Page 68 of Sinful Desires (Sinful #4)
Chapter
Fifty-Two
“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”
― Amy Tan
Scarlett
The velvet curtain grazed my nose as I leaned in, peeking through the slit.
Celebrities glittered beneath the house lights, lined up like polished trophies on display.
On stage, Pedro Lopez, the night’s host and resident comic, wrapped up the last awards with flailing hands and overblown theatrics.
Then he paused. The lights shifted. The teleprompter changed.
It was time.
I pulled back. Someone placed the purple diamond microphone into my hands.
I closed my eyes.
One last breath, shaky and uneven, slipped past my lips.
Pedro’s voice cut through the air. “The internet’s been one giant therapy session recently.
We’ve seen the grainy videos, the blurry close-ups, the bodyguard rumors, the lip readers decoding every glance, the fan theories.
Someone even did a twelve-minute YouTube breakdown of a single look she gave. But she’s here.”
The crowd erupted. Gasps. Applause. A few rose to their feet, stunned, uncertain whether to cheer or watch in silence.
“They said she was done. That she lost the plot. But the thing about superstars? They don’t disappear.
They wait. And when they come back, they light the whole place on fire.
Performing here tonight her new song ‘Lavender Light,’ give it up for the one and only, the myth, the legend, the woman half of you secretly wish you were?…
the Red Queen herself, Scarlett Harper!”
The curtain opened.
I stepped into the light, the soft weight of the gown hugging my hips as the applause hit, loud through my earpiece, louder in my chest.
The lights made everything glow. My dress. The diamonds. Even the fear clinging to my ribs.
The piano started, and I closed my eyes and let the song find my mouth.
I wore a crown of neon lies
A thousand eyes carved into my skin
Danced for cheers that turned to knives
In a palace I was never let in
Cameras fed on all my grief
Turned my tears into a trend
Every smile I faked onstage
Was a quiet way to beg for it to end
I’d written it in France. After our night on the cliff.
That morning, I’d sat by the sea for hours, not thinking, not even feeling much?…?just listening. The waves, the wind, the quiet. It had helped.
And then the words came.
It wasn’t planned. I didn’t sit down to write a goodbye.
But I think my heart already knew.
I had so many feelings stuck inside me. Guilt. Fear. That dizzy kind of love that makes you want to run and stay at the same time.
And under it all, something deeper.
That need to be free.
Free to mess up without being shamed for it. Free to feel without a camera flashing. Free to find out who I was, without being told.
This song became that for me.
A goodbye .
Maybe for now. Maybe for good. I still didn’t know.
But I knew it was the last page of something I couldn’t carry anymore. And maybe the first page of something softer.
Something finally mine .
I was forged in flashing headlines, pain dressed up in gold,
Packaged pretty in the glitter, with a price tag on my soul
They called it love, they named it fame
But not a single one remained
I thought I’d burned beyond repair
Too hollowed out to ever heal
But you stayed inside the silence,
The only soul who made me feel real
I opened my eyes and let the world sharpen through the haze of low lights.
Beneath the gleam of designer suits and flowing gowns, familiar faces slowly surfaced. Some smiled, some blinked back tears, others simply stared, caught between breath and silence.
But none of them mattered. My gaze moved past them all, drawn to the one my heart had never once forgotten.
He stood in the shadows at the edge of the stage, arms folded, jaw set, his eyes fixed on mine with quiet intensity.
His expression was unreadable, as always, but his eyes betrayed him.
They told me everything.
Fingers curled tightly around the microphone, chest rising quickly, I sang the next verse for him alone.
You loved me in lavender light
Where stars sang and demons took flight
Not bound by time, or breath, or name
You stayed through loss, through praise, through shame
You found the girl the world let fade
And traced her back through all she’d faced
To life, to death, through my darkest night
Our love will forever bloom in heaven’s sight
I finished on a high note, my throat still buzzing with the final echo as the crowd broke open around me.
My hands trembled.
The cameras zoomed in, capturing the shimmer of tears on my cheeks.
I took a bow as Pedro met me at the side of the stage and pulled me into a hug.
Be you, Scarlett . Not the ghost they paint and sell .
That was it.
I was fucking free .
The standing ovation didn’t fade.
Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe I was unraveling. Or maybe I was finally finding myself again. Either way, I couldn’t stay still.
I gathered my gown in both hands and ran down the stairs, off the stage, straight through the sea of velvet seats.
My heart led the way.
When I reached him, when I saw Théo standing exactly where I needed him to be, I grabbed his face and kissed him hard.
Cameras exploded around us. The lights flashed white-hot across my eyelids.
The whole world was watching.
But all I felt was him.
And love, fierce and endless, circling us like gravity.
Two fallen angels, once pleading for death, now yearned for life .
His hands slid to my waist as he lifted me into the air, spinning me once. I laughed, breathless. His forehead touched mine for half a second, grey eyes burning into my soul.
Then I grabbed his hand and we ran, away from everything but each other.