Page 66 of Broken

I like the idea, and I turn my face into it, knowing it will turn my cheek rosy with him.

“You pushed me away, but you didn’t hurt me.”

He releases a shaky breath, one loaded with relief, then he catches me humming as I rub my cheek into the fabric beneath us.

Though his scowl is back once more, he doesn’t stop me. Instead, he asks, “What hymn is that?”

“Au cœur de ma vie,” I answer easily, wondering why he asks when he has to know it.

“That used to be my favorite.”

His thickly uttered response has me whispering, “I learned it for you.”

“You sing?”

“Not so much now.” I clear my throat. “I used to be in a choir at our church.”

“You weren’t lying about being Catholic?” he questions, his surprise clear.

I huff, annoyed he didn’t believe me. “I haven’t told you a single lie, and I won’t either.”

Something shifts in his eyes, but a smile blossoms on his lips. “You’re truly unique, aren’t you?”

CHAPTER 21

Savio

Angel - Toby Mai

As I watch her coat her cheek in my blood, as I watch her hum a hymn that used to be my favorite, something she had to have learned during her ‘tracking’ of me, I can’t deny?—

“You’re truly unique, aren’t you?”

She stills in her bizarre face-painting. “I am?”

I hear the hitch in her breathing.

“Yes.”

And I’ve met some fruit loops in my time.

Sinners and posers, dreamers and hopers—but she was right when she said God broke the mold when He made her.

“Most people who know me say I’m strange.”

There’s no denying that.

But… “You’re an innocent.”

She stills. Again. “I’m not innocent.”

“Your heart is.” The truth almost chokes me. “Your soul is.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. Light calls to the dark as much as the dark calls to the light, Andrea.”

“You’re not dark.”

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