to have on her, finally broke when she blinked and flicked her hand, Geoffrey’s blood splattering in small, dark red droplets around her while she clenched and unclenched her fingers experimentally, before slowly rotating her wrist as if warming up for something.
“Why did you do that? Who are you?”
Katie’s words were hoarse with her fear as she white-knuckled the stair railings as if her life depended on it.
That railing was the only thing keeping her from collapsing onto the carpeted floor; her legs feeling as sturdy as a newborn deer while her knees were not only knocking against each other, but felt ready to fold under her weight.
She had no idea what her next step should be.
Fight or Flight?
“I, Katie-” the murderess spat the word at her, “Am your sister, Sarah!”
Katie shook her head. “No!”
“I -” Sarah shot her a seething glare, her knife gleaming with Geoffrey’s blood in her right hand when she used it to point right at Katie “-have been cheated, because of you! Now you are going to pay!”
Her growled words of hatred followed by the two steps she took in her direction finally propelled Katie into action.
Without thinking, she flew away from the murderess still below the stairs, her flight instinct kicking in and immediately going into overdrive as her brain processed that there was a real, deadly predator coming at her.
This was really happening! This was happening to her right now!
Luckily this house was huge and Katie had spent alot of time on her own exploring it; she knew all the nooks and crannies.
She even had a safe space that she could hide in, where Sarah would never get to her, but right now, her mind was frazzled, cluttered by abject fear that made her feel completely disoriented and all she could do was run.
Oh God! She thought. This can’t be happening!
“Oh come now, sis,” Sarah’s voice floated towards Katie mockingly. “No one is coming to get you ... but me!”
And with that Sarah ran to the stairs, launching herself up the first two steps, her footsteps quick yet muffled against the carpet as she gave chase.
Terrified, and out of time to get to her safe place, Katie instinctively did the only thing she could think of, running to her bedroom and making a beeline for her walk-in closet.
Crouched down in a dark corner of her closet, she slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her cries, and the loudness of her ragged breathing, but it was a huge task as she heard Sarah climb up the stairs in search of her.
It felt as if her heart had stopped beating for a moment, when suddenly, the house went quiet, and Katie wondered if Sarah was standing in the hallway, listening; alert to any noise that would signal which room she was hiding in.
The moment she heard Sarah opening a door, her breath caught in her throat and just like that the harsh implications of what was happening right now swept over her and she wanted to sob.
Sarah was coming to kill her.
This was not a joke, not a prank, but real.
Her stomach churned and cramped uncomfortably, her legs hurt from where she had folded herself out of sight, her mind hypervigilant of the dangerous person who was currently plaguing her.
Katie didn’t know what to do; she was still in shock and her higher functions seemed paralysed by the strangling, horrific terror that was making her heartbeat in a painfully wild staccato, and her limbs weak.
She wanted to curl up somewhere and pretend that this was all a nightmare, that once she awoke would disappear like thin smoke and everything would be normal again.
This can’t be happening! Her mind chanted, even as she heard Sarah call out menacingly to her again.
A sociopathic predator playing with a terrified prey.”- excerpt taken from
The One.
The One is a fast-paced, heart-pounding thriller that follows the two sisters’ fierce battle to be the last one standing.
Within the story, Sarah is portrayed as an unhinged, intelligent and quick tempered sociopath who is blinded by jealousy and deep feelings of abandonment from both her twin and all those who rejected her.
She is consumed by envy and rage after she finally tracks down Katie and learns that she has always lived a blithe life of luxury, surrounded by love, happiness and abundance, whereas Sarah has only known suffering.
Feeling betrayed, Sarah is determined to get revenge on Katie and lucky for her, she gets the backing from a powerful benefactor, who is just as on board for Sarah’s plan of vengeance …if not more so.
Katie, on the other hand is completely oblivious to all the sinister machinations going on behind the scenes and is genuinely blindsided when Sarah so dramatically appears.
In the book, Katie is portrayed as a smart, intelligent, athletic girl who has been pampered all her life, but simultaneously also held up to an almost impossible standard by her parents, the wealthy Dalston and Alathea Bourne who expect her to excel in all of her undertakings.
Katie will stop at nothing to survive, even if it means taking down her own sister.
““Katie, if they get us, you don’t want to know what they’ll make us do! Katie!”
Katie was already shrinking away, shaking her head at everything Sarah was telling her, too overwhelmed and panicked to buy into Sarah’s supposed change of heart.
“No!” She was mumbling, her arms coming up to shield herself when Sarah stopped right in front of her, hands shooting out to grab onto Katie, forgetting in that moment that she was still holding the knife.
The first thing Katie saw was the gleam of a blade from the thin glow of a moonbeam, filtering through her window, her butler’s blood still smudged on it.
With a reverberating scream of “No!” Katie shoved an unsuspecting Sarah away from her hard, twirling around to grab her laptop, which had been charging on top of the coffee table she had in her room.
Suddenly, an anguished scream pierced the air, preceded by a loud ‘Crash!’ as Katie swung the laptop up with all her force, somehow catching Sarah on the side of her head.
Her head throbbing with excruciating pain from the blow, Sarah reeled away, slashing Katie’s arm instinctively, feeling perversely thrilled when she cried out.”- excerpt taken from
The One.
In this fast-paced, heart-pounding thriller the two sisters face off in a fierce battle to see who will be the last one standing at the end of the night.
Who will survive in
The One?
When you’re ready to dive into a heart-pounding thriller following the two sisters being pitted against each other for a much darker purpose than they can imagine, The One
is only a click away.
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