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“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “I would’ve yelled at me. I’d have ranted and raved until the guards dragged me out of here, but it’s like I said. You always have been different.”

As he said the words, I realized he was right. I was different and I always had been. He and I might look alike, but on the inside, we had very little in common.

“Do you want to tell me about your classes?” he asked. “I’d like to know what you’re learning about. What you’re going to be doing for your work-study at the company. Anything you want to tell me, Holden. I’ll listen.”

I looked back at him, my head buzzing with too many realizations at once, but then I started talking, telling him about all kinds of ridiculously normal things. My classes, my upcoming mid-terms, and hell, even the Halloween block party.

Eventually, when we were all caught up on the absurdly mundane minutiae of my life, I stood up. “I should get going. It’s a long drive back to the city.”

“I’m glad you came.” He stood up, extending a hand toward me. “Thank you for visiting, Holden.”

“Yeah.” I shook with him, squeezing his hand for a beat longer than necessary before letting go. “I’ll see you on the outside, Dad.”

The door opened and I gave him one last nod before I left, striding back to the world through that series of constantly clanging gates until I was finally back in my car in the parking lot. Blinking against the sunlight, I sat there for a few minutes just trying to regain my bearings.

Now that I was breathing fresh air again, it was suddenly crystal clear that my father, Alicia, and hell, even Alex had been right. I might look like Dad. I had his face and his mannerisms, but I really wasn’t like him.

My father had spent his entire life chasing the ever-elusive more. More money. More connections. More status. Fuck, as disgusting as it was to think about, more sex. More people being jealous of him and wanting the pretty young thing on his arm.

That was not me. And Alex had somehow managed to help me find someone who, like me, was deeply caring and somewhat feisty. Someone who had goals, ambitions, and dreams that had nothing to do with high society.

Shit, even if my father had never been sent to prison, I probably still would’ve grown up to shun that world. I’d never fucking liked it, whereas my father had thrived in it. Me? I’d always longed for a life away from galas and fake smiles.

Mostly because I’d always known they were fake when all I wanted was for people to be real. Another reason why I hated Halloween so much. Fucking masks.

On my way home, I felt lighter than I had in years. It was a day earlier than I’d planned on going back and Alicia wasn’t even at the brownstone when I got there, but my mind was made up, so I got to work.

From here on out, I was going to be real. I’d face whatever consequences I had to for it, but I was finished hiding. Even from myself.

CHAPTER 48

ALICIA

As soon as I walked around the corner, I saw the skeleton. It was impossible to miss, the LED lights blazing where it stood in the center of our yard, directly facing Rex’s house.

That wasn’t the only thing. The closer I got to home, the more details I noticed. Our entire front yard had been transformed for Halloween, one of the werewolves standing like a sentinel at the top of the new steps while the other stood guard at the bottom.

Orange lights wound through the trees, their branches glowing against the darkening sky. Purple and white lights framed every street-facing window. Masses of enormous cobwebs stretched between the columns, complete with fake spiders the size of dinner plates and several other plastic creepy-crawlies we’d picked up at that warehouse store.

Jack-o’-lanterns lined the path and the stairs, some glowing from within while ghosts hung from the trees, genuinely looking like they were floating in the light breeze. A sticker of a witch had been stuck to the window upstairs, making it look like she was flying straight into what used to be Tasha’s bedroom.

A sound that was somewhere halfway between a sob and a laugh escaped me, my footsteps speeding up until I was practically running toward the house. I’d been gone most of the day, helping Tasha finish moving the last of her things, and I’d missed Holden so badly it’d felt like a physical ache, but I’d thought he would only be getting home tomorrow.

As I reached for the door, it swung open and Holden appeared on the other side. Wearing jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, his feet were bare and his hair was slightly messy, those gray-blue eyes locking intently on mine.

“Hi, baby,” he said quietly, sliding his hands into his pockets as he stepped out of the way, but his gaze never left mine. “I ordered pizza.”

For some reason, tears welled in my eyes at the statement, another half-sob, half-laugh rising up from deep within. “You’re home.”

“Yeah, I am.” He stepped toward me immediately, brow furrowed as he caught my face in his hands. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. Wait, why exactly are you crying?”

“You…” I shook my head, trailing off because a lump the size of a country had wedged itself into my throat. “You decorated the house.”

“Uh, yes? Is that a bad thing? I⁠—”

“No, I love it.” I finally looked up at him through the tears, winding my arms around his neck and letting my forehead drop to his chest.