Page 2 of Wonderland

I know I said I wouldn’t have any interaction with her, but at this point, all of that has gone out the window.

I’m not letting her slip through my fingers again.

2

ELSA (ACE)

Why do the romance sections of bookstores keep getting smaller and smaller? One day I’m going to buy my own and fill it with only romance books. There would be a million sections labeled with everyone's favorite tropes. Stores keep trying to pretend the genre doesn't sell well, but in reality, it tops sales charts again and again. No matter how much they try to hide it away.

I wonder if it has something to do with how many books a true romance reader can devour. Maybe it’s a save the trees type of movement. That’s the only way I wouldn’t take issue with it. I guess if we all read paperbacks, there would be no more trees in the world, and our homes would be stuffed full of them.

I’m here to treat myself today. Sorry, trees. It’s not often I have extra money. Especially since I found out that my sister had paid a huge chunk of our family bills already. I didn’t know until I tried to sneakily pay some of them myself. Her being my older sister, she handles the family’s finances, which is weird because Dad and I are crazy good with numbers. While my sister has always been the more creative one.

I hate that my sister, Mel, always feels like she has to be the responsible one. She’ll never admit that it takes a toll on her. I wish she could open up to me more, but I’m afraid that she only looks at me as the little girl she has to take care of. I mean, she won’t even tell me how she manages to get all that money to pay the bills.

Mel is always keeping crap from me. I swear it’s her life mission to protect me. I wish she would stop treating me as though she were my mom and act like a sister instead.

When I have thoughts like those, I try to push them down because it makes me feel guilty. Mel has been protective over me since we lost our mom. Then, it only got worse when my father got in a shit ton of trouble that had us uprooting our whole lives. We’d gone from never worrying about money to being on a strict budget.

That’s why I would normally hit the library instead of the bookstore, but today I’ll be splurging. This money is burning a hole in my pocket. Going to get myself a stack of books and my sister some too. She loves romance more than I do.

I can venture out to non-fiction and jump around, but romance will always hold my heart. It’s the only thing my sister will read but always from her Kindle.

“What the hell?” I whisper when my eye catches on a full display covered in a ton of the same book. The title, Neverland, shining bright in gold. Then I see the author's name.

Melody Ledger. I swear it’s like my entire world tilts on its axis. Holy crap. I know immediately without a doubt that my sister wrote a book in secret. That’s where the money came from. I don’t even have to look inside of it to know exactly who and what it’s about.

I may have been young at the time, but I remember Easton Ledger, the love of my sister’s life. That was until everything got ruined and we had to start a new life. But even at a young age, I knew Mel had found the love of a lifetime. It’s so telling that she used his last name.

Equal parts happiness and sadness fill me at the same time. Don’t get me wrong; I’m ecstatic that my sister followed her dream and wrote her story, but I’m also sad that she didn’t share this with me. I mean, it’s not every day someone writes a book and it gets published.

I grab a couple of books off the shelf before I head out of the bookstore and back home. I’m eager to read it.

I spent the whole day devouring it. My heart grows heavy as I read the last few pages. It ends perfectly with a sweet happily ever after, but that’s not reality.

This is her love story. The one she wanted before my father went and flipped our lives upside down. She had her life planned out. She and Easton would spend the rest of their lives together. But that’s not how it went in the end.

She had to leave him without so much as a goodbye. It’s been almost five years. Her love is as strong for him now as ever. It’s woven in the pages of her book.

When we went into WITSEC it didn't matter to me. I was young. There wasn’t anything I was leaving behind. It was my sister that lost the most. She lost her dreams. Getting up from my bed, I go to find her.

“There anything you want to tell me?” I ask, dropping the book down in front of her. She glances up from her laptop. Her eyes filled with tears. “Oh shit, don’t cry.” I panic. The last thing I want to do is upset her. I drop down in her lap sideways, wrapping my arms around her. “I take it back. Cry. Please. Let it all out. You always make me do it.”

There had been nights after we lost our mom that Mel had held me while I cried. She is always the rock. I want to be that for her too. “I love you,” I whisper into her ear. “You’re my person. I’m not shaming you, but we should be celebrating this.”

She picks the book up from off her desk. “But it’s over. Easton always pushed for my dream, so I wrote our story. What it could have been but never will be.” Tears burn in my eyes. She sounds so lost and alone. “Now, you don’t get to cry too.”

“No, we’re sisters. We cry together,” I tell her, which only makes her cry harder. Crap, I’m terrible at this.

“He's getting married or something. I was terrible and looked it up.” I wipe the tears from my sister’s cheek.

It’s hard for me to believe her. I was young, but I remember how Easton was when it came to her. The way he would always watch her. I could have sworn she was his whole world. I remember thinking when I grew up, I wanted to find someone that would look at me the same way. Now, I’m not so sure. Love hurts.

“Then he’s not the man in this story.” I take the book from her, standing up. “This man—the one you wrote about—would look for his lost girl forever.”

“When did you grow up so much?” She swipes the last of her tears off her cheeks.

“I think we’re different.” I give her a smirk, wanting to get a smile from her.

---