Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
“What the hell?” I whisper when my eye catches on a full display covered in a ton of the same book. The title, Neverland, shining bright in gold. Then I see the author's name.
Melody Ledger. I swear it’s like my entire world tilts on its axis. Holy crap. I know immediately without a doubt that my sister wrote a book in secret. That’s where the money came from. I don’t even have to look inside of it to know exactly who and what it’s about.
I may have been young at the time, but I remember Easton Ledger, the love of my sister’s life. That was until everything got ruined and we had to start a new life. But even at a young age, I knew Mel had found the love of a lifetime. It’s so telling that she used his last name.
Equal parts happiness and sadness fill me at the same time. Don’t get me wrong; I’m ecstatic that my sister followed her dream and wrote her story, but I’m also sad that she didn’t share this with me. I mean, it’s not every day someone writes a book and it gets published.
I grab a couple of books off the shelf before I head out of the bookstore and back home. I’m eager to read it.
I spent the whole day devouring it. My heart grows heavy as I read the last few pages. It ends perfectly with a sweet happily ever after, but that’s not reality.
This is her love story. The one she wanted before my father went and flipped our lives upside down. She had her life planned out. She and Easton would spend the rest of their lives together. But that’s not how it went in the end.
She had to leave him without so much as a goodbye. It’s been almost five years. Her love is as strong for him now as ever. It’s woven in the pages of her book.
When we went into WITSEC it didn't matter to me. I was young. There wasn’t anything I was leaving behind. It was my sister that lost the most. She lost her dreams. Getting up from my bed, I go to find her.
“There anything you want to tell me?” I ask, dropping the book down in front of her. She glances up from her laptop. Her eyes filled with tears. “Oh shit, don’t cry.” I panic. The last thing I want to do is upset her. I drop down in her lap sideways, wrapping my arms around her. “I take it back. Cry. Please. Let it all out. You always make me do it.”
There had been nights after we lost our mom that Mel had held me while I cried. She is always the rock. I want to be that for her too. “I love you,” I whisper into her ear. “You’re my person. I’m not shaming you, but we should be celebrating this.”
She picks the book up from off her desk. “But it’s over. Easton always pushed for my dream, so I wrote our story. What it could have been but never will be.” Tears burn in my eyes. She sounds so lost and alone. “Now, you don’t get to cry too.”
“No, we’re sisters. We cry together,” I tell her, which only makes her cry harder. Crap, I’m terrible at this.
“He's getting married or something. I was terrible and looked it up.” I wipe the tears from my sister’s cheek.
It’s hard for me to believe her. I was young, but I remember how Easton was when it came to her. The way he would always watch her. I could have sworn she was his whole world. I remember thinking when I grew up, I wanted to find someone that would look at me the same way. Now, I’m not so sure. Love hurts.
“Then he’s not the man in this story.” I take the book from her, standing up. “This man—the one you wrote about—would look for his lost girl forever.”
“When did you grow up so much?” She swipes the last of her tears off her cheeks.
“I think we’re different.” I give her a smirk, wanting to get a smile from her.
“You want Peter Pan.” She smirks. “I want Captain Hook.” She snorts a laugh.
“You got this Hook in mind? Because I’m a bit scared.”
“That’s the point.” I wiggle my brows.
“It doesn’t scare you? I mean, not the real Hook or whatever. The bad boy. The heartbreaker?” It does. I see my father and sister. Both of them have lost their other halves. That sadness always lingers around them.
“What makes you think I won’t break his heart right back?” If you leave them first, then they can’t leave you.
“But then what?” she whispers.
“I think with some, you have to show them what they’re missing without you. With others”—I look her dead in the eyes—“you need them to fight for you.” A small smile pulls at my sister's mouth. I know she’s thinking about Easton.