Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
“Oh, no. I bought this house earlier this week,” he explained, as if it were TOTALLY NORMAL TO BUY A HOUSE FOR A FIRST DATE. “Let me show you to the crown jewel.”
He signaled for me to follow him down the corridor. I did, unsure how I’d gotten so out of breath. Maybe because of the instinct whirling around in my gut. I knew, deep down, his reason for bringing me here.
We stopped by the little girl’s old room. I peered inside, my heart in my throat.
Oh, Ollie.
My knees gave out. I sank to the floor, swallowing the tear that raced down my cheek to my lips. Oliver dropped beside me, rubbing my back. He didn’t say a word as I drank in the room like it could quench my soul.
A sea of pastel pinks and purples danced across the walls. The nearest one boasted a mural of Sleeping Beauty, the scene where the prince lays eyes on Briar Rose for the first time. A collection of ballerina carousels and music boxes filled white built-in shelves. Clothes, in all the brightest colors, scattered everywhere. In the corner, kid makeup littered the top of a short vanity – glitter, eyeshadow, and miniature lipsticks.
And the framed pictures.
They covered every open stretch of wall. All of me, as a kid. With parents that hugged me, their faces hidden by their backs. With friends circled around me on my birthday, showering me with cheers. And with a young Oliver, a real picture this time, his arm slung around my shoulders.
I let myself curl on the carpet and bawled my eyes out, sorting through feelings I’d never dared to let myself feel. Not when I needed to survive.
No one had ever taught me how to love. Before Ollie, I spent my childhood learning how to live without being seen. But in this tiny room, in a city I called home without ever knowing, surrounded by pictures I never took, he shined a spotlight on me.
Oliver stayed silent for a moment, letting me process my emotions.
Finally, after my tears dried up, he spoke.
“You wanted a normal childhood, and I’m fucking furious your parents were too selfish to give it to you. But I promise that if you give me a chance, I won’t blow it. I’ll give our children love. They’ll have birthday cakes, and ugly Christmas sweaters, and a stable childhood in one place they recognize and love. There will be fights, and sleepless nights, and days rolling on hills, and family picnics, and movie binges on a loop. And we will do all of it together.”
Each promise impaled my skin like a knife, somehow stitching me back together.
He sucked in a ragged breath. “Just give me a chance, and I won’t screw it up again.”
I straightened up to my knees, collecting his fist between my hands and moving it onto my lap. “What happened that summer?”
“Seb—” His eyes slammed shut.
His throat bobbed once. Twice. Whatever happened, he didn’t want to say it. Maybe he’d never said it. I stayed silent. Patient. He must’ve buried these words inside himself for years.
When he opened his eyes again, tears clung to his lower lashes. “He … what I did to him … I’ll never forgive myself.”
“It’s not for you to decide whether you’re forgiven. It’s for him. Forgiveness belongs to the wounded, not the one who caused the wound.” I squeezed his fist. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Oliver laid it all out for me. The boating accident. The blood. The ambulance. The surgeries. The drip-drip-drip of blood transfusions. The total destruction of Sebastian’s once beautiful face. The way no one in his family could ever look at him the same.
And the fights.
They never stopped.
He let Seb lash out at him, because he thought he deserved it. Because of that deep-rooted belief that he was incapable of caring for anyone, least of all me.
“So,” Oliver began, his chin tucked down in shame, “when I begged Sebastian to tell me what I could give him to fix his pain and he told me he wanted my happiness, I agreed.”
I sucked in a gasp.
Seb had asked him to leave me.
And Oliver agreed.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, squeezing them to my chest. “Why?”
“Because he was right. I ruin things. I don’t deserve to be happy, and you deserve to be with someone who can care for you. Not someone bound to spend the next five years in constant doctor appointments and training to take over a company he never even wanted in the first place.”
Back then, Oliver only planned to stay with the Grand Regent to help Sebastian come into power. After the accident, no way would Seb agree to taking over. Oliver must’ve had to juggle school, inheriting a Fortune 100, and nursing a grouchy Seb back to help.