Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)

by Abby Jimenez

Daniel was a ripple on the water. He touched everyone. Even the people he’d never met.

“You’re dead inside. You’ve lost the thing that gives you life.”

“What I mean is you have been conditioned your entire life to live for everyone else. To do what’s expected of you, to blindly serve. You were promised to Royaume Northwestern before you were even born. And it’s a super important thing and I’m not saying it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it. You can decide to put yourself first—you do have a choice. It’s not an easy choice. It’s not without consequences. But you do have a choice.

Derek did. I mean, for him to do this Cambodia thing, he’d have to have felt like you feel right now, don’t you think? I don’t think he didn’t care about Royaume or you or his parents. I just think at the end of the day he just didn’t care more than he cared about her.” She shrugged. “She was his nonnegotiable.”

“If you just said ‘Fuck it’ and dipped, would you be as unhappy as you are today?”

When you don’t care, everything’s on your terms. They can take it or leave it. It doesn’t matter to you, so ask for whatever the hell you want.

Daniel had been ready to give up his whole world for me once. He’d always known what came first. He was willing to trade Wakan, the Grant House, his legacy—all to join me in this shallow, hostile place, because being without me was unacceptable to him.

“Mom, I really hope you find your voice. I know it’s in there. For your own sake, I hope to God you look for it.” I turned to my father. “Dad, you are going to be a very lonely old man. Your world is about to be as small as your mind. You won’t have your children. You won’t get the privilege of knowing the people they love. You won’t hold your grandchildren, you won’t see them grow up.” I shook my head. “But at least you’ll have Neil.”

Maybe one day Dad would acknowledge that it was Nikki and Daniel that had led to all this. Maybe one day Dad would apologize and accept the lives Derek and I had chosen for ourselves and try to be a part of it. Learn some grace. I hoped he did. And I hoped that even if he didn’t, Mom finally put her foot down and chose to do it anyway.

I knew from experience that sometimes when the wake-up call is big enough, you do, in fact, wake up.

threaded through the crowd, picked up the skirt of my dress, and started to run. He grinned when he saw me coming and began jogging down the stairs.