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WES

January—Fourteen Years Prior

“ D id my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”

“What does that mean, Mama?” I looked up at my mother. The glow of the fire in the library cast shadows across her face, making her mysterious and beautiful.

Her eyes lifted from the ancient book in her hands. “It means that he fell in love the moment he saw her.”

I wrinkled my nose. “He fell in love the second he saw Juliet? But he hasn’t even talked to her yet.”

Chase wiggled, bumping into me as he shifted off his tummy and sat on his butt. We were both sitting on the rug in front of the fire.

“Is that going to happen to me, Mommy?” he asked. “Am I going to fall in love with her the first time I see her?”

Mama smiled. She had such a pretty smile. “Perhaps, my darling. Perhaps. ”

I pinched my brows at Chase. “Why does he get a princess and I don’t?”

She leaned forward in her chair, drawing my attention back to her. “Don’t worry, Wes. You’ll find your own princess one day. And when you do, she’ll mean the world to you.”

“Marissa!”

I whipped my head around. My father marched into the library, growling, “What are you doing?”

Chase smiled and announced happily, “She’s reading Shakespeare to us.”

Unlike my mother, the glow of the fire didn’t complement Daddy. It made him look angrier than usual. My heart jumped, and hotness spread all over me. I shied away. I didn’t want to, but I did. And that made me mad at myself for it.

“You know how much I hate you filling their heads with nonsense.” Why was he always so angry ?

She closed the book in her hands. “It’s not nonsense, Charles. It’s love .”

He laughed, but I didn’t think he found what she said funny. It was a mean laugh. Like he was making fun of her. “Is that so? Tell me, my dear, how did love turn out for you? Did love come find you? Did love save you?”

I looked at Mama. Saw as her eyes glistened. Sometimes I thought eyes talked to me. Like they told me stuff people didn’t want me to know. Chase said I was stupid. That eyes don’t talk, only mouths do. I told him he was dumb, that he just didn’t know how to listen to them.

Right now, I thought my mother’s eyes were saying she was sad.

My father snickered. “I didn’t think so.” He looked at Chase. Beckoned him with his finger. “Come, boy. We’ve got work to do.”

Chase hopped to his feet, excited. I didn’t know what they did together all the time.

All I knew was that Daddy never invited me.

But I was okay with that. I didn’t like my father very much, and I didn’t understand why Chase did.

He was mean. But Chase said Daddy could be nice when he wanted to be.

He was never nice to me, though. Maybe the problem was me, not Daddy.

Huh…I hadn’t thought about that before.

My father turned around as Chase stepped up to him.

He ruffled his hair, put a hand on his back, and then they left.

I looked back at my mother, but her eyes were staring at the book in her hands.

Her eyes were telling me she wasn’t in the library anymore.

Her body was here, but her heart had run away. “Mama?”

She startled. Her eyes looked at me. “Yes?”

Her eyes told me a sad story. And I felt bad for her. “Is Romeo ever going to come save you?”

Her eyes just stared at me. And they cried without any tears. “No, my darling.”

“Why?”

Mama looked at the fire. “Because Romeo dies in the end. That’s why love is a tragedy.”