“The Dolce Vita store on 7th?” he pressed.
I nodded, urging him to take the last cookie.
“I’ll bring you more tomorrow,” he offered and took the biscuit.
“Hey, don’t drop it!” Another guard snatched a dime-sized crumb midair and popped it in his mouth.
An idea began to form in my mind. I didn’t have the resources, but if there was a way to bake things….
Catch more flies with honey.
With a spring in my step, I rounded the sidewalk and strode through the metal gate. My favorite bench was empty, and I marched right up to take a seat. The blithering idiocies I’d scrawled last week covered the left page, but the blank page on the right stared back at me. There wasn’t a risk that my father or mother would read this. Did I have to drone on about the virtues of living a docile life?
“Fuck that,” I muttered.
Pulling the horn necklace from my shirt, I popped it between my lips. I wore the charm less often, because what was the point of warding myself against the evil eye when I had a beast for a husband? Smiling around the pendant, I flipped the page forgood measure. A fresh start. There might be seven goons milling about the park, patrolling for danger, but married life suddenly felt freeing! I took a deep breath of air.
I’m free.
Those two words stared back at me. Open lines waited for thoughts on what that felt like. I wrote and wrote, scribbling ideas. I let myself pretend that I was able to build the life I wanted. What would my home look like? How would I spend my days? I could work where I wanted, shop, spend, and read anything.
I don’t regret marrying. Liam is the start to a new chapter.
Was I going to leave him? Absolutely. I wasn’t idiotic enough to confide that truth to the page. But it was there, subtext under the words. I let my pen sort through my feelings for him.
I like Liam. For a man in hisoccupation, he’s a good one. I think I annoy him. He’s always so gruff when we’re together—not that I see much of him. But he tolerates me. He isn’t mean. I think if we got to know one another better, we would actually get along. I don’t know if that will happen anytime soon, but the possibility is there.
That’s more than a girl like me can hope for being married to a stranger.
Reading over the pages and pages of real, uncensored thoughts, I realized how tangled my feelings for Liam actually were.
I wrote some more, hoping to make sense of the tight little knot in my chest.
So invested in my journalling, I didn’t pay much attention to the other souls passing by. If it wasn’t for the long shadow of the bassinet stroller, I would have missed my reason for coming here.
I sat back suddenly. My head snapped up. The mom was scrolling on her phone. She didn’t catch my smile. But the little boy in the basket? He was awake, sucking viciously on a pacifier. He paused when our gaze collided.
Those light brown eyes blinked.
He gave me a gummy smile, the paci falling out.
An intense heat, unlike anything I ever felt, rushed through my chest. Such a beautiful child. Happy. Healthy.Hers.
The mom passed in at a clipped pace. Going around the bend a second later, I lost sight of the boy. His wail echoed back across the path. The mom stooped, annoyance flitting across her profile as she jabbed the pacifier back in his mouth.
“Quit spitting it out then,” she snapped.
I curled my fingers around my pen. If that was me, I would have plucked the baby out. I knew how heavy they could feel, squirming at being held. But walking while holding the child would be my preferred method. I would never let the sweet boy go. I would show him the pretty trees, the animals scampering about, and the other sights, sounds, smells of the park.
Sighing, I sat back in my seat.
My phone chimed a moment later. I looked down, brows knitting at the text message.
Father: Just a reminder, your weekly confession is in thirty minutes. You haven’t left yet.
Horror washed through me. I wanted to drop the phone, stung by the realization that my father was tracking me. I left the messageunreadand scrolled through the apps to discover how that was possible. I didn’t see Life 360 or any other thing else that would tell him where I was.
“That’s the last time I take this anywhere,” I grumbled.
