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“Oh my God, Miss Preston…” My heart doesn’t know whether to sink or fall as the next voice joins us. “Are you this mysterious leader, or something else?”
“Owen… I think I’m here to meet the leader too.”
I try to smile as I look at him, but it’s hard because I know this guy for another reason. He’s my son’s best friend, which adds yet another layer of complexity to the enigmatic situation. My heart skips a beat as I smile at the young man who has harbored a crush on me since childhood, a crush that has now matured into something more potent and disconcerting.
Owen emerges from the shadows, his presence injecting an undeniable tension into the already bewildering scene. His grown-up features are defined by a mixture of boyish charm and the newfound confidence of adulthood. His bright blue eyes meet mine, and there’s an unmistakable depth of attraction that lingers there.
“Good to see you, Miss Preston.”
“Please,” I say as he slings an arm over my shoulder. “Call me Anya.”
I can’t help but feel a surge of mixed emotions—surprise, confusion, and a touch of unease. The presence of these three individuals from different aspects of my life, converging in the heart of this foreboding forest, blurs the lines between reality and the surreal.
As I exchange uncertain glances with Wyatt, Lucas, and Owen, I can’t help but wonder if our presence in the Knot Head Forbidden Forest is more than mere coincidence. There’s an undeniable undercurrent of intrigue and complexity in the air, and the forest itself seems to hold the key to a mystery that defies explanation.
“That must be him,” Wyatt suddenly hisses, causing us all to fall into silence. “The leader.”
A final figure emerges from the shadows. The leader, the one who seems to have orchestrated this bewildering convergence, steps forward.
And when I see who it is, my heart skips a beat, and I feel as though the ground beneath me has shifted. I about drop into a dead faint.
Roarke.
My first love.
His presence is like a tidal wave of emotions, a rush of memories and feelings that I thought I had left behind in the past. His chiseled features and penetrating gaze are as familiar to me as my own reflection, but they also carry the weight of a history that I had tried to bury.
“Roarke?” I gasp, my voice barely a whisper, disbelief and astonishment coursing through me.
He offers a wistful smile, his eyes locking on to mine with a mix of recognition and a hint of the past. “It’s been a long time,” he says, his voice a melodic resonance that stirs up a flood of nostalgia.
This man who holds a piece of my heart that I’ve never shared with anyone else, but I doubt he knows that. His expression suggests that he doesn’t have a clue.
To Roarke, I was likely just a passing fling, a warm bed for the night before his next adventure. He probably has no idea about the secret I’ve kept for all these years—a secret that binds us together in a way he could never have imagined.
Now, as I stand there torn between wanting to leap into his arms and keeping my distance to safeguard the truth, I’m overwhelmed by a whirlwind of emotions. The years have been kind to him, and the feelings I thought I had buried resurface with a vengeance.
It’s a precarious situation, with the weight of my secret threatening to spill out at any moment. How do I navigate this unexpected reunion with the man who once held my heart in his hands? How do I keep my emotions in check and protect the truth about our son?
As I stand before Roarke, my heart races, and my mind races even faster, searching for the right words and the right way to handle this delicate, unexpected encounter.
THREE
LUCAS
I dart my eyes between Roarke and Anya, curiosity getting the better of me. “Wait, so we all know Anya then? I do because I live next door to her…”
Anya’s voice breaks through the eerie silence of the Knot Head Forbidden Forest, drawing my attention like a beacon in the darkness. As I turn to her, a mixture of curiosity and anticipation fills my mind.
“Yeah, I know everyone else too. I know Wyatt because we have… worked together.” Hmm, there seems to be more to that fact, but I better not push her too hard right away. “And Owen…”
“I’m a family friend.” He reaches out and shakes my hand. I can tell underneath the smile that there’s more to this again, but for now since I don’t know these people, I have to take it at face value. “Good to meet you, next door neighbor.”
We all turn to Roarke, our new leader for this mission, to see what he has to say. “Err, me and Anya go way back. We met a long time ago.”
“At a music festival,” Anya jumps in all misty eyed.
It’s a simple phrase, but it carries with it the weight of shared experiences and a history that spans the years. I can’t help but get a little caught up in jealousy here.
