“How are you feeling, Arkane?”
“Perfect.”
“That’s good.”
He looked at her. “It’s unlike you to lie.”
She met his gaze with eyes that looked as if she had been weeping just moments ago. “I could say the same to you, my love.”
And it was then...he had an inkling.
And once he sensed that not everything was under his control—
“How did you know,” he asked tightly, “and how much do you know?”
“I just know you,” Joy said softly, “and that’s all I have to know.”
His jaw clenched. “Don’t make the mistake of interfering.”
“The thought never crossed my mind.”
“And you really think I’d believe that?”
But they had only reached the end of the aisle, and Joy rose on her toes to kiss his cheek. “I love you, son. Always.”
She turned to walk away to her seat in the front row, and he whipped his gaze away the moment he saw her shoulders start to shake.
Nothing. Had. To. Change.
Not even when it had his own mother crying.
The live orchestra in the gallery above began to play.Canon in D.And that...that was the next cue. The beginning of everything. Six years in the making. And then it would be finally over.
Behind him, he heard the crowd gasp, and because he knew the program by heart, it meant she had finally stepped out.
Tiara.
Another moment passed, the music swelling, and then their host with the perfect voice-over baritone began his spiel from somewhere unseen above the room.
“The beauty of second chances isn’t always about renewed beginnings and rewriting the past. Sometimes, your second chance with one person is to simply say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’.”
Another round of gasps erupts, but Arkane didn’t turn his back...even though he knew. By this time, everyone knew, Tiara included.
“And with another person, it’s hello again.”
There was another girl in this park, also from his past, and also wanting a second chance with him.
A side door at the front of the room opened, and the orchestra shifted into something warmer, more playful. He didn’t recognise the piece, but he didn’t have to. The music alone told the audience what was about to happen.
Arkane slowly turned around.
Mirabella.
Tall while she wasn’t. Lustrous midnight-black hair where hers were like the rays of the sun. And glamorous and confident when she had always been awkward, even at her spunkiest—
He kept his gaze on Mirabella even as the music faded, and the crowd...
He could feel them starting to grow uneasy as they realized that this was not a prank.
