Chapter 3

3

Silas and I were childhood sweethearts.

My parents were both in the military.

When I was very young, I was kidnapped by a group of extremists.

They used me to blackmail my parents, trying to force them to betray their country.

I was locked in a tiny, pitch-black room while my parents negotiated with the kidnappers outside.

I pressed my ear against the cold door, desperate to hear their voices.

The last things I heard were a few gunshots.

Then, the world went silent.

No matter how loud I screamed for my mom and dad, they never answered.

I was terrified.

After what felt like forever, the door finally swung open.

Silas's panicked, tear-streaked face appeared in front of me.

Then came the police. I searched the crowd for my parents, but they weren't there.

I eventually learned that they had sacrificed themselves to take down the extremists and save me.

I became an orphan. I had no home left.

The Hawthornes took me in.

I grew up in their house, but the trauma of the kidnapping and my parents' death stayed with me.

I was terrified of the dark. I was terrified of being alone.

But I didn't trust anyone―except Silas. On the day I was rescued, Silas was the one who appeared with the sunlight.

During the days I locked myself away, Silas stayed by my side. He held my hand and sang lullabies to me.

Whenever I woke up from a nightmare, the first thing I saw was his worried face.

Under his care, I slowly stepped out of the shadows.

Even though I was still scared of the dark, I could sleep peacefully as long as I heard his voice.

So, Silas called me every single night to lull me to sleep.

Even when the nightmares returned, his gentle voice was always there on the other end of the line.

When I was fifteen, a boy from another school stopped me and handed me a pink envelope.

I stood there, frozen, not knowing what to do.

Silas suddenly appeared, handed the letter back, and rejected the boy on my behalf.

The boy snapped, "Who do you think you are? What right do you have to speak for her just because she lives in your house?"

Silas just smiled calmly.

He took my hand and said firmly, "I'm her family. I'm her boyfriend. Do I have the right now?"

Our past was so sweet, which made seeing him with Summer so much more painful.

I used to think Silas was my cure.

Now, he was the poison in my veins.

I calmly deleted our photos and began packing away the gifts he had given me.

Silas used to give me gifts all the time. Some were expensive, others were cheap.

The cheapest was a withered flower crown.

He had made it for me on the day we decided to get married.

I had kept it perfectly for seven years.

Seeing it so brittle and decayed now felt like a metaphor for our marriage.

As I was packing, Silas's parents appeared at the door.

I felt a flash of shame. They had always treated me like their own daughter.

I was planning to leave without even telling them how much it would hurt.

Seeing me packing, his mother looked surprised. "Lyra, what are you doing? Did that brat Silas upset you again?"

Looking into her kind eyes, I wanted to throw myself into her arms and cry.

But I held it back.

"I'm just checking for mold," I said calmly.

They were carrying several large shopping bags. "Mom, Dad, why didn't you tell me you were coming? I would have picked you up."

The Hawthornes looked at each other with complicated expressions.

His mother wanted to say something, but his father pulled her back and shook his head.

She gave me a strained smile. "We just missed you. We just got off the plane and we're tired. We're going to rest."

They practically fled upstairs.

I washed a bowl of cherries and followed them up with the suitcase they had left behind.

I heard his mother complaining to his father through the door. "Why didn't you let me tell her?"

His father sighed. "Lyra loves him so much. How is she going to accept a divorce?"

His mother's voice turned sharp. "But Summer is pregnant with Silas's baby! You can't let that child be born out of wedlock!"

"We've been good enough to Lyra for twenty years."

"She's barren. Someone has to give Silas an heir!"

"Silas loves Summer anyway. Lyra needs to be smart and just sign the papers!"

I froze in the hallway.

It felt like an eternity before I realized I was covered in tears.

I tried to pull the suitcase away, but the latch broke, spilling a mountain of baby clothes and toys onto the floor.