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

seeing what he had become, brought all those feelings crashing back into Tome so hard, they stole my

+15 BONUS

misremembering the past. Maybe he’d never

wasn’t that young,

said, adding some bite to my own voice. The hurt made

mistake, and

coldly that a chill ran along my spine. “You are the only woman who ever dared to break

then, walking out into the sitting room, and then out into the parlor. I thought he might slam the

Elva continued resting, undisturbed.

to hate him. So

that door. He might be a cruel, insensitive bastard but he liked children. He’d been kind to Elva. He didn’t take any of

hate

my knees beside the

a different world, maybe Elva would have been our child. If we had stayed together, maybe he would have revealed his secret in

was a

it wasn’t reality. My reality was very far

needed to go home and look for another job, as soon

I

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

quickly, my own eyes

me Excuse

open

pardon, miss, but the King Luna, and

uh.“I rubbed the sleep from my

he was already disappearing out of the room. He left the door

Elva sat up on the couch, watching me with curious eyes. “Is it time for

is. We have to be

Luna are talking.”

“Okay”

my arms and

royal family was standing atop

Luna on one side. The

King looked older than he did on the bills in my

and his voice camed far, like he was accustomed to public

crowd and gaining their attention “Congratulations on

by your presence and look forward to becoming

whispered something in the