Page 16 of Unbreak Me

Interestingly enough, it didn’t bother me anymore. It was like I saw him as two overlapping images. Every time I blinked, I’d see him standing in the wind—dark strands of hair swirling around his face, stormy clouds gathering behind him, his eyes locked on mine, almost pleading, calling me… Unbelievable.

"Mr. Wilson would like to have a brief chat with you."

It was amusing how Nolan struggled to initiate our conversation. And I guess he picked me to start it, because suddenly, he turned toward me and said, "You’ve read some information about Day on the board, but Day knows nothing about you. Maybe you could tell him a few words about yourself? Your age, profession, education?"

Well, we could start with that. I sighed quietly.

"I’m twenty-six years old. I graduated with a degree in agriculture. I live about an hour and a half outside the city, and I run my own fruit tree nursery. I sell seedlings locally and online. I also have a range of shrubs—raspberries, currants, blueberries, gooseberries, and other garden plants. You could call me a kind of farmer, I guess—only I sell plants, not harvests."

As I said it, I realized I probably should’ve started with something else. The usual ritual.

Day would want to know why I wasn’t so tall, even though I was an alpha.

My typical explanation was about to start: justifying my existence.

DAY

The day was dragging mercilessly, though it had only been a few hours. During that time, I was ‘successfully’ ignored by every visitor. They just flowed around my booth like water around a rock, leaving me completely alone. I could stare at the ceiling, glance at the other omegas’ booths, or zone out blankly somewhere above everybody’s heads.

The only mildly interesting moment happened when Storm Nolan appeared, guiding a tiny omega through the dense crowd while shielding him with his massive arms.

And let me tell you, the guy was something else! Despite his small stature, he was strikingly beautiful—waist-length black hair, a flawless face. I could only guess this was ‘Mr. Ferro’, the one Nolan had been talking to on the phone earlier—the guy who was late to the fair. Interestingly, he was escorted to Section E. That meant he had to be over forty years old, though he didn’t look a day over thirty. Well, people like him probably wouldn’t have the slightest issue getting contracted.

He was seated in his booth, and immediately two alphas approached it. However, he obviously had to say no, as they walked away soon after.

A bit later, something else caught my attention—something equally strange. From where I sat, I could also see a distant part of Section A where Star Daniels was stationed at his booth. Hisinformation board was attracting plenty of alphas, as expected, but… for some reason, they all kept walking away.

It was peculiar. Why was he being ignored?

Mr. Ferro and Star were surely among the most attractive guys here, yet alphas were behaving very differently around their information boards. I observed the situation for a while. Mr. Ferro was sending away every alpha, but Star was never approached; they all left just after reading his board.

Finally, I couldn’t sit still. My curiosity got the best of me, and when some of the nearby booth attendants left for a brunch break, I seized the chance to sneak out. I made my way over to the crowded Section A to figure out what was going on.

Star was there, of course, sitting with that same expressionless, mask-like face. No change there. It was easy to imagine his cold demeanor wasn’t doing him any favors. But let’s be honest—any intelligent person could understand this was a high-stress situation, and people cope in different ways. His icy attitude could easily be a defense mechanism. No—there had to be more reasons for those alphas to leave.

And there were!

Ignoring Star’s dagger-like glare, I inspected his information board and saw the problem immediately:

Previous Jobs:

1 year—escort.

1 year—stripper.

So… ex-sex worker.

Yeah, I’d heard they were a tough sell at fairs like this. Alphas shelling out millions for omegas expected them to be, if not virgins, then at least without any history in the sex industry. Suddenly, it all made sense.

I glanced back at Star. His stunning looks couldn’t make up for those two lines on his résumé. I felt a pang of sympathy for him. His humiliation must’ve been even worse than mine. I wasjust flat-out ignored—no one even bothered to check my board. I didn’t have to deal with that repeated cycle of "Oh, someone’s interested… oh, no, they’re walking away again!" But Star? He was living through that over and over.

I could imagine that he was forced to be here, just as I was. We were Storm Nolan's batch of 'cases to salvage’. Either we show up, or we face the prospect of losing the penalty money from Fate's Choice for failing to match us.

Knowing that, I looked up again—and of course, Star was still watching me. I hesitated, then offered him a small, rueful smile. A smile that hopefully said, "I get it. I understand."

But he immediately looked away. I was pretty sure he understood the meaning of my smile, but he just wasn’t ready to accept anyone’s pity. I could respect that.

For a fleeting moment, I entertained the idea of searching for the last one of Nolan’s clients in the beta section, but I discarded it quickly. I had no idea what the guy looked like, though I was pretty sure his case wouldn’t be any easier than mine or Star’s.

---