Page 126 of Shallow

I’m still stubborn. Still prideful and quick tempered in my own way. But shallow? Not achance.

Shallow is a term reserved for people who use others’ insecurities to force their own agenda of self-worth. It’s simple smoke and mirrors. If I’m anything, it’s ashadow.

I don’t need the limelight to feel important or the blaze of adoration to tell me who I am inside. I’m perfectly content to live in the shadow of a man who never deserved to be forced to bask in mine. A man who has always been the brighter shining star to my fizzlingnova.

Shade is a funny thing. People are content to throw it until they know what it feels like to stand in the middle of it. But as long as I’m bathed in Cary Kincaid’s shade—no one else’s opinion matters to me. I’ll stand in his darkness for eternity. It’s where I belong. It’s where I’ve alwaysbelonged.

I’m Shiloh West Kincaid—a woman who understands that being loved for being beautiful isn’t real. That kind of adoration settles on the surface and fades away when the beauty does. Real love doesn’t care about the wrapping on the outside of the package—it peels away the layers and accepts everything that’s inside—the attractive and theugly.

Cary tells me I’m beautiful every day, and I believe him. His type of beauty is the one that lasts forever. The kind I spent the majority of my life chasing? That’s only skindeep.

Andthatisshallow.