Page 72 of Briar

I wanther.

A small, mischievous smile tugs at her lips. “We have two nights left of our agreement. Maybe we could start there?”

“You still want to?” It’s a reminder that I took her virginity. While she wassleeping.And then I fucking yelled at her afterward.

I can’t even hold her properly to apologize.

“Stop putting up barriers in your own mind.” Briar half-smiles. “I enjoyed it, Jenson. Watching it back was… I liked it. A lot. Unless you’ve decided it’s not for you—,”

I nearly give myself whiplash. “No. You were perfect.”

Dangerously so. But I have to trust her. And River, and Kai.

They won’t let me fall.

Briar

Standing in front of my bedroom mirror, I look again. My hand lifts up to press against the glass.

The woman staring back at me feels like another Briar. Anotherlife.

A lie.

The knock on my open door has me turning. “Papa.”

Even my father looks nothing like the man I remember from my childhood. Older. More stooped. And there’s an uncomfortable distance between us now that has never existed before.

Even when I was alone, I always had him.

But I don’t feel so alone anymore.

I don’t feel any warmth from him. It feels like an assessment as he glances at my outfit. “You look lovely, sweetheart.”

“Thank you.” As if we’re both playing a role neither of us has interest in any longer. “Is there any news on the company?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

He’s always dismissed my questions. I see it now, so clearly that I wonder how I ever missed it. Maybe I thought it was protectiveness. A consequence of my childhood. I was a weak child. I had no energy, no vibrancy. And I sense that my father still sees that child when he looks at me.

I am not as weak as he thinks I am.

And my patience is running thin. I slip a bracelet over my wrist and settle on the bed to slip my shoes on.

“Philip is waiting downstairs.” My father glances around. “You remember your role?”

As if I would forget. Useless. Stupid. Empty-headed. “Yes. But I won’t lie.”

His hand waves irritably. “Just behave. It’s one evening.”

It’s my entire life. But I say nothing as I follow him downstairs to where Philip stands in the hallway. He smiles, bland and polite. “Briar. You’re a vision.”

All of the same words. The same steps. Day after day.

I don’t fit here anymore. If I ever did.

Philip is silent on the way over. He taps on his phone, apologizing as we pull up outside the museum. “Work, I’m afraid. Very boring.”

My smile doesn’t reach my eyes. We follow others inside, my hand curled around his arm. My smile turns genuine as I take in the artwork around me. “I’ve never been here before. I always wanted to go.”