“Jill,” he fills in for me.
And even though I can try to deny it all I want, it’s true.
All of it.
Liam just never saw what was right in front of him … a girl with a bleeding heart.
But now he’s right here in front of me, and there’s no way out anymore. No way to keep on running, keep on shoving it away until it no longer exists.
“Tell me. Tell me the truth, Jas.”
Age 15
* * *
The tears flow freely across my cheeks while I stare up at the moon from my windowsill. Sitting here normally always brings me peace, but not now.
Not now when my mother just reminded Jill and me during dinner what our role is in this family.
That we’re nothing more than prized possessions to be given away as a token, a gift to please other mobsters and strengthen their relations.
They told us a long time ago they were the ones who decided who we were going to marry. I just never realized it would happen to one of us.
More tears sting my eyes, and I brush them away with the palm of my hand, but they refuse to stop flowing. I wonder how Jill is doing. She ran off to her own room and locked the door after fighting with Mom about it.
And me? I just sat there, quietly eating dinner, pretending nothing was going on.
I wish I had the guts Jill had. Everyone knows she’s mad. But no one knows I’m crying right now. I don’t want them to know.
I’m hiding in a corner of my room, just as I always do when things don’t go according to plan.
Plans. I used to make a ton of them. Scribble them down in my secret notebook that I hide between my books so no one would ever find them.
Because what is the point?
What’s the point of making plans when you have no control?
When there’s a fifty-fifty chance you end up becoming someone else’s toy?
I shiver in place and stare out at the moon and stars, soaking in the beauty to feel even an ounce of happiness.
Is there anything either of us can do to change what’s going to happen?
Even if I tried … if I stopped my parents from picking me … they’d marry off Jill instead.
I grab my legs and pull them close, hugging myself tight.
I can’t do that to her.
I’m the eldest.
I need to protect her.
At all cost.
Even if it means sacrificing myself.
There’s only one way to stop my parents from picking her. By being the prodigy. The one they can always rely on. The one who shows the most interest in the business, who’s always there, always ready, always the best.