Tracey nodded.
I'd made the cake by hand every year before, so this time my hands moved fast.
Tracey took a bite, her eyes lighting up. “Aiden, this cake is so good. How have I never tasted anything like it out there?”
The girl rose onto her toes and lifted the spoon she'd just used to feed Aiden a bite.
I lowered my eyes, refusing to watch their sweetness any longer.
Aiden never liked things too sweet.
I'd grown so used to it that I'd swapped out the sugar for fresh-squeezed juice.
It made the cake bright and clean on the tongue, never cloying.
I'd failed at that recipe more times than I could count.
The burns on my hands had long since become routine.
Back then, his eyes would go red as he pressed a soft kiss to each wound and swore he'd never wrong me.
And now all I could do was watch Aiden finish off the cake Tracey had left behind and pronounce it, flatly, “Inedible.”
Night fell before I knew it, and Tracey said she wanted to see fireworks.
Aiden had a whole batch delivered and set up in the back garden at once.
When it came time to light them, he held out the lighter to me.
“I hear you've got PTSD around explosions now. I haven't seen it for myself yet, so let's start with a little desensitization tonight.”
Aiden dragged me toward the fireworks, sparks drifting past the fuse again and again.
My hand was shaking as I took the lighter.
But hotter than the flame was the look in Aiden's eyes.
Brimming with a madness that wanted us both to burn.
“Beg me, and I'll let you off.”
Aiden gripped my hand hard enough to crush the bones, his voice coaxing, sweet.
“Weren't you always the timid one? You know how this goes. The moment you bow your head, I'll go soft. I always do.”
At this point, there was no going back to what we'd been.
I clenched my teeth, and on sheer nerve, I lit the fuse.
The fuse burned down, and still I stood frozen where I was.
The second the fireworks went off—
it was Aiden who risked himself, yanking me by the collar and hauling me to safety.
I watched the man turn and walk away, his back resolute and desolate all at once.
The scrapes on my legs stung, but I lifted my head and watched the rest of the fireworks alone, all the way through.
Happiness was always fleeting.
It was time for me to look ahead, too.
In the small hours, I got a call from the hospital.
“Hello, is this Ms. Knight?”
“The patient is in critical condition. There isn't much time. You should come quickly to see her one last time.”
I was ready to leave for the hospital in my pajamas, only to find the front door bolted from the inside and stuck fast.
I turned around to find Aiden standing on the stairs, looking down at me.
“Where are you going this late?”
My eyes burned, wet, my voice cracking. “I have to get to the hospital to see Grandma Knight one last time.”
I didn't expect Aiden to scoff. “You'd make up garbage like that just to go see Dylan Delgado.”
He shoved the trending headlines in my face.
It turned out that on the night of the thunderstorm, Dylan had dropped his new flame in front of everyone, and the paparazzi had caught him driving me to the hospital.
The whole internet was guessing whether the playboy was finally turning over a new leaf, ready to settle down and come home to his family.
Aiden pulled the phone back, the contempt on his face deepening.
“Besides, I was just on a video call with Grandma. Her color was rosy, her spirits couldn't have been better.”
He paused, and a strange smile surfaced in his eyes.
“Grandma even asked how the two of us have been lately. Told me to take good care of you.”
My voice trembled. “What did you tell her?”
Aiden's lips curved abruptly, the smile cruel. “The truth, of course——”
“every last word of it.”
My head snapped up, my eyes ready to split.
But to see Grandma one last time.
