Page 66 of The Hand that Frays

“Just a bit further,” Neo says, and my hand grips his tighter.

There’s a giddy energy in his tone, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing.

Neo Wade is a psychopath, after all.

If he’s excited, I ought to be afraid.

Even so, my heart speeds.

Finally, he stops me by grasping both my shoulders. “Alright. Are you ready?” he asks, and I nod.

A part of me isn’t ready, but I keep my lips sealed, too eager to see what’s beyond the veil of the blindfold.

I gasp as I take in my surroundings.

“Wait, I know this place… I’ve read about it before. This is…” Words fail me as I turn and run my gaze over the many locks attached to the bridge.

“The Pont des Arts,” Neo says with a perfect French accent and pronunciation. “That’s the Seine River down below.” He points to the water as my eyes lock on the Eiffel Tower in awe, my eyes filling with tears.

This is the sweetest, most romantic thing Neo has ever done for me, and it has visages of the old Lyla, the one not covered in blood, peeking through the curtain of insanity in my mind.

“Neo, this is…”

“Now,” he cuts me off, “if you’ve read about this bridge, you’ll know the tradition is to write our names on this lock, lock it onto the bridge, and then toss the key into the river below.”

I nod, hanging on his every word as he presents a lock to me.

I turn it over in my hand, finding it engraved with our names on it in a beautiful script. “Neo,” I breathe.

I don’t understand when he’d done all this.

We’re always together.

He’d have had to plan this at some point, but when?

“Today, it’s illegal to add our lock to the bridge, but these are lucky waters, they say. If we toss the key away, our love will last a lifetime.”

I choke on a sob as tears fall down my cheeks.

I’m so overwhelmed that my chest is burning with emotion.

“Are we going to leave our lock, then?” I ask him.

He shakes his head, lifting something else out of his pocket.

It looks like a leather strap.

This he doesn’t hand to me.

Instead, he steps toward me, opening either end as he fits it around my neck.

I reach up and run my hand over the collar, my fingertips brushing over the engravings in the leather.

There’s a loop on the front of the collar, and I toy with it as Neo opens his hand for me to give the lock back.

“We’re going to secure the lock onto your collar, and then we’re going to toss the key into the river.”

I sniffle as my hands shake.

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