Page 21 of Don’t Forget Me

“Well, let’s get straight to the point,” I said. “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” he asked, his gaze throwing daggers at my heart.

I breathed in. “Why did you give me such a good movie deal offer?”

“It’ll be a huge profit for my company to produce your book.”

“Not as much as it would be if you had offered me a normal amount of royalties,” I argued.

He replied, “I don’t know what you mean.”

This farce was beginning to irritate me. “Yes, you do. Tell me why.”

He sighed. “I’ll never be able to escape you, will I?”

I hoped not. After all, I couldn’t escape him either. “Not after you intertwined our lives again,” I said.

“Because I knew this would be the deal of your dreams. Making your bestseller into a movie. A film that would touch many souls. This way, you would never be at risk of having to go back to the place where you came from. You’d go farther.”

He knew how much that meant to me. Having the opportunity to never go back to my roots. So that I would never step foot in the same soil as the man who ruined my childhood.

I remained silent until another question popped into my head. “Why now?”

“My company has never been more successful. I made sure to have effective investments and contracts so that your film would be successful too.”

I had nothing else to say, and I would not tell him how much it shattered my heart that he kept my best interests in mind.

Could he have changed? Could he have become a better person after our downfall?

“Where do we start then?” I asked.

“Since auditions are coming up in the next few weeks, I want to go over the person that you envision as your female main character.” Ezra crossed his arms, beaming at me.

I hated how he looked so sophisticated. So important. So different. Different from the boy that I once knew. And I wanted to uncover every unfamiliar thing about him. Not on a physical level, but in a way that would give me the privilege to learn everything about him again.

“Okay, I was thinking…”

ten

EZRA

5 YEARS AGO

“You think that’s funny?” I asked, not being able to control myself as I rolled my eyes at Alfred.

The man deserved my utmost respect after everything he’d done for me and my family, but I couldn’t believe he was laughing at my expense. The new girl didn’t like me very much, which didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t a bad person. I knew that about myself. But when she stared me down, I had never felt more seen in my entire life until she set her eyes on me.

As I strolled back to my dorm, the male exchange student was humming to himself behind me, I remembered her sharp features.

Her piercing brown eyes captivated me, and her skin was… beautiful, but I was entranced by her complexion. I didn’t know girls from America looked like that. A lot of my friends talked down on their bland semblances, but she was different.

I pushed the thoughts of her out of my mind and focused on the issue at hand. My father forced me to have a roommate, and as much as I enjoyed the quietness of my rooms, perhaps it wouldn’t be too bad to have someone to keep me company.

My dad was the one responsible for funding the grants that brought the exchange students into the academy, but don’t be fooled by his good work.

It was just another one of his tactics so that the public could forget about why I arrived to school with new bruises and cuts all over my body. Although I’ve learned to hide them better and better through the years. I longed to push my father away from this school, which was my safe haven.

Which was why I was thankful for Alfred’s diligence, he’d always made sure to take care of me after a beating. After the hits had drawn blood.