Chapter Thirty-Four

Elle

I managed a few shaky steps toward the large archway that I assumed led toward the hotel foyer and a staircase or elevator.

I hated leaving him. But I wanted answers more. He’d promised he’d meet me. I had to trust he wouldn’t forget or disappear without fulfilling that promise.

~Hopefully tonight, I’ll finally know.~

The fear that he’d run and I’d never see him again escalated the further I traveled. I didn’t see Larry or anyone else I recognized.

I reached the threshold of the ballroom.

A gray bullet collided into me.

My arms flew out for balance, steadying myself and the kamikaze who’d run into me. I blinked as recognition flowed. “Stewie. Are you okay?”

He smacked his lips, nodding distractedly. “Yeah, sorry for running into you.”

“Don’t worry about it. As long as you’re good, it’s fine.”

He nodded, his face tight and not the usual happiness I’d grown used to. “Yep, all good.” He pushed past me to join the throng but something sparkly fell from his pocket.

Something blue.

Something that didn’t belong in a boy’s possession.

He didn’t notice, fighting his way past adults as I ducked and plucked the silver necklace from the ballroom floor.

My heart stopped.

The world closed in.

I couldn’t breathe.

In my hands sat the very thing I’d lost the night Nameless had saved me.

The sapphire star glimmered under the bright strobes of the hotel, the white gold chain snapped in half where one of the muggers had yanked it off my neck.

I stumbled, crashing into a man who cursed as a splash of his orange cocktail tipped onto his silver tuxedo. “Hey!”

I vaguely remembered how to apologize while my mind was no longer here but ~there.~

Back in the alley.

Back where it all began.

In an awful twist of fate, Stewie looked back, his gaze latching onto the necklace dripping through my shocked fingers. He slammed to a halt, looking around feverishly as if searching for Penn.

Hoping to undo this minor, inconsequential action that’d ruined all Penn’s lies. Destroyed his stories. Revealed every fact.

I’d believed in a fantasy.

And it’d just crumbled into dust.

~I know the truth.

The awful, terrible, sickening truth.~

Coming toward me, Stewie sheepishly held out his hand. “Can I have it back?”

My fist curled tightly around the chain. “This is mine.”

“No, it’s not.” His forehead crinkled. “My brother gave it to me.”

My heels were no longer stable or capable of holding me up. I swayed. “Your brother?”

Penn’s voice entered my head, sounding far away. ~“Larry is family. Stewie will be his adopted son soon. Which will make him my brother.”~

No.

If Penn gave Stewie my necklace… that meant he couldn’t be my tragic hero.

He couldn’t be my savior.

He couldn’t be Nameless.

~It’s not possible.

This can’t be happening.~

Nameless had never retrieved my necklace.

I’d never asked for it back.

The last I’d seen it was in the alley, ripped off my neck, and pocketed by thugs.

My heart palpitated, threatening to faint.

~Don’t let it be true…~

Only two scenarios existed as to who Penn could be.

The sapphire had shortlisted them.

My life had made a mockery of my heart.

The truth laughed in the face of my moronic trust.

My voice struggled to stay low so as not to attract attention when all I wanted to do was scream. “Why?”

“Why?” His face crunched.

I swallowed hard, pushing down my heart where it hyperventilated in my mouth. “~Why~ did your brother give you this necklace? It’s not something a boy would normally play with.”

He scuffed his shoe on the ballroom floor. “I’m looking after it for him.” His eyes blazed. “I would ~never~ play with it.”

“You didn’t answer me, Stewie.” My panic made me sharp. “~Why~ do you have this?”

His attitude prickled. He crossed his arms. “Because if he was caught with it, his sentence would’ve doubled.”

My legs turned to liquid.

My knees to chocolate mousse.

“What sentence?”

His lips thinned. “I dunno if I should be telling you this.”

“Yes, you should.” I moved forward, towering over him, commanding my fingers to stay locked around my necklace and not reach for his throat to strangle the answers from him. “Tell me, Stewie.

“Tell me ~right now~.”

He puffed out his cheeks, as if doing his best not to reply but unable to ignore the order from an elder. “His prison sentence, all right? He got done for robbery.

“He asked me to keep it, so they didn’t have evidence.” Fear turned his face red. “I know I should’ve hidden it somewhere, but I liked it, okay? I like blue, and I like stars.” He kicked the floor.

“I want to be an astronomer when I grow up. I know it’s girly, but…I love stars.” His hand came up. “Give it back.”

My body obeyed before my mind caught up.

In a daze, my arm reached forward. My fingers opened, letting the sapphire slip from my grasp to his.

I was numb.

I was dead.

Two choices.

Two men I’d cursed their very existence.

Two men tried to rape me.

One man had succeeded.

But it wasn’t rape.

It was consensual.

It was ~wanted~.

He’d stolen more than just my necklace but my innocence and goodness too.

How could I move on from this?

How did I ever come to terms with what he’d done?

~Who is he?

Which one?~

Stewie clutched the evidence of Penn’s heinous crime. He didn’t wait for more questions. He didn’t even thank me for returning what was rightfully mine.

Taking off, he vanished into the silver throng, leaving me destroyed and heartbroken.

Truth was a fickle thing. I’d believed I wanted it. I’d begged and cursed and demanded to receive it.

And now that I had it...I wanted nothing more than for it to delete what it’d caused and choose a different ending to the one I’d been given.

I’d gone from euphoric joy believing Penn was Nameless to finding out my worst nightmare.

Penn wasn’t Nameless—the boy who’d protected and kissed me in the park.

He was one of the muggers who’d tried to rape me.

They’d known my name from my I.D badge.

One of them had come after me.

~I’m going to throw up.~