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

to focus on like work, and caring for Elva, that

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

+15 BONUS

wonder if I was misremembering the past. Maybe he’d never been kind. Maybe

that

adding some bite to my own voice. The

is a mistake, and I

only woman who ever dared to break up with me. Piper. I’ll never allow

out into the sitting room, and then out into the parlor. I thought he might slam the door behind him, as enraged as he was, but instead, he gently

Elva continued resting, undisturbed.

wanted to hate him. So

liked children. He’d

wanted to hate him, but

beside the couch

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

a

wasn’t reality. My reality was very far from these golden fixtures and

to go

I

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

own eyes

Excuse

open my

beg your pardon, miss, but the King Luna, and princes have arrived, I suggest you hurry to

my

I looked up again, he was already disappearing out of

couch, watching me with

to be quiet

Luna are talking.”

“Okay”

I pulled Elva into my arms and camed her

standing atop some type of stage The

Luna on one side. The three princes flanked his

looked older than he did on the bills in my

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

calming the crowd and gaining their attention “Congratulations on having

by your presence and look forward to

in and whispered something