Page 175 of Fearless

---

No.

I can’t let myself hope.

But then he steps closer, close enough that I can count his eyelashes, close enough that when he speaks, his breath ghosts across my lips. “After my patch ceremony…” he says quietly, just for me, “… we need to talk. About everything I should’ve said two years ago.”

Before I can respond, before I can breathe, before I can process what that might mean, he’s gone.

And I’m left standing in a kitchen that smells like vanilla and hope, holding secrets that could destroy everything, loving a man I can’t have, and watching my father’s world,my world,start to crumble.

The cookies are burning.

I can smell them.

But I can’t seem to move.

Because everything is about to change.

And I don’t know if I’m strong enough to survive it.

THE END

---