Revive Me, Part One: The Act (New Haven, #2)

by J.L. Seegars

In public, Mallory Kent is strong, focused, capable. She doesn’t break down. She doesn’t let the ghosts of her past creep into her present and wipe away all the progress she’s made. She doesn’t give her power to anyone.

but knowledge isn’t always power. Sometimes it’s a life-sucking force. Sometimes it’s a tornado that you can’t avoid, a train wreck you can’t look away from. A car crash you can’t stop no matter how hard you hit the brakes.

“I think desires can be born out of any circumstance, good, bad, or ugly, and still be valid representations of the things we want for ourselves. The source of the desire doesn’t matter so much as what we do with the dream it sparks in us.”

“I don’t have an issue with giving you my truths, Mallory.

“Mallory, as long as we’re doing this,” he gestures between the two of us, “I can promise you that you won’t see or hear about me being with anyone else. All of my time, attention, and affection is yours.”

“I’ll always be in the mood to hold your hand.”

“Someone breaking your trust is a reflection of them, Mallory. Not you.”

“I’ve always wanted you, Chris. I’ve never been more sure about anything, about anyone, in my entire life.”

“Your life is yours, Mallory. You’ve already proven you can make it whatever you want it to be. No one could have come out of what you went through completely unscathed, but you picked up the pieces and built something beautiful out of the destruction.”

“Your desire will never make me uncomfortable.”

Mallory Kent could ask me for the moon, and I’d find a way to get it for her. She could ask me for the stars, and I’d steal them from the sky. She could ask for my heart, and, well….she already has that. She just doesn’t know it yet.

I promise I’m still going to want us in the morning, nothing is going to change my mind about that, especially not time away from you.”

“You’re not just my girlfriend, Mallory. You’re my mission. My purpose. The only thing in my life I can’t afford to fail at, so forgive me if I don’t give a fuck about what another man in my position would do because I can guarantee you there isn’t a man in this world who….”

“I love you, princess, and I’m not giving you up. I don’t care what that costs me. My trust fund. My name. None of it matters more than you do.”

“You’re the only thing I have that’s worth keeping.”

“Next time I’m going to make you do that in a cup, so I can make sure I drink every drop.”

But as the doors start to close behind me, no one looks at me. Because they’re all staring at Chris. Watching his slow transition from standing to kneeling. Kneeling. On one knee with an open ring box in his hands and his eyes on Giselle.

But Chris isn’t listening, because he’s looking at me. He mouths my name and something that looks like stop when he sees me backing away. I don’t listen. I can’t stay here, can’t see him or talk to him after he’s just undone everything we worked for. Broken every promise he made me. Unsealed every wound he helped heal.

Ten seconds. That’s how long he gives me before he moves on with his life, walking back to his future while I remain firmly in his past.