Page 29

“Y -you love me?” Her voice is wary and thick with emotion.

Nodding, I grab her face, and her breath is warm on my rain-soaked lips. “Yes, Alora, I love you. I love you so fucking much. And I can’t lose you. I can’t pretend that you aren’t it for me. You’re the only person in this world I can’t live without.”

Her eyes well with tears, and her lips tip up into a quivering smile. “I love you too.”

Every wall and reservation wash away from her as she melts in my grasp, like my declaration brought her the utmost peace. Little does she realize, it’s done just that for me too.

Caressing the back of her head, I crush my lips to hers, kissing her like I never have before. It’s different this time. It’s more— so much more.

She fists her hands in my wet shirt, her body melting into mine, a hunger behind her every movement. As much as I want to continue down that path, we can’t. Not yet.

“Wait.”

She blinks rapidly, and I stroke her cheeks with my thumbs.

“I have to tell you something … a lot of things actually.”

She stiffens slightly, and recognition dawns in her eyes, like she’s been waiting for this moment. “My dad. You said you won’t let my dad stop us.”

I nod. “There’s more to it than that.” I wince, still hating that I have to be the one to ruin the image of him in her mind. “You might think I’m a dick for not telling you sooner. You might even hate me. I really fucking hope you don’t, but I couldn’t blame you if you did.”

“Y-you’re kind of scaring me now,” she murmurs, walking over and sitting down on the edge of her bed, next to where Sunny is curled up in a ball. “But first, please change so you’re not in freezing cold clothes.”

I didn’t even realize I had been shivering this badly. “Don’t peek.” I crack a joke, even in this insanely serious moment.

She rolls her eyes and playfully covers them with her hands before spreading her fingers apart and gawking at me fully.

Stripping out of my wet T-shirt, sweats, boxers, and socks, I thank my past self for stashing clothes here. I change into a clean Legends hoodie, sweatpants, and socks.

She inches back on the bed to make room for me, but I can’t help but be hesitant as I walk over to it, feeling that I might deserve to sit on the floor rather at the same level as her.

“First, I need to—” she starts to say at the same time I mutter, “I’m sorry to tell you about this.

“You go,” I urge her, trying to gain confidence in the extra second it’ll give me.

“The day that my father was on campus …” She pauses, holding my stare.

My shoulders fall because I know what she’s about to say. She already knows .

“I saw you two talking. Not like new acquaintances. Like old enemies. You were so angry . And he was so … I don’t even know how to explain it. I’ve never seen him quite like that.”

My heart drops when she doesn’t add anything about the conversation.

“You didn’t hear what he said, did you?”

She shakes her head, and I sigh. Part of me was hoping that she had. At least then I wouldn’t have to be the one to expose her father to her. But he would find a way to make me the bad guy.

“Alora …” I clench my jaw and swallow hard.

She reaches out and grabs my hand to console me, and selfishly, I let her keep it, her delicate fingers stroking mine.

“Please tell me,” she whispers, like she’s scared if she says it any louder, I’ll stop.

But there’s no going back now. There hasn’t been for a long time.

“I had a little brother.”

Her eyebrows pinch in confusion, which, unfortunately, will fade as I continue.

“He was killed when he was ten and I was fifteen. I had taken him out for ice cream—an escape from our abusive uncle’s care.” My chest tightens, my throat and eyes burning as I force myself to speak the next words aloud. “On our walk home, he was hit by a drunk driver. He, uhh …” I feel a sob trying to break loose, so I clear my throat. “He died in my arms.”

I look down at our interlocked hands, unable to hold her stare any longer. It’s too intense, too all-seeing .

She lets me continue without interrupting, and I’m thankful because if given a chance to stop, I will take it.

“The driver was a man, in town for some … event.”

She gasps, putting it together in her own mind.

A beat of silence consumes us as our breaths halt in our lungs. I don’t even want to say it out loud, but I need to, for both of us.

