Page 29 of A Perfect World
“Angel, may I come in,please?”
I fought a smug smile. “Yes, you may.”
He followed me into the living room, hesitating as I tucked back into my corner. He glanced around, “Are we alone?”
“Well, you already know Hannah left,” I muttered. He leveled an unamused glare at me. I huffed, picking my nail. “Yea, Ashley is with friends.”
His shoulders loosened slightly as he took a seat on the opposite side of the couch. Hundreds of words cramped in my mouth, caged by my teeth. For once, he didn’t hold himself with effortless confidence. Elbows on knees and eyes focused on hands, he looked like the younger boy in those stolen photos.
“How old were you when you realized you weren’t like everyone else?” he asked, voice so soft in comparison to his insistent tone minutes ago. I wrapped my arms around my legs, pressing my toes into the cushion.
“I don’t remember. I was always told I was different. Wrong. Making things up,” I admitted. His eyes lifted. I squirmed, breaking eye contact. “You?”
“Five.”
His profile was all stark angles and shadows. Was the lonely boy hiding beneath the hard edges? I broke the skin on my lip, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. Silence stretched between us, sparked with anticipation.
“Do you,” I started, a clamp of anxiety cutting me off. The ink on his forearm shifted over tensing muscles. I tried again. “Do you know why we’re different?”
His fingers laced, knuckles white.
“Not why,” he murmured, voice so low I had to lean forward to hear. “But I know we were made this way.”
“Made?” I asked, jerking back.
His throat bobbed, but he didn’t speak. Oh,nowhe wanted to clam up? No, he came here to talk, so he’d talk. I scooted close, grasping his arm. A little gasp left him as his eyes swirled silver. I prepared for the invisible force to shove me away.
It never came.
“Our parents sought fertility treatment. Whether they knew it or not, the IVF trial they chose was a front for an unethical program. We were conceived in a fake lab, experiments for something I haven’t uncovered yet,” he whispered. My nails bit into his skin, head shaking back and forth.
“No, I wasn’t planned, I wasn't wanted-”
“You were.”
“No.”
“Angel-”
“No!” I screamed in his face, pushing him and falling off the couch. Crawling away.Get the hell away from him and his lies. His poisonous lies.I wasn’t wanted- I was an accident. A mistake, mom told me. She told me-
Soothing hushing and hands on my shoulders.
“You were wanted,” Ollie murmured, relentless metallic eyes holding me still as his thumb brushed a tear from my cheek. Crying and whimpering my thoughts aloud, the riptide of shock sucked me out to sea. “Youarewanted.”
My hand came up involuntarily to push him-
It froze, silver eyes holding it hostage.
“You never knew,” he breathed as if this revelation shattering my foundation was awe-inspiring. My lungs cramped from heaving gasps, my brain clouded with painful thoughts. He was hushing me again, reeling me into his arms and I was letting him because I’d lost touch with my body.
“I didn’t want this mistake of a child!”
The wine glass connected with the wall, shattering on impact. There were no more tears left in my eyes. I tucked my feet into the hems of my pajama bottoms, curling into a smaller ball. If I was small enough, maybe I would disappear, and Mom wouldn’t be angry anymore.
“He fucking tricked me into this and left me withyou,” she snarled. My entire body trembled, impossible tears burning the rubbed-raw skin around my eyes. Disappear. I wanted to disappear-
“I don’t want you to disappear.”
