A decent night’s rest was a mild balm for my nerves after the chaos of the previous day. I dreamt of the battle between Eva and Raven, only the version my mind had concocted didn’t end as smoothly. My subconscious saw fit to show me the carnage that would have occurred had I not forced myself between the girls before their final collision. And the sight, fictional as it may have been, was terrifying. Waking into reality instilled the small gratitude that what I’d just seen was the Shinsuke of some other universe’s problem, not mine.

  No, I had other problems to contend with.

  I had been awake for little more than five minutes when my phone began to ring. It was Cynthia.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “I’ll get straight to the point. Eva filled me in on the situation. This Raven conundrum is infuriating me, and it needs to end right now.”

  Good morning to you too. She’s certainly not wasting any time…

  “Let Raven drive you to school this morning. Make a nice big show of it for the cameras, too. I’ll be there to take care of this paparazzi problem once and for all.”

  “What do you mean ‘make a show of it?’”

  “I mean if the paparazzi want to see you two together, let them. Just trust me.”

  “Uh, okay.”

  Then she hung up.

  That wasn’t at all ominous. I really hope she knows what she’s doing.

  I suppressed the urge to meltdown over yet another morning in which the true nightmare takes hold when my eyes are wide open, and before my feet have yet to touch the floor. Instead, I decided to do as Cynthia said and trust her.

  What other choice did I have? It seemed whatever plan she had was already in motion anyway. There was nothing else to do but hold on tight.

  I rolled out of bed with negative enthusiasm and got myself together. Raven texted me, alerting me that she was arriving to my apartment soon, and within a few minutes, her limousine pulled into the parking lot outside my window—a swarm of paparazzi in tow, naturally.

  “I’m heading out, mom.”

  She looked at me like my sanity was sold separately.

  “Huh? You’re just going to walk straight out into that mob outside?”

  “I have to,” I groaned. “Princess’ orders.”

  I stepped outside my sanctuary and into the heart of madness. The paparazzi went ballistic the moment they saw me exit my unit and started snapping pictures.

  Here we go.

  In the parking lot, I waded through the swarm and tried my best to ignore their inane questions. My neighbors poked their heads out to steal glances at the circus that had made me their head clown, and for some reason, that embarrassed me more than usual.

  Raven stepped out of the limo and waved to the cameras while her bodyguards made a path for me.

  “Good morning, Shinsuke.” She greeted me with a warm smile.

  “Morning, Raven.”

  “Oh my gods!” one of the paparazzi yelled. “They’re not hiding it anymore! They’re definitely a couple! ShinRa is real!”

  This is hell.

  Raven and I got into the limo and shut the door. Her bodyguards had to fight to push the mob back enough for her driver, Jamie, to pull out of the parking lot. But eventually, he was successful.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally in the rear-view mirror.

  For the moment, at least.

  “I’m sorry about the public display just now,” Raven apologized. “Evangeline said to greet you in front of the cameras. To be honest, I was surprised when she asked me to pick you up.”

  “It’s fine. Apparently, this is all part of the plan to get these pests away from us.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “I see.”

  I noticed it when she got out of the limo, but taking another look at her, I could see that Raven’s skin was perfect as ever. No scuffs, cuts, or bruises from her fight with Eva to be seen. It was like it never happened.

  Her eyes traced a path from my gaze to her body and she said, “I know what you’re thinking. I called my private doctor when I got home, and he healed me.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just a bit surprising to see you unscathed after last night.”

  “Don’t be sorry, I don’t mind. I didn’t want the media to see my wounds and create a story that would somehow make your life worse. Like I said, I want to make everything up to you in whatever way I can.”

  “I appreciate that, but I hope you realize it’s going to take a lot to truly make amends. Not just to me, but the others too.”

  “Of course.”

  She took a breath, as if to prepare herself, and grasped my hand. I was taken off guard. Not only because of the sudden contact, but because of the way her hand was trembling.

  “Can we…continue our talk from yesterday?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Last night, I shared one side of me with you—the side that embraced violence as a way to protect myself. But there’s more to me than that, Shinsuke.”

  She seemed desperate to ensure I understood that point.

  “I told you that pretending to be someone else protected me from both the bullies and the adults’ abuse. It allowed me to feign the strength I didn’t have until that strength was no longer make-believe. It even allowed me to fake being the perfect little girl enough to finally get adopted.”