“Your dad killed my brother that night. And it wasn’t an accident.” I pause. “Because afterward, he didn’t take accountability. He paid his problems away.”

When I flick my teary eyes up to look at her, her blue gaze is clouded with sadness of her own.

“What did he do?” Her voice is soft yet broken.

My heart constricts in an entirely new way.

Not a drop of doubt is in her tone or her body. She believes me. She really believes me.

That means more than she’ll ever know.

Clawing at my throat, I sigh. “He paid everyone . Threw money at anyone who would take it. The EMTs, the cops, my uncle. He bought their silence, and they swept Micah under the rug like he was nothing .”

Her eyes slam shut, and tears stream down her cheeks, rolling off her chin and falling to the pink sweater, darkening the fabric in a similar way I feel I’m darkening her. Taking away her naive image of her dad.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur, and her eyes fly open in anger.

She inches closer to me, holding my hand tighter. “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. If anyone in this room should be, it’s me.”

“It wasn’t you who did it, Alora, even if it took me a long time to understand that. Too long .” Lifting her hand to my lips, I kiss the back of her hand tenderly. “I hated you, Alora. I thought I did at least.

“Every time I saw you, I saw him . The man who had murdered my brother and then covered it up with money and bribes. As if he had hit a Stop sign and not the most important person in my life.”

She cocks her head to the side. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

Rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand, I spill the can of beans more. “Micah’s ashes … my uncle … he has them. He and your dad have kept them from me to keep me quiet. As long as I know his ashes are safe, I’ll never say a word to anyone I think will tell.”

A blanket of silence falls on the room, and Sunny shifts beside us, wiggling over to me and resting her head on my knee, as if she can sense my distress.

Looking up at Alora, I suck in a sharp breath. There’s something different in her stare right now—a seriousness.

Her sad tears boil into frustration. “I won’t let him get away with it, Malik.”

As much as I love her support, I can’t help but wonder if she’s second-guessing me at all. I mean, I wouldn’t blame her if she did. He’s her dad.

“You haven’t defended him …” I trail off nervously.

Leaning forward, she presses her lips softly against mine, and I reciprocate the gentleness.

“Believe it or not, you’re about the only person in this world I do trust. Of course I’m not going to defend him. I’ll always defend you .”

I swear I can feel a vine of thorns unwrap from my heart at her words. The dam bursts behind my eyes.

“Thank you.” My whisper is a tendril of hope.

For the first time since that night, my shoulders relax ever so slightly. Not completely … but enough to matter.

“I’m not letting you get involved in this though. I don’t want you to get hurt.” I slide my hand over her crisscrossed legs in front of me. I just need to touch her, any and every part of her.

She shakes her head immediately. “You aren’t alone anymore, and you won’t be fighting that way either.”

“We don’t know what he’s really capable of,” I caution her.

“There’s something he doesn’t know, Malik.” Her shoulders roll back as an aura of power washes over her. “He has no idea what I’m capable of.”

She continues, “He raised me in his world—until the day I turned eighteen at least. Maybe it’s time I use my last name and the reputation he’s built for some good instead of hiding from it.”

“You scare me, Alora,” I murmur, and she smiles softly.

“Oh, yeah? I scare the big bad Malik?” she teases.

I nod. “Petrified.”

Staring at her, I do my best to memorize this moment, committing every detail to my mind. “Especially right now, with that vengeful gleam in your eye. You’re a force of nature.”

“We are when we’re together. I promise you that he will not get away with it.”

“How?” I ask such a simple yet heavy question.

“We’ll figure it out. But I promise we’ll be careful, and I’ll make sure Micah is safe and sound before we pull the trigger on whatever plan we come up with,” she says before waving her hands in the air dismissively. “I don’t want to talk about my dad anymore.”

I wait for her to continue.

“Will you tell me about him?” she whispers.

Nodding, I figure there’s one good place to start. Grabbing the back of my hoodie T-shirt, I pull it over my head, setting it beside us.

