“Alex…” I forced myself to meet his gaze, my
fear palpable. I wrapped my arms around his
neck, pressing my face against his chest, listening to his quickening heartbeat.
His hand gently stroked my back, and I froze.
He was silent for a long moment, the air thick
with tension. My palms were sweating, and I
could barely breathe.
Carefully, I looked up, meeting his intense
gaze. Alex’s brow was furrowed, his
expression unreadable.
His voice was husky. “You weren’t like this
before, Sarah.”
Wasn’t I? I stared at him, confused. What was
く
I like before?
He gently tucked a stray hair behind my ear.
“Sarah, I’m your boyfriend, not your sugar
daddy. Is being with me… that hard?”
Was I nervous around Alex?
I’d never really considered it.
All I knew was that our relationship had
fundamentally changed when I turned twenty.
Before then, he was my childhood friend.
After, he became my… benefactor.
We’d known each other a long time.
Those early memories were hazy.
<
I was maybe five when we met.
Alex was the illegitimate son of the Carter
family’s housekeeper. Mrs. Carter had married
into the family by getting pregnant, and
Alex’s mom thought she could pull the same
trick. She’d seduced Mr. Carter, and Alex was
the result.
Unfortunately, she forgot that Mrs. Carter,
while a gold digger, came from a respectable
family. Alex’s mom was just the help.
The Carters wanted nothing to do with Alex,
refusing even to pay child support.
His mother, left with nothing, took her
frustrations out on the child she’d schemed to
have.
く
His childhood was rough.
The Carter family drama should have been
irrelevant to me.
But the world is like a hurdy–gurdy, and we’re
all just dancing to its tune.
It happened one day at the playground. I was
eating an ice cream cone.
My mom got a call and left me with the ice
cream vendor for five minutes.
Suddenly, a woman rushed past, bumping into
me, and I stumbled.
My ice cream splattered on the ground,
melting into a sticky mess.
If Mom saw this, she would scold me and say,
“Honey, that’s your ice cream for the day. No
more.”
Little Sarah stamped her foot. “Why did you
push me?”
The woman towered over me, blocking out
the sun.
Already agitated, she became even angrier at
my question.
“Move, kid, out of my way.”
She shoved me hard, and I tumbled into the
bushes.
I heard screams and the commotion of a
<
crowd as I fell.
Screech–Bang!
A tremendous crash split the air.
I looked up. A car had lost control and plowed
into the spot where I’d been standing.
The woman’s large form lay sprawled on the
ground, blood pooling around her.
Her voice was weak, but insistent.
“Alex…
I’m sorry, Alex…
Alex, Mommy wants to hug you…”
She kept talking in my direction, and I
frantically replied, “I’m not Alex, I’m Sarah.”
The light faded from her eyes. Before the
paramedics arrived, she took her last breath.
My mother, hearing the commotion, rushed to
me, covering my eyes. “Honey, don’t look.”
I pointed to the pool of blood, tears streaming
down my face. “Mommy, she pushed me, the
car… the car hit her, there’s so much blood.”
That woman was Alex’s mother.
And Alex had been standing nearby, watching
his mother bleed out.
Only when she was gone did he calmly say to
my mother. “My mother saved your daughter’s
く
life.”
