Page 65 of Beauty


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I blink.

Just once.

But it’s enough to break my world.

The curtain is slowly peeled away, and my secret hiding spot is no longer secret.

Two big brown eyes stare into mine, coral lips slowly twitching up into a smile.

What am I supposed to do?

Is she the enemy my mom and dad always warned me about?

The girl plucks at the small pink flower in her hair and gives it to me, tucking it into my hand like she wants to tell me something.

Give me the one thing that’s slipped away from me ever since my mother told me to go and hide, no matter what I would hear.

Hope.

* * *

Present

“I remember this,”I say, staring at the bathtub at the far end of the bathroom, clutching the bear so tight it almost rips open.

Aurora peeks along with me. “The bear?”

I turn to face her. “You.”

Her face flushes with heat. “I …”

I pull the flower out of my pocket and hold it up between us. “This. This is what kept me going for all these years.”

Tears well up in her eyes. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You gave me a purpose.” I grab her hand and push the flower inside. “Something to fight for.”

She looks up at me with those same doe-like eyes she gave me the first time we met, but I’m no longer that terrified little boy I once was. Through hardship and pain, I endured. Through sheer willpower, I became what I needed when no one was there to save me.

I didn’t suffer all those years just to destroy.

I lived through misery so I could find my way back to her.

So I could give her what she gave me.

Protection.

I wrap her in my arms and pull her close, hugging her with everything I have. “Your father didn’t find me because of you. Your kindness saved me.”

She puts her head on my shoulder, and we stay there for a moment, basking in the comfort of our collective pain, knowing we have each other when everything else has crumbled all around us.

I don’t need money, I don’t need a job, or even a home … as long as I have her.

“But we didn’t even find out your name,” she mutters after a while, still holding me tight.

“I did,” I reply.

She pulls back and stares into my eyes with wonder in hers. “How?”

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