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LEAH STOOD OUTSIDE THE IVY PRISON, trying to keep herself together. It was supposed to have been a normal visit with her mom. A run-of-the-mill regular visit.
And now, she was sweating and trying to breathe as she pieced together what her mom had just said, what she’d let slip, and the implications it held for Leah.
Leah wasn’t going to cry. She didn’t like crying. She was simply overthinking things...
But even her mother had realized the truth had hurt her, and that was before Leah had really let it sink in, before she’d cut their visit short, before she’d left the building to stand here trying not to spiral.
She hugged herself, leaning against the stone building.
I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s not a big deal.
She could bury those feelings, that secret, bury them so hard she could pretend she’d never felt them, had never heard it.
How many other feelings had she buried in the past?
Her mother had asked her not to share it with anyone else, anyway.
Jamming her eyelids closed, Leah thought of other things. Marcus... Sunshine... Lightning bugs... She breathed slowly in and out. It wasn’t that big of a deal, really.
“Are you alright, miss?” her escort, Wren, asked from around the corner where she’d asked him to stay.
“I’m fine.”
Drawing a deep breath, she forced a smile on her face.
I’ll be fine. It meant nothing.
Secrets couldn’t hurt anyone if no one knew them.