Page 3 of Billionaire’s Promise

My girl hated Lincoln’s stupid pranks.

“We should go,” Lincoln said to Liam.

I popped my head out of the duvet like a turtle, the tears on my cheeks now dried. “Where are you going?”

“Sleep,” Liam said. Lincoln opened his mouth but decided to let Liam finish his sentence. “I know you said you didn’t want to celebrate your birthday this year. But you’re turning 18 and that’s a big deal.”

Lincoln nodded.

“We threw you a small party downstairs.” His voice was unexpectedly soft and gentle, without a trace of his usual bossy tone.

“But you brought friends.” That was a comeback to the word small. For us, small also meant intimate. Just the three of us without our parents, plus Chloe, or minus.

“Just one,” Lincoln said. “You’ve met Kai before. Why does him being here upset you?”

Lincoln was right. When he first met Kai, I’d said that I wanted to meet him since he was actually from China. Though I was quarter Chinese ethnically, I had never actually known one personally who wasn’t related to me. Until Kai. So why did his being here upset me now? He was as much a part of Lincoln’s life as Trevon was.

“I guess because I told you I didn’t want to make a big deal about today?”

“Well, it is kind of my birthday present for you. I know you can’t take your eyes off him.”

“Cheapskate.”

“You know, I’m a poor college student and all.”

“Whatever. I’ll be right down. I hope that seeing your friend again isn’t my only present.” I hopped out of my bed and ushered my brothers out of my room. “Five seconds.”

One sec was way too unrealistic, Chloe would say, so we had decided that we would say anything but one sec.

I’d thought that I would prefer to spend my birthday alone this year. I even went out of my way to send Mom and Dad away on a trip. I’d had an idea of what I wanted to do on this special day. Cry my eyes out for my bestie. Light a fire and burn some of her favorite things for her to receive in the afterlife. Being able to send the dead things by burning materialistic items made with origami used to sound silly to me. But right now, it felt rather comforting that my ancestors had such a strong belief in life after death. There was so much I wanted to send to her.

I wondered if people would cry for me if I died.

I think I would be really upset if no one cried for me. Am I not worth the tears? Not that I could control such things. I loved Chloe so much and my tears were proof.

Grief was a tricky thing. I never knew grief until now. Now, whenever I think of her, it burns. My tears shed uncontrollably again as my thoughts turned to her sweet face being burned alive.

Downstairs had been transformed. All the available wall space had been filled with string lights. Our home was modern and very tidy due to Mom’s obsession with cleaning – not necessarily done by herself, but by the cleaning staff. But today, the house looked totally different, like a dream.

I felt like I had stepped into a fairy land.

Like a princess. I had never felt that way before.

Suddenly, Kai appeared from nowhere, holding his hand out as I stepped off the stairs. I couldn’t help but feel like a real princess. With her prince by her side.

I never knew my brothers would care this much about me. Before this, I thought the only thing they were capable of was annoying the hell out of me. There was no way my brothers did all this by themselves.

I stared at the beautiful man in front of me and knew that this fantasy prince was too good to be true. He probably wasn’t interested in girls. In my whole life up to that point, the only people good at decorating that I knew of – either from real life or on TV – were gay men. “You guys did all this?”

“We had help,” Lincoln said. I knew it. I was a little disappointed, but my face couldn’t help turning scorching hot as Kai winked at me.

It was such a shame. The first person I’ve ever been really attracted to was gay. Congratulations to me, I’ll probably die alone. He was simply too pretty to be straight.

Kai led me to the dining room where they all started singing Happy Birthday and I tried very hard not to cry. The short song felt extremely long and slow. At the end of the song, I closed my eyes and made a wish that I knew would never come true.

I wanted another chance to celebrate my birthday with Chloe again.

I knew it was silly. I should have wished to make it into the medical school of my choice easily without studying past midnight like Liam. But that was the only thing I wanted right now. Nodding, agreeing that I would have this wish no matter what, I opened my eyes and carefully blew out the candles. It was hard not to spit any of my snot onto the cake. My face was a mess again and my eyes were out of focus. My brothers bent down to give me hugs and kisses then they went to get me my presents from their rooms.