  “Finally,” she’d said. I shuddered to think of exactly how long she spent in that hellish orphanage. But I didn’t interrupt her.

  “Being adopted felt like a miracle. My new parents were unlike any of the other adults I’d known. They didn’t hurt me, and they were kind. My father was the one who introduced me to movies, and that changed my life.”

  The trembling calmed a bit, and a glint of nostalgia shined in her jeweled eyes.

  “Watching films, I realized that I was just like the actors on the screen. I always looked like me, but I changed with the role I needed to play. But I didn’t really know the people on the screen, and I knew that my parents didn’t know the real me, either.”

  The glow in her amethyst orbs faded as quickly as it had appeared.

  “I never told them about the abuse I suffered at the orphanage. I didn’t want them to think I was broken and take me back to that horrid place. So, I kept up the fa?ade that I was the perfect girl.”

  Her gaze drifted and she paused for a beat. “I tried to shower them with the affection I always yearned to show another person. To that extent, I was partially able to be myself. But there were times I slipped, and they’d see glimpses of the me that was forged in the orphanage. And when they did, I saw the same fear in their eyes that I saw in my bullies.”

  I slid my other hand onto hers and sandwiched it in my grasp. My attempt to quietly comfort her made the corner of her lips curve upward slightly. It was genuine but not lasting as she continued.

  “Violence helped me survive in that place—it became part of who I am. And I couldn’t lie to myself; I loved the feeling of power it gave me. But I couldn’t tell my parents that. If small lapses in my composure frightened them, then the truth would definitely ruin their image of me. That’s when I knew that while I may have been free of the orphanage, I was still stuck.”

  She had to commit to the act, she said. And so, throughout her childhood, she continued to conduct herself outside the orphanage the way she had inside it.

  When her parents enrolled her in school, she inevitably crossed paths with more bullies. And when she did, she feigned helplessness until she could get them alone.

  Then she hurt them.

  And she enjoyed doing it.

  “Acting became both my prison and my eventual escape,” she recalled. “I told my parents I wanted to be an actress, and they helped me. I auditioned for parts nonstop, and it paid off.”

  She was cast in commercials at first, then small roles in modest Osmelan films. Big casting directors in Havenwood discovered her, and the number of roles she got exploded. She accrued enough money and star power to immigrate to Steylia with her family. It was a dream come true. Leaving Osmela and becoming a movie star was supposed to be a fresh start. Except…

  “Nothing changed,” she lamented. “I was able to achieve my dream and create a better life for my parents, but once I joined the film industry, history repeated itself again.”

  It was like she told me on the terrace: creepy stalkers and jealous, backstabbing costars, along with managers and studios all trying to take advantage of her. That was her experience in Havenwood. Because of that, she had to act just as much when the cameras were off as she did when they were on. Just as she had all through her life.

  “Every single day, more and more of the same thing. More playing the role of the perfect, gifted actress while they made me hate the dream that I worked so hard to achieve.”

  She refixed her eyes upon me, their glisten suddenly restored and then some.

  “That’s why seeing that press conference made me fall in love with you, Shinsuke. The way you were able to be yourself and assert your desires despite the circumstances and in front of the entire world was so inspiring. It showed me exactly what kind of man you were immediately.”

  She looked at me with so much admiration and innocence that I felt almost guilt stricken. I didn’t feel like the person she was making me out to be, and I wondered if, unbeknownst to her, her feelings for me were nothing more than a conduit for her to spring for the freedom she’d been seeking her whole life.

  “I knew I had to know more about you, Shinsuke. I had to meet you. I had to be with you. I know that seems obsessive, but you make me feel so much that I’ve never felt before.”

  “Raven, I—”

  “I know,” she gently interjected. “I’m not making any demands; I just want you to understand me and my feelings. This is why I want to start over with you. No more sneaking around, no private detectives, and no secrets. I want you to see the real me, the one I was never allowed to be. And I want to see the real you, not just the one I fell for on TV. Until I’ve earned your affections the right way, I don’t need any answers. Just see me and let me see you.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “From now, I’ll consider this a soft reboot between us. I know it couldn’t have been easy to talk about your past like that. So, thank you for being vulnerable.”

  She laid her head on my shoulder, a palpable sense of relief radiating from her.

  “Thank you, Shinsuke.”

  She shut her eyes and mine drifted out the window, where the streets passed us by in comfortable silence.