110

Dinner smelled like home—garlic, herbs, and roasted chicken wafted through the air like a comforting blanket—but none of it mattered. My appetite hadn’t returned since my birthday. Since him.I sit quietly at the table, pushing food around on my plate while trying not to let my eyes drift to the end where Levi sat, looking maddeningly unaffected. He hadn’t said a word to me since that night in the garden—since I kissed and poured my heart out only for him to tell me ‘it couldn’t happen and I should get the damn idea out of my head’.He was treating me like I didn’t exist and I hated it, he’d done it before for months after my sixteenth birthday and I felt like I was dying, but this time, the feeling had morphed into something worse because there was no hope of him ever speaking to me like he used to.“Gem,” Valentino’s voice slices through my silence, sharp but laced with concern. “Why are you so quiet? You sick or something?”I barely glance

อ่านเพิ่มเติม

111

I was on edge, my pulse racing as I kept surveying the room, looking for him but getting disappointed each time when my eyes did land on his god-like frame. He should have been here by now, he was never late for any of my parties.Was he not going to come?My blood run cold and the sweet taste of whatever it was I’d taken that was still in my barely empty glass turned bitter—what was a birthday without seeing his face, it was the only thing I ever looked forward to on my birthdays, the only thing that brought me happiness during these damn parties my mother insisted on throwing, every year, the guest list grow longer, the decorations more extravagant, and the performances more elaborate, but it didn’t matter to me, only he mattered,And he still wasn’t here yet.“Are you alright?” My mother asked her warm hand rubbing up and down my arm and snapping me back to reality.“Yes, I am.” I nodded quickly. “You outdid yourself yet again mam

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112

My tears had dried on my cheeks hours ago, crusted into the pillow I refused to lift my face from because I couldn’t find the energy to do it. I was too exhausted to move, to the point I didn’t even remember falling asleep, all I could recall was trying to force myself not to cry and curling myself under the blanket like it could protect me from the painful truth and from myself.I didn’t dream as I was asleep, and didn’t toss or turn either, I was just floating in an empty, numb space where everything felt like it had stopped mattering, until I woke up with a jolt—I didn’t wake up because of a noise, no; I woke up because I had a feeling that I wasn’t alone anymore.The room was dark, the only light coming from the hallway seeping in under the crack of the door.I didn’t move at first, I let my eyes adjust slowly, lashes sticking together from dried tears, when I could finally make out things in the dark room, I lifted my head only for my e

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113

One lesson my mother had taught me when she was still alive was how to open locked door, whether they had a key in them or now. I’d always thought it was useless skill to have because all my life I’d never had to pick a lock as door always opened for me because of who I was, but last night, when my back was pressed against the wall, I was grateful for learning it, because it was the only thing that got me into her room as everything I’d tried didn’t seem to work—even the key I’d lied about, Well I did have a key to her bedroom, it just wasn’t what got me into her room. Why did I have a key you may ask? I just always kept one on me since the time she locked herself in her room when she was 10 and flashed the key down the toilet to prove a point. She’s never repeated something as foolish as that after the punishment godmother gave her, but I still hadn’t stopped carrying her keys around like a wallet. I’d woken up early as usual

อ่านเพิ่มเติม

บททั้งหมดของ Contracted to him: บทที่ 111 - บทที่ 114

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