Page 221 of Sinful Desires
To life, to death, through my darkest night
Our love will forever bloom in heaven’s sight
I finished on a high note, my throat still buzzing with the final echo as the crowd broke open around me.
My hands trembled.
The cameras zoomed in, capturing the shimmer of tears on my cheeks.
I took a bow as Pedro met me at the side of the stage and pulled me into a hug.
Be you, Scarlett.Not the ghost they paint and sell.
That was it.
I was fucking free.
The standing ovation didn’t fade.
Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe I was unraveling. Or maybe I was finally finding myself again. Either way, I couldn’t stay still.
I gathered my gown in both hands and ran down the stairs, off the stage, straight through the sea of velvet seats.
My heart led the way.
When I reached him, when I saw Théo standing exactly where I needed him to be, I grabbed his face and kissed him hard.
Cameras exploded around us. The lights flashed white-hot across my eyelids.
The whole world was watching.
But all I felt was him.
And love, fierce and endless, circling us like gravity.
Two fallen angels, once pleading for death, now yearned for life.
His hands slid to my waist as he lifted me into the air, spinning me once. I laughed, breathless. His forehead touched mine for half a second, grey eyes burning into my soul.
Then I grabbed his hand and we ran, away from everything but each other.
Chapter
Fifty-Three
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person,he believed in me.”
? Jim Valvano
Théo
The soft beeping of the machine, that goddamn sound I hated more than anything, greeted me as I pushed open the door to my father’s hospital room and shut it quietly behind me.
A fresh bouquet of lavender and yellow mimosa sat on the nightstand, still dewy from this morning. My mother and Scarlett had brought it.
The two of them had gotten close over the past few weeks. Closer than I’d expected.
Ever since the Oscars, everything had shifted.
