Page 175 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

“I don’t know.” I answer honestly. “What would you do?”

“Nope,” she says, shaking her head. “You can’t ask me that, you have to decide what’s right for you.”

“Okay, well then what do you thinkIshould do?”

She looks at me thoughtfully, truly thinking about how to answer my question.

“The first thing I noticed about Phoenix when I met him was the way he looked at you.” She cocks her head to the side. “I don’t think he even sees the world around you if you’re there. I’ve always thought he had feelings for you, Six.” She hands the letter back to me. “You don’t write handwritten letters to people you don’t love.”

I look at the letter in my hands.

“What was it specifically that made you forgive Rhys?”

“Oh gosh, there wasn’t just one thing. Time helped to temper my anger but it also revealed the gaping hole Rhys left in my life when he wasn’t in it.” She frowns, thinking about how to articulate her words, “The problem isn’t loving them again, it’s trusting them and, at the end of the day, you’re the only one who can take that blind leap of faith and hope he won’t hurt you again. And if you’re asking me, I don’t think he will,” she adds. “From what I know, one doesn’t simply walk into your dad’s house and survive, let alone in the middle of the night with no advance warning. It takes someone crazy in love to do that.”

When he’d announced he had a problem to deal with and walked out, I hadn’t expected him to fly to England, march into my parents’ home and demand my hand back. That had been either incredibly brave or stupid of him, depending on who you asked.

It was both if you asked my mum.

“I think I’m going to go hear him out,” I admit to her. “I don’t know if I can forgive him yet, but one way or another, I need closure. This will give me that.”

“I think that’s a great idea.” She says, giving me a kind smile.

I grab my phone and dial my dad.

“I didn’t think I’d hear from you again so soon,” he opens without waiting for me to speak.

“I need someone to take me to the coordinates I’m about to text to you.”

“Darling, that sounds like a kidnapping scheme. I’m not doing that.”

“I’m going to meet Phoenix, he’s the one who sent me this address.”

I hear him grumble below his breath about security risks, his temper flaring at the mention of Phoenix.I guess their temporary truce is over and we’re headed back to a Cold War type of alliance between them.

He comes back on the phone minutes later. “Fine, I’ll send a plane, but only because you’re coming home.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“These coordinates are for home in Hampshire.” He replies. If he could see me, he’d pick up on the confused expression on my face. “Well, not home exactly. It’s for a house a few acres from ours.”

Chapter 51

Sixtine

The house is located less than ten acres from mine and forms the third point of a perfect triangle with my parents’ house and Phoenix’s parents’ house.

From what I could find online, it’s a beautiful, seven-bedroom home. I’d seen it from afar when I was growing up but had never come this close to inspect it.

Standing in front of it now, I make out other finer details that add to its charm. The facade is entirely covered in dark green ivy. The large wooden door is painted a warm kind of red, making the house feel inviting.

It’s a standard eighteenth-century English cottage and it’s gorgeous.

I push the front door open and walk in, unsure what I’m doing here.

“Hello?”

Phoenix didn’t give me a specific time to meet him, so he might not even be here yet. If he is, he doesn’t answer.

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