CHRISTIAN
Penelope was avoiding me.
Not that I blamed her. I hadn’t seen her since the fight—not at breakfast, not in the halls, not in her bakery. When I got there, Jess had outrightly called me out, and said she wasn’t around, but I knew she was. Her lavender sports car was parked outside.
And when I was back home, Alfred said she was “out” when I asked, but I knew better. She was hiding. From me.
I had not gone back to Tokyo yet. Ryuji had called twice. I told him I was handling something personal. What I didn’t tell him was that I’d been replaying her words like a damn loop in my head.
“I wish it were Alex. I wish it was him I married instead of you.”
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard it again. Sometimes it was her voice. Sometimes it was mine, echoing it like some curse I cou
