Page 46 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“Oh, that one was already in the wine cooler. I had forgotten it was there.”

I nodded and took a sip.

“You’re avoiding my question,” she chastised.

“They’re mine,” I told her. “Or, I guess, technically, they’re Wesley’s.”

“Yeah, ’cause that’s not confusing,” she said with raised eyebrows.

I maneuvered around the counter, grabbed one of them, and handed it to her to read.

She skimmed it at first, and her eyes went wide, and she went back to the top and read it again.

“You wrote this?” She held it up to show me the front as she spoke. “You wrote all of those to Wesley?” I nodded. “And he wrote you back? When you were kids?”

“For a few months, yeah. I was nine, and he was twelve.”

“Thats-I-wow.”

“Yep.”

She leaned back into the corner of the counter and looked at the letter again. “So why’d you guys stop?”

I leaned my elbows onto the counter and set my wine glass down. “That’s the problem,” I told her. “I-I always thought…” I bit my lip and shook my head. “But now I don’t know what to think.”

“As much as I would LOVE to say I understand, that entire sentence was rather cryptic, so I’m going to need you to start from the beginning,” Maya said as she topped off her glass of wine.

I sighed. “After I was adopted, I gave my parents a letter, and they said they would mail it to him so he would have my new address. He never wrote me back. But he claims he never got the letter.”

“And you spent all these years hating him because you thought he did it on purpose, and now you don’t know what to believe?”

I met her eyes and nodded. “My mom says she sent it.” I shrugged. “Says she sent all of them.”

“Maybe she forgot? Or maybe they got lost in the abyss of the USPS?” Maya suggested.

“It’s possible,” I said.

“You don’t think so?”

I hesitated, unsure how much to reveal to her. We were friendly. But we weren’t close. Not for lack of trying on her part. But I just never let anyone in. Not really.

But this was supposed to be my fresh start. My new beginning. And I couldn’t accomplish that if I didn’t try.

“My relationship with my adoptive parents has never been great,” I confessed.

Her eyes softened, and she leaned forward to grab my hand. “I’m sorry,” she said.

And somehow, I knew she meant it.

“They didn’t even want me to come here,” I continued. “They wanted me to keep my corps position in the company in Salt Lake so I’d be closer to home. They’ve never understood the ballet world, or even tried to beyond the bare minimum, so they didn’t get that being a soloist here in a small company was better than being stuck in the corps forever in a big-name company.” Maya nodded as she listened to me. “I finally had to remind them I’m an adult, and it didn’t matter if they approved of this choice or not. It was mine to make. Then they tried to pull the whole ‘well we won’t help you move’ bullshit, which didn’t matter because Peter had already told me the company would cover all my expenses.”

“Damn, I didn’t realize they’d wanted you that badly!” Maya exclaimed. “Get it, girl!” She lifted her hand for a fist bump, and I rolled my eyes but returned the gesture.

“Here’s my two cents,” Maya said, turning serious again. “I don’t know your parents. So I can’t speak to whether or not your mom is lying to you. However,” she continued. “Idoknow Wesley. Not well, mind you, but he’s the son of our mayor, and Levi is friends with his brother. And while Wesley Stone may be many things—cocky, arrogant, and a lovable asshole among them—he is most definitely not a liar.”

With that, she downed the rest of her wine, set the glass in the sink, and walked to her bedroom, leaving me alone with my swirling and conflicting thoughts.

CHAPTER 18

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