Chapter 2
889 Words
Xavier stopped just beyond the reach of the ballroom lights. The music behind him faded beneath the steady splash of the fountain. Kaylen's fingers curled around the cold marble railing, knuckles whitening.
"Mr. Cross, you should go back inside."
His brows lifted.
"Mr. Cross?" A faint smile touched his lips, there and gone. "Five minutes ago, you were calling me Xavier."
She hadn't. She never did that tonight, not once since walking into that ballroom has she been nothing more than the bride's forgotten half-sister.
"You're mistaken," she said.
"I don't think I am."
He didn't move toward the lights. He stood there, studying her the way a man studies something he's afraid to lose.
"Everyone's waiting for you," Kaylen tried. "Clara is waiting."
"Let them wait."
Behind him, the golden windows glowed with laughter, shapes moving behind the glass. None of them knew the groom had disappeared into the dark.
His gaze dropped to her cheek.
"What happened here?"
Her hand rose before she could stop it, fingers brushing the faint bruise Caroline's ring had left that morning. "I bumped into a door."
"Kaylen."
Just her name.
Quiet.
Certain.
He reached toward her, slowly, the way someone reaches for a bird they don't want to startle. She flinched; a small step back, shoulder angling away, chin dropping.
His hand stopped midair. He looked at it, then at her, then said nothing for a long moment. The sky above the garden split into color and they noticed the fireworks bloomed, gold and violet, and applause rolled out from the ballroom along with geeks as it was layered properly, Xavier & Clara, in rich calligraphy.
It's official.
Kaylen's throat worked. "That's for you. You should be in there."
"I don't want to be in there."
"Xavier,"
"You said it again." His eyes held hers. "Like you've said it a thousand times before."
She opened her mouth to deny it.
He spoke first.
"Three years ago. A ferry terminal in Havenport. It rained so hard the whole dock turned to the mirror." His gaze drifted past her, into something he'd clearly turned over a thousand times, polishing every edge.
"I missed the last ferry because some i***t in a black umbrella nearly walked me into the harbor."
Her breath caught audibly.
"You shared the umbrella with the i***t then bought him coffee because he looked–” a small huff of breath, almost a laugh "pathetic enough to drown in a puddle."
"That's–" Her voice cracked in half.
"You were wearing a blue scarf. It kept slipping off your shoulder, you kept pulling it back up, over and over like it mattered more than it should have."
Her grip on the railing tightened until the metal bit into her palm.
"I looked for you," he said. "For months. I didn't even know your name because you never told me. Only that you had a sister, and a family gathering waiting. I can't forget that hysterical laugh, pulling itself from you, like it embarrassed you to be happy." He exhaled, and something in his jaw tightened. "When I came home, the Bloomberg's introduced their heiress, Clara. And I thought,–"
He stopped there.
Kaylen's knees pressed harder into the railing to keep her upright.
It was me. It was always me. Clara stole my scarf, my seat, my life…
The words rose and stuck behind her teeth. Her eyes flicked toward the ballroom, toward the shape of Caroline's silhouette somewhere behind that glass, and her mouth closed again.
"You have the wrong person," she said instead, barely above a whisper.
"And you expect me to believe that?"
She couldn't defend and her eyes dropped to the stone floor between them.
"Kaylen." He stepped closer, close enough now that she could see the color of his eyes in the firework light. "If you'd known the truth and my feelings, what it would cost you, would you have let me believe it?"
Her fingers pressed white against the railing.
"If you'd known the truth," she said, so quiet it barely carried, "what would you have done?"
He didn't hesitate.
He closed the last of the space between them and looked directly into her eyes.
"I would never have let you disappear."
Her breath left her in a shudder she didn't try to hide. Something in her chest clenched tight since the day Clara took everything and it became loose, in a little fraction and rose enough to hurt.
Her lips parted.
He waited, utterly still, as if the whole night had narrowed down to whatever she said next.
Neither of them heard the footsteps on the garden path.
"There you are."
The voice sliced through the dark.
Both of them turned.
Clara stood beneath the archway, moonlight catching the diamonds at her throat, her smile unhurried, untouched by suspicion. She crossed the stone path and slid her arm through Xavier's as though she had always belonged there.
"The guests are waiting, darling."
Her gaze slid to Kaylen. The smile didn't waver.
"You should come inside too, sister."
She turned, guiding Xavier back toward the golden light, her laughter drifting behind her. Xavier glanced back once. Kaylen didn't move.
A
t Clara's side, hidden in the folds of her gown, her phone glowed faintly in the dark.
The screen was still recording.
- Writer
