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FIFTY-TWO

ELENA

EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD

“Happy birthday to youuuuuu!” Her family drew out the last of the song before they blew into their party horns at her where she sat at the table with a pink cake in front of her.

Eighteen candles burned bright.

“Make a wish, sweet girl, and make it good. Your eighteenth is supposed to be the best of your life.” Mischief danced through Meems’ eyes when she said it.

Elena’s heart swelled, and she glanced at where Trevan was on the other side of Brody’s chair. Though he stood. Softness on his face as he smiled down at her.

Gorgeous.

She didn’t think she could describe him any other way.

Big and bulky and ridiculously intimidating, not that she was afraid of him. She was only frightened of the secret way that he made her feel. The single thing that kept her tossing at night.

She looked back to her grandmother on her other side.

Meems’ expression had shifted, turning to gentle knowing.

A quiet prodding.

Love and belief.

Elena inhaled a big breath and closed her eyes as she imagined her wish.

Trevan.

His kisses and his hands and the destroyer of her virginity.

He was the only one she wanted to have it, and she was going to make sure it wasn’t a wish wasted.

She leaned forward and blew hard. Extinguishing all the tiny, flickering flames.

A roll of cheers went up. Whoops and hollers.

Silas massaged her shoulders from where he stood behind her chair. “Holy shit, Elena is eighteen. Happy birthday, little sister.”

“Not so little anymore,” Meems tsked. Forever in Elena’s corner. Building her up and making her believe.

“That’s right. Your girl is an official adult.” She grinned.

It was strange that she felt both older and younger than her age.

Weary and worn by the tragedies. By seeing the way her mother had been treated by their father, those memories faint but their scars profound. The freedom they’d found away from him before that freedom had been stripped.

The agony of losing her. Leaving their home and Trevan behind.

The vacancy that had haunted her during that time.

The way she’d been sure she would lose Silas, too. His self-hatred was so severe that she’d been terrified he would self-destruct.

Her dread over him and Trevan riding with that MC.

But she’d also been sheltered in it. Caged because of Silas’s fear that something awful would happen to her. Her experiences close to nil simply because she wasn’t allowed to leave the house without Silas or Trevan trailing along at her side.