Page 34 of Trapped with the Ice Queen

Alex stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Vivienne’s tone was matter-of-fact, “the storm’s over, but we’re still stuck here. The world is waiting outside, and we’re inside, pretending it’s different.”

It was a fair point. Alex felt it too—the weight of the outside world pressing in, even if the storm had kept it at bay for a little while longer. But Vivienne didn’t understand. She couldn’t.

“You’re not the only one with a life to get back to,” Alex said, her words sharper than she meant. “This cabin, this isolation, it’s not my reality either.”

Vivienne’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

Alex hesitated, her heart pounding a little harder. She hadn’t meant to reveal any more of herself than she absolutely had to. She could feel the panic starting to creep in—the same panic that had been clawing at her since the night they’d sharedtheir first kiss, when everything had shifted so quickly. “It means...this isn’t real. Not for you. Not for me. We’re different. You don’t belong here, Vivienne.”

There it was. The truth that Alex had been holding back for days. The reality that had gnawed at her every time she looked at Vivienne.

Vivienne’s face paled. “I don’t belong here?” she echoed, her voice small and tight with disbelief. “And you do?”

Alex stood abruptly, the tension in her muscles telling her that she was ready to explode if she didn’t move. “I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not. You live in a world where everything’s easy, Vivienne. You come here, play at being some kind of rustic princess for a few days, and then you go back to your perfect life. But that’s not me.”

Vivienne stood, too, her chair scraping loudly across the wooden floor. “You think I don’t see that?” she spat, her voice rising in frustration. “You think I’m just here for some...vacation? You think I don’t understand that this is your reality, not mine?”

Her words stung more than Alex was willing to admit. She tried to quell the surgeof anger rising in her chest, but it was too late. She couldn’t stop it from boiling over. “You don’t get it, Vivienne. You don’t get what it’s like to live with the world always watching, always expecting. I’ve spent my entire life hiding from people, protecting myself from everything that might remind me how different I am.”

Vivienne took a step closer, her eyes flashing with defiance. “And what about me? What about what I’ve been hiding? What about my life? You think the world isn’t always watching me, holding its breath waiting for me to fail?”

The words hung between them, heavy with accusation. Alex opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She didn’t have an answer for that. Not yet.

“I’m not pretending to be someone else,” Vivienne continued, her voice quieter now but no less intense. “I’m trying to figure out what I really want. And I’m trying to figure out if this”—she gestured between them—“is real.”

Alex felt a chill sweep through her. The walls she had so carefully built around herself were starting to crack,and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that. She wasn’t sure if she could handle it.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Alex said, her voice barely above a whisper. The confession felt like a weight she couldn’t carry anymore. “I don’t know if I can let someone in. Not like this.”

Vivienne recoiled, her expression pained as if the words punched her in the gut. “You’re scared, Alex. Scared of what this might mean, scared of what might happen if you let me stay.”

Alex opened her mouth to deny it, but she couldn’t. Because she was scared. Terrified, even.

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “I want to be with you, but I’m not sure I know how to be anyone else but who I’ve always been. And I’m afraid you’ll leave once you figure that out.”

Vivienne looked at her square in the eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, Alex.”

But Alex wasn’t sure she believed that. She wasn’t sure she could ever believe it.

The silence between them stretched on, thick and heavy. The fire crackled, but it didnothing to ease the tension that had settled between them.

Finally, Vivienne spoke again, her voice quieter now. “Maybe we’re both scared. But we won’t know anything unless we try.”

The words hung in the air, still unresolved, but for the first time, Alex didn’t feel like running from them. Maybe that was the beginning of something. Or maybe it was the end.

Either way, she knew one thing: things had changed. And now, she had to figure out what that really meant.

11

VIVIENNE

The stillness of the cabin felt heavier this morning, thick with the remnants of the storm. Outside, snowflakes drifted lazily, the wind a soft whisper against the walls, like the world exhaling after a long breath. The fire in the hearth crackled, casting its steady warmth throughout the room, and for a brief moment, Vivienne allowed herself to sink into the quiet peace she had come to savor these last few days.

She hadn’t realized how much she’d been craving the calm until the storm started to fade, the oppressive weight of it liftingfrom her shoulders. For the first time in days, it felt like she could breathe again, like the storm had washed away the pressures of the outside world, even if only temporarily.

But then her phone rang.

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