Just Us Two (Altered Paths #2)

Prologue

This is not how it’s supposed to go. My story. My future. This was not the plan. Not that I ever really had a solid one. But I know if I did, if I had a vision board pasted on my bedroom wall, this day wouldn’t be on it.

I look down at the outfit I’m wearing. A black suit with a white shirt and an orange tie to match the roses dotted around the room. My least favourite colour and my least favourite flower.

My suit fits like a glove but feels as if it wasn’t purposefully made for me. Like it belongs to a stranger, a version of me that has never existed. It’s too stuffy. Too starched. Too bland.

I hate it.

I hate the way I look and the way I feel. I hate that nothing here today is what I would have chosen. Especially not the man in front of me.

He grins at the people watching on, his dull grey eyes pinching at the edges. His tie sits askew, the same putrid orange as every little touch of elegance in this place. No expense spared. No corner left without a reminder of the reason we’re here.

Guests shuffle in their seats, waiting for the show to go on. They are unknowing pawns in our little game. They came to party, to drink and to dance, and to go home, believing that what they witnessed here today was beautiful and magical, and the greatest fucking moment of my life.

How epically wrong they are. The greatest moment of my life is one I tuck away where only I can find it.

It’s not one for sharing with anyone besides…

I shake my head, my hair barely moving under the weight of the gel holding it in place.

My hands twitch at my sides, one rubbing against the fabric of my trousers.

I scan the rows of people looking on. I know very few of them, except for the four sets of eyes boring into me. Three sets I invited and who showed up despite their reservations. They know the truth, though they were never meant to, and now they share the weight of my lie.

The last set of eyes – the ones that would so easily have featured on that imaginary vision board – I refuse to meet for fear my already shattered heart will stumble right out of my chest, crashing to the ground for all to see. And if that happens?

If that happens, then I lose. We lose everything. And isn’t that the kicker? Because no matter which way I look at it, I don’t come out a winner. But maybe that is the price to pay for keeping someone else safe, the price of another’s crime. Maybe that’s the sacrifice you make for family.

I look at the older man in the front row. With eyes that don’t match mine, but a suit that does. He nods. A gesture that says, ‘this is for the best’ and ‘thank you for doing this for us.’

Closing my eyes, I turn my body away from those watching and towards my future. Blowing out a breath, I slowly lift my lids, my mouth settling into a smile that hurts me more than I care to think about.

“Ready to begin?”

No.

I force a nod and do what I promised I would. I give up the future I could have had for the one I was dealt.

Maybe in another lifetime.