Page 4 of Neverland

“Isn’t that the point? The old us doesn’t exist anymore.”

I wish that was true. I can’t leave behind my past, no matter how hard I try.

“Do you need a ride?” I offer, wanting to find out where she might be off to. For over a month, I’ve known she’s been up to something. Not that I haven’t been up to some things of my own.

“Nope, got me a Lyft.” Her phone dings at the same time she says it.

Elsa—no, Alice, I correct in my mind—is out the door before I can try to protest. I have to remind myself that she’s an adult and can make her own decisions. It’s hard when for so long, I’ve been like a mom to her. I want to protect her from the world. But I know that I have to let her figure things out on her own.

Five years and it’s still hard to get used to calling her Alice. It was a name she picked herself.

My little sister isn’t the only one that’s hiding something. I hate keeping secrets from her, but I didn’t want to say anything because I think I truly don’t believe what is happening to me. I had no idea how my little project would take off. I grab my phone to check to see if there are any new updates.

I didn’t have a clue when I randomly sent my book to a publisher that I would get a response. Heck, I’d sent it to a few, and all of them had responded. I was sure it would be lost in some black hole. I took my shot, the one Easton always wanted me to take. I lived up to that promise. Never in a million years would I have imagined the amount of interest my book would garner.

Writing started as a way for me to remember and heal after I lost my mom. It was equally painful and cathartic to write down my story each day. Some days it wasn’t easy to get the words on the page.

Sure, the happy times were easy to write, but the not-so-happy ones, not so much. But at least this way, I got to choose my own ending. To imagine what my happily-ever-after with Easton would’ve been if not for what happened all those years ago. No one could erase my words or take that away from me.

I created my own ending. It might not be real, but at night when I lie in bed, I dream of Neverland. Of the boy who told me that I had a gift I should share with the world. I pretend the happily ever after I imagined is real.

My phone dings, and I see a message from my agent.

Gina:NEW YORK TIMES!!!!!

I stare at the words. Tears slip down my cheeks but for all the wrong reasons. I should be jumping up and down with excitement, but all I can think is that our story is done. I wrote it. What now?

Gina:They’re already doing a second round of prints.

Me:Awesome.

I’m sure she’s confused by my lackluster response. Melody Ledger aNew York Timesbest-selling author with my first book,Neverland. It was easy to pick a pen name. Melody Ledger. A name I always dreamed I’d actually carry as my own one day.

It goes to show that dreams can come true, but they don’t always come with a happily ever after.

4

EASTON

“You got a death wish?” Owen asks me. His wife pokes her head out from the front door. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I have a lot of wishes, and to be honest, in my darkest of moments, that might have been one of them. If anyone could and would grant that wish, it would be Owen.

He has a dark past, but things in life will change a man when he falls in love. Hell, what I went through took me from a boy to a man in the blink of an eye.

“Your wife has been ignoring me.” Getting a hold of Maggie has been almost impossible.

The woman can be a ghost at times, but a person can only hide so much. Especially from a hacker. You can try and clean up behind yourself, but flicks of digital prints are left. I knew I’d have to come out here if I wanted a chance to speak to her. If I wanted to truly get her attention.

“You wanting to see my wife is not helping your case.” Owen hooks his fingers in the front loops of his jeans, trying to appear nonthreatening when we both know he’s anything but.

With a family like mine, you know a lot of things. With great wealth comes power. That power can get you a lot of things. Like how I know that once upon a time, Owen was a hired hand. One that somehow crossed paths with his wife, Maggie—or Magic, as she’s known on the Dark Web or whispered about in the government.

Magic is a good name for her. The things she can do often don’t seem possible, but she does them. I dug into her as much as I could, having always known she would sometimes help the government with projects. What got my attention is when I heard she’d been one of two people that stopped an attack on a group trying to infiltrate WITSEC. That was exactly what I wanted to do.

Now, I’ve been playing a bit of cat and mouse with Magic. Not that she’s aware of it. I know what draws her out. Anything new or developing in technology. So what did I do? I bought one of the biggest tech companies in the world. I also let her come and play her little games with some of my projects and even steal a handful of things. If I didn’t have more pressing issues, I would offer to pay her a hefty sum to show me flaws in my own systems. Though it’s not about money for Magic.

My eyes flick to the giant barn off to the side of the main house. They live out in the middle of nowhere. I wonder if some of the things she’s stolen are in there. It doesn’t matter. Maggie isn’t interested in my tech developments to do harm; in fact, it’s often the opposite. She wants to know how to stop other people from using it for those purposes. Also, some of it is sheer curiosity. She can’t help herself. Once she gets fixated on something, she goes all in.

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