Page 291 of Vexatious Queen

For the first time since I arrived here, the air didn’t feel heavy with secrets or waiting violence. It felt clean. Open. Like something had finally loosened its grip, and we were standing in the exact place where everything was always meant to end, ready to step forward into a new tomorrow.

Nash and Myles sat next to me, with Liam on the other side of Nash and Blake beside Myles. My hands were folded in my lap, the fabric of my gown heavy against my knees.

I scanned the crowd looking for our parents.

Dad was three rows back, his shoulders squared, posture proud in a way that made my chest ache. Mom was right beside him, her smile as warm and infectious as it had always been.

Emmett and Bridget sat with them. Ethan and Lip were in the next row. Lip whispered something that made Ethan smile and shake his head. I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

Vicky sat in front of me with Ivy, Chantry, and a couple of the girls who had apologized to her. She wore pale blue to go with the robe, and her hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail. Her expression was neutral. After Patricia’s funeral, Vicky donned her hard shell and acted as if nothing could hurt her. She was sarcastic but held her head high like the queen bee she was.

I could see the pain she was masking, and I knew that one day the walls would crash down around her. I should know—I’d lived it. And when that day came, I would be there for her. But right now, she could barely look at me, and I knew I was a constant reminder of everything she’d lost.

Everyone that I loved was here.

Everyone that I’d almost lost.

Theo stepped up to the podium, adjusting the microphone with a familiar confidence that had nothing to do with arrogance and everything to do with knowing who he was. The crowd quieted.

He looked out at us—at me—and smiled.

“Good afternoon, fellow graduates, teachers, parents, and alumni. They tell you graduation is the end of something. I think that’s a lie we tell ourselves because endings are easier than the beginning of something unknown.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd.

“We’re being released into a world that is not gentle. It will not slow down for us. It will not explain itself. And it will not care how prepared we think we are.”

Nash rubbed his knee against mine. I glanced up, and he winked.

“But here’s what I know. When we first walked through these gates, most of us didn’t know what we were stepping into. We didn’t know who we would become here or what this place would take from us before it gave anything back. We were trained in pressure. We were forged in uncertainty. We learned how to stand when everything told us to fall.”

My throat tightened as memories rose and played like a movie in my mind. Neil, dropping me off that first day. Ivy, smiling at me and making me feel welcome. Myles and his puppy-dog stare, warming me.

Reaching over, I linked our hands, and he grinned at me.

“Some of us came here already broken. Some of us broke here. And some of us learned that breaking doesn’t mean defeat.” Theo paused, letting the silence stretch, his eyes finding mine. “It’s the chance to rebuild.”

I blinked hard.

“We won’t all walk the same path from this moment on. But every one of us carries the same truth—we survived.”

Applause rose, but he lifted a hand, and everyone quieted once more.

“So go into the world knowing this.”

Theo dipped his head, then looked up, staring at the silent crowd and letting each of them feel the weight of his words.

“You have been tested. You are prepared. Everything you survived is proof that you’re ready for what comes next. And whatever waits for you out there…you are not alone.

I’ll leave you with this final thought. The great and inspirational, Maya Angelou, said it best—Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. Congratulations, graduates. You made it. Now go make it matter.”

The applause this time was thunderous.

I pressed my lips together as emotion swelled in my chest. For the first time, the memories didn’t feel like weights. They felt like proof. Proof that I had survived.

I turned slightly, and my shoulder brushed Nash’s arm. He stopped clapping, cupped my cheeks, and kissed me until my head spun.

Nash