Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
“Wait until I make it even harder by not letting you come for the rest of the week.”
“What?!” Max sits up straight. “That’s not fair.”
I chuckle at their banter. “You two really were made for each other.”
“How can you tell?” Heath jests back, but then he leans in to peck me on the cheeks. “But Max is not the only one who’s fallen madly in love.”
I blush. “Oh.”
Silas grips my chin. “I was the first.”
“You really do that name on your chest justice,” Max says. “Liar.”
“That’s not for you to decide,” Silas says, still gazing at me. “Do you believe me or not?”
“I don’t know … how can one ever believe a liar?” I say coyly.
“It’s not like I don’t have a fucking lifetime to prove it to you.” He smirks. “Because none of us are going anywhere.”
“Deal.”
His eyes narrow like he can’t believe his own ears. “Are you trying to make a new agreement with me, little thief?”
“I need to know for sure.”
Suddenly, he puts both hands on my ears and rips out my hearing aids, chucking them aside.
“Hey!” I yell, but I’m not sure I said the right word because I can’t hear.
He grabs my face with both hands, forcing me to focus on those piercing green eyes that haunt me.
And then he draws out words. In the air.
With sign language.
I love you.
The silence is overwhelming.
Overpowering.
All-consuming.
I swiftly draw some signs in the air.
You can sign?
That same vicious smile I used to hate now makes me fall.
He opens his mouth to say the words along with his signings because they’re still choppy, like how a beginner would use them, and I read his lips to fill in the missing words.
I learned it because of you.
I want to be inside your mind even when you can’t hear me.
Because you made me feel my heartbeat for the first time in my entire fucking life.
The tears roll down my cheeks right onto his lips, which he gleefully sucks in like it’s nourishment to his soul.
“I. Love. You.”
He says it out loud and in sign language.
But I heard.
Not with my ears but with the entirety of my soul.
I look up at Heath, who also signs to me while saying the words, trying his very best.
I learned it from Max’s book, so I will never miss out on a vital piece that makes you who you are ever again. Because I love you too.
Max smiles.
I’ve always loved you, you know that, and there is nothing in this world you could ever do that could make me unlove you.
Their signings are rudimentary, but it matters. It matters to me because I feel seen in my needs.
And I realize now I’m not the only thief. I never was.
These boys have seized my soul … And I never want them to give it back.
CHAPTER 65
Silas
“Wow, you fixed up this place real quick,” Ivy says, looking around the Skull and Serpent Society house, which is looking brand new after a quick fixer-upper and a lick of paint.
I casually saunter up the stairs. “You think no one will notice a bomb went off?”
She snorts while walking beside me. “The new wood on the walls makes it pretty obvious.”
“Well, shit,” Heath mutters as he follows us. “Guess Dean Rivera will be pissed.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s trashed this house on multiple occasions himself,” I reply.
“How do you know?” Heath asks.
I frown. “Because he told me. Duh.”
“So why did you want me to come?” Ivy asks.
Max waits for us at the top of the stairs. “You ready?”
She looks awfully confused. “For what?”
“It’ll all be clear the moment you see,” Max says, and he hooks his arm around hers. “C’mon.” He impatiently drags her to the guest room.
“You sure this was a good idea? What if she doesn’t like it?” Heath grumbles.
“She will,” I say, following them through the hallway.
Max puts his hands in front of her eyes. “Wait until I say you can look.”
“Okay … This is awkward,” Ivy says. “What kind of secret is this?”
He opens the door and the curtains and turns on the lights. “Open your eyes.”
She looks around and marvels at the newly painted walls, the decor, and all the new furniture inside the guest room.
“What … what is this?”
“Your new room. On the weekends anyway,” I say, smirking.
“You redid it all for me?” she says, tears in her eyes.
Heath opens the closet door and shows her the rows and rows of new clothes and shoes, and he holds up one of the size cards. “That’s you, right?”
She touches the fabrics and nods like she’s dreaming.
“And that’s not all,” Max says, opening the next door. It leads into our second guest room, which has been filled with all the toys a small girl like Cora could ever wish for. “She’ll never be bored.”
“I … I don’t know what to say,” she says.