Page 21 of Soaring and Steadfast

Louis felt it like a premonition, a certainty tightening around his throat. The second she pieced this together, the second sherealized the cruel irony of fate, she’d be gone. And he would lose her.

Forever.

His legs buckled beneath him, the weight of understanding crushing, relentless. The agony of knowing he had been given something so precious only to have it snatched away before he could even hold it. Why? Why would God do this? Hadn’t he already endured enough loss? Enough loneliness? Why put him in a position to witness his own heartbreak unfolding in real-time?

A vicious curse ripped from his lips before he could stop it, shattering the uneasy quiet and drawing startled glances. But Louis didn’t care. His hands clenched into fists against his thighs as he squeezed his eyes shut as if he could will away the cruel truth pressing down on him. He had been blind before—too blind to see her drowning in that New York crowd, too blind to recognize the pain beneath her words.

And now, he had been given sight only to watch it all slip through his fingers.

“What’s that word mean, Daddy?” a small voice piped up, innocent in the heavy silence.

“Pasteur?”

“Bro, are you okay?”

“Pasteur, bro, what’s wrong?”

The voices barely registered. His breath was ragged, his pulse hammering as he forced his gaze forward. His vision blurred until it locked onto hers—Lila.

Her expression shifted in an instant, realization crashing down like a storm. He saw it all—her heart cracking wide open, her walls snapping into place. Rage. Betrayal. Shame.

No. Not shame.

Please no… I never want to see shame in her eyes when she looks at me.

It killed him to see that in her expression.

Lila had nothing to be ashamed of.

But she didn’t see it that way.

Her lips parted, and when she spoke, the same expletive he had muttered moments ago slipped from her mouth, quiet but cutting—a blade between his ribs.

Sheknew.

“You’re… Lila?” His voice barely held.

“I think that is our cue to leave,” Shellac muttered, gripping Tic-Tak’s arm and motioning for Moonbeam to follow.

“Cherry, Jeremy—we’re leaving too,” Orion added, his voice grim.

“What’s wrong?” Cherry’s voice held confusion, but Lila—standing right beside her—answered without hesitation.

Her eyes, once soft and searching, burned now with betrayal. “I can’t believe those two set me up… with you.”

“I didn’t know,” Louis rasped, still on his knees, as if rising would shatter whatever fragile thread remained between them.

Lila’s gaze pinned him in place. “You’re Louis.”

A statement, not a question.

“I am.”

“And thepastorStephanie wanted me to contact…?”

His throat felt like sandpaper. He gave a single nod. “My call sign is Pasteur, a play on my French heritage.”

The silence stretched.

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