Page 30 of Unmasking You

“Okay,” he says breathlessly, and all my worries are gone.

I’m not sure how long we stay like this, basking in each other’s presence and touch. No need to talk to fill the silence, no need to move, but only the need to be together.

“Shane.” Agata’s voice makes us jump in surprise and forces us to move apart quickly.

She’s the help and has been assigned to provide for all my needs. With the way my dad goes on and on about descending from noble blood, which we do, I’m glad she calls me by my name. However, while we’re still commoners, I was afraid he would ask the people who work for us to address us as lords and ladies. What a nightmare that would have been.

I want to pull Jamie right back against me, but I can’t allow anyone to know because if they do, they’ll ruin it.

A knock quickly follows, as I haven’t been quick enough to answer.

“Yes, Agata?” I say, and she takes that as an invitation to enter the room.

I want with all my being to lock the door and live here forever with Jamie, but instead, I face reality.

“Mr Campbell is requesting your presence in the study.”

“But I…” I look at Jamie, the person I want to spend time with, and Agata, the person who’s taking me away from here.

“Your father doesn’t like to wait.”

I want to scream and throw everything on the floor in a tantrum, but I learnt it won’t make a difference. I’ll have to bend to my father’s desires anyway. We all do.

“I’m sorry, Jamie,” I say, turning towards him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.” His soft smile calms the beast inside me, ready for a battle it will lose.

I can’t let this moment go. “Meet me tomorrow at the usual place. I don’t have after-class lessons,” I whisper in a rush, afraid we’ll be forced to let go, but making sure he’s the only one who can hear me.

“The car is waiting.”

Of course my father had the idea of calling the car to send my friend home. He’ll expect Jamie to be grateful for being seen getting out of a limousine, as a repayment for his time here being cut short.

We leave the room following Agata, and I want to reach out to him to tell him without words how sorry I am to see him leaving, while all I want is to be sitting next to him with his hand in mine.

“Shane,” my father greets me before turning to Jamie. “Mr Wilson, it’s a pleasure having you here. I hope you found our humble abode comfortable enough.”

What I don’t expect is for my dad to extend his hand.

“Your house is beautiful, sir. Thank you for having me,” Jamie says, all composed while extending his hand to shake my father’s.

Jamie gets distracted by Alan, our chauffeur, who appears at the door, but I don’t miss how my father cleans his hand, the same hand that shook Jamie’s, on a tissue pulled out of his pocket.

At this moment, I come to hate him and make a promise to myself: I’m never going to be like him.

I turn away, disgusted by his display of false superiority he showed Jamie, and follow him outside.

I want to take his hand and hold it, but instead I wave while the car moves away, and then he’s gone, and I wish I was going with him.

“I’m proud of you.”

My father’s voice surprises me as soon as I enter the house.

“Befriending the poor kid is the kind of behaviour expected of a Campbell. Helping those less fortunate will be a good way to gain others’ approval. Well done, boy.”

I watch him walk away, and I’m disgusted with myself because while I hate his words with all my being, I’m also a tiny bit happy to have finally made him proud, even if for all the wrong reasons.

Maybe I’m not as different from my father as I wish to be.

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