Page 86 of Dare To Live

“Oh, but I do.”

Miles frowns at me.

I don’t move as his fiancé hands Eli his phone, my gaze catching a glimpse at the image on the screen. The broken angel in the shadows stares up longingly at heaven. Ivan’s photograph has captured the stained glass at an angle. The light pours right through it, bringing the colored glass to life.

Eli studies it and then looks at me. “You did this?”

“In the spare room of her apartment,” Ivan answers when I don’t. “She hides them away so no one can see them, but when Miles mentioned them to me, I got curious. I keep trying to persuade her to let me show them off in my gallery. I’m hoping that now Forgotten Legacy wants to do a photoshoot with them, she’ll give in to my desire to make her famous.”

“A therapist I saw a few years ago said I should channel some of my energy into something creative. To express my feelings and emotions.” I shift uncomfortably on my seat. “I saw a documentary on how stained glass was made, and I was hooked.”

Because it reminded me of the stained glass in the chapel. The way the colors had danced across the dusty stone floor. How beautiful it had been, how it had calmed me before it became tainted by pain and death.

“It’s beautiful.” Eli swipes his finger across the screen to the next photograph, expression intent.

Everything inside me freezes at the image that fills the screen.

This one is of a stone knight lying on an altar, his red armor bright against the gray stone beneath him and golden skies above him. He’s clutching a sword to his chest. A fallen warrior laid to rest.

Eli stares down at the picture. His face drains of color, shock flares in his eyes, which morphs into pain before he lowers his lashes to hide it. My heart aches, and I curse Ivan for talking me into letting him take photographs of my obsessions.

“Excuse me. I need to use the restroom.” I rise quickly and leave the table at a rapid pace.

As much as I love Ivan, I wish he hadn’t shown Eli my creations. The whole reason Miles doesn’t like them is because he can see reflections of our shared pain in my work. All the trauma and sorrow. Pieces of events that have scarred us deeply.

I’ve almost reached the restroom when a hand grabs my wrist. Expecting it to be Eli, I tense, fingers curling into fists. But it’s Miles who’s behind me.

“What’s wrong with you tonight?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

He draws me into a nook off the hallway leading to the restrooms. “You’re acting strange.”

“You talked me into coming to dinner instead of letting me fly home to LA.”

He tilts his head, brows drawing together as if he’s trying to work out what I’m thinking. “You’re as jumpy as a kitten.”

Kitten. The word on his lips twists my stomach into knots. “I didn’t expect us to talk about the past over dinner.”

“Is that why you’re hitting the wine? You know you can’t handle too much alcohol.”

“Everything feels so surreal. Eli is … he’s different from how I remember.”

“He’s grown up, just like the rest of us.” Miles wraps an arm around my shoulders and hugs me. “I don’t like talking about what happened either, Bella, but it did happen. It’s part of us. We can’t just ignore it.”

“I know,” I whisper.

“We have to face it eventually.”

“I thought I had.”

He blows out a breath. “We both know that’s a lie. You decided to ignore it, but you can’t. Not anymore.”

He’s right. It’s been hanging over my head all this time, guiding all my decisions in life. Now, I can’t avoid it, not with Eli right in front of me.

Chapter 48

Eli

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