Her eyes start to wander over my chest and arms. “Tell me about them. Why’d you get each one?”

“Of course, there’s this.” I hold my hand up, and she traces the five letters with her finger.

She starts to trace the word villain arched across my chest. ”You know you’re not a villain right?”

I shrug. ”Aren’t we all a villain in someone else’s story?”

Her weighted stare warms me as I practically read her mind, that I’m no longer the bad guy in hers.

Silently, her hands slides on top of mine, flattened over the tattoo just below villain.

“And then …” I choke up, but I force it back down. “This.”

I uncover the butterfly tattoo with my hand. She does the same thing again, gently tracing the outline, sending shivers through me.

“Butterflies were his favorite thing in the world.” I smile as the image of him sitting and staring at one of his framed ones pops into my mind. “He was fascinated … but I wasn’t the most supportive when it came to it. Something I greatly regret.”

Her eyes soften. “ Mal .”

That’s the first time she’s ever called me that. Warmth spreads through me.

“I know what I said, the jokes I made. I hate myself for it. But instead of just dwelling on it, I’ve continued his collection, expanding it tenfold, even adding one to my skin.”

A light bulb flashes in her eyes. “Your room …” She winces, lightly smacking her forehead. “That’s why you freaked out on me that day.” She pauses in thought. “The little things are making so much more sense now.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I just didn’t know …”

“If you could trust me? I get it, Malik, seriously. I can’t imagine what that was like. I’m surprised we’ve gotten to this point at all. It’s a miracle.” She looks at me with admiration.

Moving back to the Micah-inspired tattoo tour, I turn and show her my back. The two giant wings that cover my shoulders with three numbers between them. Six. Two. Three.

“His birthday. June 23.”

She murmurs kindly, “It’s beautiful, the ways you’ve honored him.”

She runs her finger down the side of my neck unexpectedly. “What does this one mean?”

It takes me a split second to remember what I have there. Two words in Latin. Somnium meum.

“What does it mean?” She brushes the black ink back and forth.

“It was one of the first ones I ever got. For some reason, I was feeling rather hopeful that day and wanted something to remind me of what I was fighting for every day. It translates to my dream. ”

Her lips part, and her eyes widen. “Are you serious?”

Nodding, I wait for her to elaborate on her shock.

“I had to do a paper in school; maybe you did, too, if you took Mrs. Humphries English class. We had to write an essay about the origin of our name. And in one of the rabbit holes I stumbled down, I found out that Alora means my dream .”

Chills run down my back and spine as I repeat the words. “My dream.”

Something about that coincidence seems so … right.

Our paths have always been intertwined in ways we never could have imagined. I’ve never been one to believe in fate; it’s hard to after everything I’ve been through. But maybe, once upon a dream, she’s mine, a part of my story that was always inevitable.

“Can I just hold you right now?” I ask, wanting to feel closer to her.

She nods, and I move instantly, wrapping my body around her as I pull her back into my chest with our heads on the pillows.

With her ear near my lips, I apologize for things I did long ago. “I took a lot of the anger about my brother’s death out on you, and I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair to you, and if I could take it back, I would.”

She nestles into me tighter, warming my heart. “Don’t apologize for who you became in order to survive, Malik. You had to shield yourself from the world at such a young age. I forgive you for who you were back then. You just have to do the same for yourself.”

Tears flow from my eyes again, and I sniffle. She turns around immediately, wiping them away with her thumbs.

“If you want, I’d love to hear some stories about him. If you’re comfortable, of course.” Her bloodshot eyes look into mine with such vulnerability and love.

I don’t know how in the hell it’s taken me this long to realize how far from her father she really is, but I’ll never let myself forget it.

It’s going to be hard to talk about him. Just the thought of it has my throat burning.

But I want to. He deserves to be remembered by anyone willing to get to know him.

With her wrapped in my arms, I start to open up about my baby brother.