Chapter 5

Before I could fully process my joy, I felt a large, warm hand rest on top of my head.

Eliot's voice, tinged with lingering fear, accompanied the touch.

"Why didn't you reach out to me all these years? Everything you've been through alone, getting yourself so badly hurt..."

The face before me grew increasingly familiar, merging with the memory of that youthful visage from years ago.

As realization dawned, I uttered that unbelievable name as if in a dream.

"Eliot?"

Simultaneously, memories of the past began to unfold.

My parents had died when I was very young, victims of a revenge plot that claimed their lives in a staged accident.

But before their untimely deaths, I had been a carefree child.

Back then, Eliot's family lived right next door to ours.

From the moment I was born, Eliot and I were inseparable.

From elementary school through junior high.

You could say we were childhood sweethearts.

In my youthful naivety, my heart was full of romantic notions.