[Sin and Secrets 02] • Star-Crossed Secrets

By day, I, Everleigh Greene, am a dutiful elementary teacher.

By night, I become Madam Isis, the unattainable ice queen at RISE.

Co-owning a gentlemen’s club with my best friends was supposed to grant us all freedom. So, why does it feel like my wings are being clipped, one feather at a time?

I conceal my identity so my family won't know where I spend my nights. I put on a brave face so my girls can’t see how their fortress of freedom shackles me. The hardest one of all to wear is the mask of indifference whenever he's near.

The man I can’t have. The one who’s promised to another.

I tell myself that I can keep up this charade, that I can be two people—even that I can stop loving him.

But aren’t the saddest lies the ones we tell ourselves?