Their paths hidden from us.
You are divine, so we were divinely punished.
But I will wander the heavens for eons until I find those secret trails.
There aren’t enough stars in the universe for us to cross.
The door creaked, and I scrambled up, dragging my sheets with me and chucking the notebook under my pillow just as West entered the room.
“You’re awake.” He looked…sheepish? Rubbing his neck, looking up at me through thick lashes. “Merry Christmas, Angel.”
He was still in pajamas, red and green plaid with little Christmas trees. He looked…innocent. No sooner had I noticed the arm securely tucked behind his back, then he brought out what was hidden, shoving a poorly wrapped red satin present into my hands.
I stared at it, trying to banish the thought that he had wrapped it himself. “What is this?”
“Open it,” he all but grunted.
My fingers shook as I lifted the red-bow wrapped box. I nearly dropped it when I saw what was inside.
“What…how?” It was all I could manage.
Once upon a time, I fell in love with a boy who saw me—he was the only one who had ever seen me.
Until Grayson.
I slowly lifted the proof of that out of the box, hundreds of gum wrappers, brittle with time, falling through my fingers.
I never told West the secrets I told Grayson, the truth of my mother or why I was really at Crowne Hall. We were kids. That summer, while Grayson had kicked over my bucket, West had snuck me gum.
I never told him I kept the wrappers in a box like the lovesick teenager I was. After the night West raped me, it disappeared. I thought the servants had mistaken it for trash.
All this time, West had kept it.
Who was West?
The boy who remembered my poems and kept gum wrappers for over a decade?
Or the man who lied, who blackmailed and threatened me and those
I loved, so I’d stay at his side?
“Do you like it?” West asked, impatience hot on his tongue.
“I don’t know what this is,” I lied, voice hoarse.
I dropped it to the ground and the wrappers fluttered like dying butterflies out of the box. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. It hurt the rusted, flaking piece of my heart that still clung to West.
He lifted my chin, forcing my eyes to his. I waited for the cruelty. The harsh words.
“Do you think lying will fool your heart, Angel?” He tilted his head, like he could read the words in mine. Pity warped his warm brown eyes, then he let me go.
“I gave you last night because it was…” He trailed off, looking for the word. “Emotional,” he ended, a cruel tilt to his lips. “But I expect your decision by dinner. Will you choose me?”
I mashed my lips together. I couldn’t make this decision alone. I couldn’t decide to sleep in West’s bed, while I’d barely spoken with Grayson.
“Your girl will be here in a moment.”
He left, smashing the wrappers beneath his black leather shoes.