Page 67 of Firefly
I know he means it.
Tears slide silently down my face while my entire future collapses around me.
Hayden. God. Fuck!
Hayden would burn this entire city down before letting them control me like this, but that’s exactly the problem.
Loving him only creates destruction.
So, I take a deep breath and look up at my father, already regretting the words before I say them. “I understand,” I whisper.
Victory flashes briefly across his face. “Good.” He straightens his cuffs calmly. “Now go upstairs and get yourself together. Brayden is taking you to dinner tonight.”
The thought makes me physically ill.
But I nod anyway. Because what choice do I actually have?
By the time I reach my bedroom, I can barely breathe around the grief crushing my ribs. I shut the door quietly before collapsing onto the floor beside my bed.
Hayden’s hoodie still sits tangled in my blankets from the last time I cried myself to sleep holding it.
Seeing it destroys me completely.
I grab it and press it desperately against my chest while sobs rip out of me hard enough to hurt.
Because I finally understand something horrible.
There is no happy ending for Hayden and me.
Not in Brimstone.
Not against our families.
Not against the kind of power determined to rip us apart.
Loving him feels like trying to hold onto smoke while the entire world burns around us.
And maybe my father was right about one thing.
Maybe the only way to survive all of this… is to let Hayden go once and for all but that thought alone… feels like death.
Hayden
“I Hate Everything About You-Three Days Grace”
I haven’t seen Ophelia in six days.
Not that I’m counting. Except I absolutely am.
Six days since the warehouse. Six days since she fucked that guy against the warehouse wall.
Then she disappears again.
Story of our fucking lives.
When Flynn called and told me he cut a deal with the school to keep my identity a secret, I was relieved. I only need to attend certain classes and tests so I can graduate with an actual diploma. So when I went there to pick up my schedule, I heard about Ophelia’s suspension.
Makes a lot of sense why she wasn’t there. Now I know.
