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I could smell her, though. She was like the sea, like summer and candy.
I choked on a sob. I hadn’t cried in three days. Father was proud of me for it; he told me that men don’t show weakness. But the sob? I couldn’t help it. She forced it out of me. I wanted to lash out at her for making me show weakness right in front of my brother’s casket, but instead, I hugged her back, and lowered my face onto her shoulder so no one could see my eyes. I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t capable of it, though she made me feel as though I almost could. But my eyes watered all the same.
“Nadia, darling, we should go.”
I registered the soft voice I didn’t recognize, but I ignored it. Nadia. Her name was Nadia. But she wasn’t going anywhere.
She was mine.
“Nadia…”
“In a minute,” the girl replied. Her voice was a song, and I memorized each intonation, each chord.
She tightened her hold on me as I blinked my unshed tears away. Then finally, the girl drew back and stared up at me with eyes that couldn’t decide if they were brown or green.
She looked terribly sad. Her eyes were red with tears. I didn’t like it. I managed a smile for her. “It’ll be all right.”
Strange that I was the one saying those words to her.
Stranger yet, I believed them.
Everything would be fine. I would survive. I would thrive. I was Jason Alden, and from that day on, I would have to live for Alexander Alden, too. I’d accomplish everything he’d wanted to achieve.
She smiled and moved away from me, tugged back by a pretty lady dressed all in black like my mother. The woman looked vaguely familiar. I must have seen her at an event.
The girl was leaving with three adults—two men and the pretty lady. Trailing her steps, I cleared my throat, pulling at my father’s sleeve, though he was talking to the CEO of one of the companies he owned.
“Yes?” Charles Alden’s voice was cool and commanding, even with a single word.
“Who is that?” I nodded toward her, not wanting to point. My mother had impressed on my brother and I that pointing was rude.
Father’s jaw tightened as he followed my gaze. I observed him closely. I could tell. He knew her—or at least, the adults in her company. Why would they be here otherwise? After a long moment, he said, “No one.”
I frowned.
She was someone to me.
She was the cold crash of waves against a cliff. She was summer to my dark, cold, and numb mind.
Nadia.
I stared at the girl as she was pulled away by her mother. She looked back at me, and I did my best to memorize everything about her.
I didn’t think I would ever forget the dark eyes filled with tears that I couldn’t dare shed.
Turned out, I did.
For a while.
The End
