The Luna Choosing Game

“How long did you wait, Piper? A week? Two? It couldn’t have been long.”

He sounds like he’s jealous. Or was that an illusion? He doesn’t care about me and is just mad at me.

Maybe the latter is more logical.

His dark eyes burned into me, leaving my heart in scorched tatters. Never in a thousand years would i

have thought Nicholas would be so vicious to me.

“It wasn’t like that.” I said, to try to defend myself.

He crossed his hands over his chest. He wasn’t going to listen to me,

“Why even come here?” he asked me.

“My application was selected…”

“Why even apply? Were you trying to get to me?”

“No,” I said.

“Maybe you regret your child’s father. Maybe you want me back.” He laughed once, bitterly. “Like you

have a chance.”

The words sliced into me as surely as if he’d been holding a knife. He had changed since I’d known him.

Three w

years ago, he’d been kind and patient. I’d given him my heart and he’d gently cradled it. So many

nights, we’d laid under the stars, trading kisses and stories.

Once, when he’d spent all night looking at me, I had told him, “You’re missing the

starlight.”

He’d replied, “I can see it in your eyes.”

The man before me now was nothing like the one I had known. The man here was arrogant, indifferent. and imposing in how he carried himself.

Breaking up with him had never been something I wanted to do. It hurt me still, thinking upon it, so I had tried to push it to the back of my thoughts

things to focus on like work, and caring for Elva, that I could successfully distract myself from the pain

faced with him now and seeing what he had become, brought all those feelings crashing

+15 BONUS

was so different now that I couldn’t help but wonder if I was misremembering the past. Maybe

that young, innocent

to my own voice. The hurt made it

and I intend

said, so coldly that a chill ran along my spine. “You are the only woman who ever dared to break up with me. Piper. I’ll never allow the same mistake to happen

left me, then, walking out into the sitting room, and then out into the parlor. I thought he might slam the door behind him, as enraged

Elva continued resting, undisturbed.

hate him.

children. He’d been

hate him,

to my knees beside the couch

world, maybe Elva would have been our child. If we had stayed together, maybe he would have revealed his secret in time. Maybe the three of us could have been a happy little

was a

My reality was very far from

here. I needed to go home and look for another

I

head beside Elva’s on the cushion. I was so drained, from the trip, from seeing Nicholas again,

quickly, my own

me Excuse

open my

King Luna, and princes have arrived,

uh.“I rubbed the sleep from my eye.

he was already disappearing out of

with curious

softest smile. It is. We have to be quiet though, okay?

Luna are talking.”

“Okay”

into my arms and camed her

family was standing atop some

Luna on one side. The three princes flanked

bills in my purse. He was pale

and his voice camed far, like he was accustomed to

calming the crowd and gaining their attention “Congratulations on having

by your presence and look forward to becoming

in and whispered something in