Semua Bab His Holiday Prohibition : Bab 31 - Bab 40

THE DEPARTURE~SILAS'S POV~The zipper closed shut in the quiet of the lodge, the noise seemed loud and It felt like the end.I stood in the center of the master bedroom, staring at my packed suitcase. It was black. It worked well. It was by the door and It seemed to make fun of me.I checked my watch. 10:00 AM. The pilot was already prepping the jet. In two hours, Chloe and Maya would be wheels up, heading back to New York. Back to their lives and syllabus weeks. Back to a reality where I was just a checking account and a holiday visit.And I would stay here. I had told Chloe I had meetings in Denver—a lie that felt heavy and stupid in my mouth. The truth was simple: I couldn't be on that plane. I couldn't sit across from Maya for four hours. Pretending I didn't know what she sounded like when she came.I rubbed a hand over my face. The rough hair scratched my palm. I caught my reflection in the mirror above the dresser. I looked old. Forty-five going on sixty. I was tired and P

BACK TO REALITY 2~MAYA POV ~Day two was just gloomy.I woke up because my phone was buzzing against the floorboards. I reached down, my arm feeling like lead, and squinted at the screen.My head pounded. Two days of crying. I felt like I had the flu.Chloe.I stared at the name. My best friend. His daughter. The person I had betrayed in the worst possible way."Answer it," the ghost of Silas said. He was leaning against the bedroom doorframe, drinking coffee from a mug that didn't exist. "Tell her what you did. Tell her you fucked her father while she slept down the hall.""I can't," I croaked."You can't," he agreed. "Because you're a coward. Just like me."I swiped the green button. My hand was shaking so hard I almost dropped the phone. "Hello?""Maya!" Chloe's voice was too loud, too bright. It sounded like sunshine and old money. "Oh my god, are you alive? I texted you like ten times. Did you land okay? Is the apartment okay?"I looked around. A roach was crawling up the wall n

THE SAFE GUY~MAYA'S POV~The lecture hall was freezing.It was not the crisp, expensive chill of Aspen. This was the wet, aggressive cold of a public university trying to cut utility costs in February. I was wearing two sweaters. The breeze still hit my spine.I stared at the whiteboard. The professor was drawing a supply curve. His red marker made a high-pitched skritch-skritch sound against the surface. It made my teeth hurt."Hey."A whisper from my right.I didn't turn. I had gotten good at ignoring things. The eviction notice is on my counter. The three missed calls from my mother. The fact that my best friend's father—the man who had ruined me—was currently dating an art curator named Tracy."Hey. You."A pen tapped lightly against my elbow.I turned my head slowly. Blinking like I was waking up from a nap.The guy next to me was new. Or maybe he had been there all semester and I had been too busy staring into the nothingness to notice. He had blonde hair. It wasn't the cold

THE SHADOW~MAYA'S POV~"Top off?"I did not wait for an answer. I was already tilting the carafe, watching the dark liquid swirl into the chipped ceramic mug.The woman in the booth looked up. She had lipstick smudged on her front tooth. "You looked a million miles away, hon.""Just a long shift." I forced a smile, but it felt fake.The coffee smelled burnt, not just roasted but Scorched. It smelled like my life, stale, bitter, and wrong. I fled behind the counter and tossed my rag into the sanitizer bucket. The water had turned grey. I looked down at my apron. Ketchup spot near the pocket, it looked like a crime scene."Table four is flagging you down," Sal said as he breezed past. "And stop staring out the window, Maya. The view hasn't changed in twenty years.""Right," I mumbled.But I looked anyway, and it was still there.The black SUV.It was a Black Range Rover. Top of the line. Idling near the hydrant. This was a neighborhood of dented Toyotas and rusted-out vans. This car w

THE DATE ~MAYA'S POV~I was wearing a sweater I had not washed in three days and jeans that hung loose around my hips. In the bathroom mirror, I tried to find the girl who had been in Aspen. The girl who had worn a nice dress at least and diamonds.But she was not there, just me. Maya from Queens, smudges under my eyes, and zero balance on my tuition account.My phone buzzed.Liam: 'I'm downstairs. No rush :)' The smiley face made my stomach turn. It feels so open, so easy. Silas didn't use emojis, silas used terms. He used silence."Stop it," I muttered to my reflection. "You are going on a date. A normal date." My hand went to my throat. Under my sweater, the choker was there. I had put it on this morning without thinking.It has become a habit, one I refuse to kill but I could not take it off.I grabbed my bag and walked out.***************Liam was waiting by the front stoop. He looked human, he wore a Puffy jacket and a Beanie pulled down over his ears. When he saw me, his wh