My name is Scarlet Stone and I like theatrical masks. My father gave me a real gold mask that he “borrowed” from a museum. He said I should wear it when I need to feel brave. I wear it a lot.
As soon as I’m behind the safety of the locked bathroom door, I fist my hands at my heart and slide down the smooth wood to the floor. The tears fall. “Oh god…” It’s incredibly difficult to let go of the physical world with our souls trapped in bodies that do nothing butfeeleverything.
Pleasure cannot exist without pain. My heart needs to stay out of this, and Theo needs to stop saying things that lead me to believe he’s lettinghisheart have a say in any of it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My name is Scarlet Stone. I have 70,000 thoughts a day and they are mine. My human right. I will not be ashamed of having an opinion.
Nolan wants tomeet me for lunch. I’ve been here for months and since he took me food shopping, I haven’t seen him. Paying him six months’ rent at once probably doesn’t give him much of a reason to visit. That’s why I have to question what makes today so special.
Theo busies himself to the point of working over twelve hours a day. I think he has been avoiding me since our sex-in-potting-soil night. I say “I think” because I’ve been avoiding him, too, for the past week. Saying goodbye to Daniel was the last painful goodbye I ever wanted to have. Part of me hopes that one day I’ll wake up and Theo will be gone. In reality, I think he may wake up one day and I’ll be the one who is gone.
Nothing lasts forever.Thatis the only truth we are guaranteed in life. When someone says they will love you forever, what does that really mean? Then again, what really is love? I think that’s why we’re here. For each of us to discover what love means to us.
I love Daniel and that’s why I left. But what if he doesn’t see it that way? My dad is in prison because he loves me. I still lose sleep over communal underwear because I love him. Love is so fucking painful.
“Hello, stranger. So, I pay you rent in full and you bugger off with it? Mr. Reed could have sliced and diced me and fed me to the sharks by now and no one would have known.”
“Scarlet Stone. Don’t you look lovely.” Nolan takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “I like what you’ve done with your hair.”
I laugh. “You mean what Ihaven’tdone with it. I’ve given up on my vanity. Well, most of it.”
“How un-southernly of you. Are you ready?” He holds open the car door.
“Thank you, kind sir.”
We head to town, not talking about much more than the weather, specifically the rundown of the most devastating storms to hit Savannah. Weather I’m good at; it’s a favorite topic of most British people.
He takes me to lunch at what I believe is an exclusive club with men dressed in suits and a few women wearing perfectly-tailored designer dresses accented with plenty of flashy jewelry.
“So tell me, how are you feeling, Scarlet?” Nolan asks behind his menu.
I have a feeling Yimin said something and that’s what prompted this unexpected lunch invite.
“Underdressed. How is Harold and his young floozy?”
He stiffens, lowering his menu enough to glare at me. “I warned you not to believe everything you hear.”
“We saw Harold with his tongue down some young girl’s throat, in the car park outside of the café where we had lunch.”
“You and Theo had lunch? Is there something going on between the two of you? Are you the beauty to his beast?”
“No. Why are you blackmailing your dad?”
Nolan chuckles. “Does he know?”
“Who?”
“Theo.”
“Know what?” Why is he changing the subject?
“About your illness?”
I remember when men with badges and guns raided our place. Life was over… at least the life I had always known. Then my father confessed to my crime. It was like everything in his life had led him to that point—the day he would sacrifice himself to save me. He promised no one would ever know it was me. He promised to take my secret to his grave.
But now no one is here to save me from the truth.
