Chapter 268

As Bridget finished her solo scene, it was time for Nicholas and me to head to the stage for our breakup scene.

“Break a leg,” Bridget said to us as we passed each other. I knew this was the traditional way of wishing someone good luck in a theater production, but my wolf still snarled inside of me like it was a threat. Fortunately, I held it back before the sound could audibly escape me.

Nicholas held out his arm for me as we reached the stairs to the stage. On the surface, it was a gesture of kindness. As a gentleman, Nicholas wanted to be sure I wouldn’t trip on my skirts on my way up the stairs.

Yet underneath, there was more to steady presence of his arm under mine. This was an apology for what was to come.

The apology wasn’t necessary. By now, we’d practiced this scene enough that I barely felt anything at all. Still, it warmed me from the inside out, knowing Nicholas cared so much.

With the stage covered in darkness, Nicholas and I released our gentle hold on each other and moved into our positions.

The lights clicked on, and the scene began.

Nicholas looked at me and said, “We have to end things between us…”

“Why?”

“There’s someone else.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter who.”

“I think it does,” I said, then paused. I pushed all of my emotion into my voice. “I love you.”

In all of our practices, Nicholas hesitated here, no matter how many times Nathan and Bridget tried to correct him. So it wasn’t shocking that he still hesitated now.

“Well, I don’t love you,” he eventually said.

The crowd loudly gasped. One person even booed. Another cried out, “That’s just wrong!”

Nicholas and I glanced at the crowd in surprise, and then at each other. That reaction certainly had not been expected.

I tried to regain my composure, but I needed a few seconds before I could remember my next line. “Why would you hurt me like this?”

Nicholas’s reply took even longer. This scene was quickly unraveling. “I love her.”

“Don’t do this!” someone in the audience shouted.

“Piper is the one!” another called.

Both were loudly shushed.

Thankfully, my final line was coming up and this horrible scene would soon be over.

“I never want to see either of you again!” I shouted. Then, I turned and fled from the stage.

Here, Nathan and Bridget both thought the crowd would cheer, happy to be rid of me, the last romantic obstacle standing between Nicholas’s character and Bridget’s. Instead, the crowd was deathly silent, like the grave.

Nicholas paused, as he had been instructed to, to let the applause play out. It never came. Eventually, he cleared his throat and continued with his monologue.

As the scene ended, the audience did finally react. They politely clapped.

Nicholas found me waiting in the backstage area, at the foot of the stairs. He walked to me then clutched both of my hands in his. Gently, he brought them up to his mouth to place soft kiss after soft kiss over my knuckles.

I didn’t need the reassurance that there was no hard feelings between us. But it was nice to have it all the same. I’d never turn down a bit of extra attention from Nicholas.

In a low voice, he said, “The audience was right. My character is a cad for turning away your character’s love for a woman he just met.”

I smiled. “What about true love?”

Nicholas placed another kiss to the back of my palm. “Even they could tell where my heart truly lies.”

“Nicholas…” My heart burst with affection for him. I wished I could fall into his arms and kiss him. What I would have given to be kissed senselessly in that moment. But, people were bustling around us. Even our present touch was dangerous, threatening to give us away.

Neither of us pulled away though.

At least, not until Bridget’s voice sounded behind me. “Nicholas! It’s time for our romance scene.”

Nicholas released my hands and I pulled them back to my sides, just as Bridget came to a stop beside me.

If she had noticed our closeness, which she must have from her closeness, she was pretending she hadn’t. She simply beamed her bright smile all for Nicholas.

My nerves prickled once again. Yes, Nicholas had told me that he would only kiss the people he wanted to, but in the shine of Bridget’s presence and under the lights of the stage, who knew what would happen? The script called for a kiss. They were supposed to kiss.

Would Nicholas truly turn his back on the character? On the play itself? On Bridget?

She batted her eyelashes at him now. “Ready, lover?”

My thoughts fizzled into ash. I felt suddenly faint.

Bridget glanced at me and laughed. “Just getting into character, Piper.” She winked at me.

Whatever my feelings were toward Bridget, I could openly admit that I absolutely detested her character for this play.

Bridget’s character and Nicholas’s were both in their own relationships at the start, only for them both to claim they never loved their partners and pursue each other instead. It was painted as true love conquering all, but I wasn’t so sure.

My character was painted as a villain for trying to save her relationship. And while some of her actions were underhanded – she was by no means a saint – her intentions are only to sustain the love she thought she had been cultivating for the past years.

I hadn’t given it much thought until now, but maybe the audience and Nicholas were right. Maybe his character really was a cad.

No wonder Nicholas was so miserable to be playing him.

“It’s our time to shine,” Bridget said, turning her smile to Nicholas once again.

He nodded curtly at her and then looked at me. The green in his eyes was barely visible in the dark of the backstage, but the gold almost seemed to glow. And within that gold, I could detect a swirl of emotion.

He was trying to tell me something, and while I didn’t always understand the message behind his eyes, this time, I was fluent enough in Nicholas to read him.

My heart is with you.

I could feel the words as clearly as if he had just said them aloud to me.

Bridget patted Nicholas’s arm. “Better get into position.”

Nodding, Nicholas turned from me and headed up the stair. With our locked eyes broken, I released the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

Oddly, Bridget remained. As I looked at her, I found her watching me with a truly unreadable expression.

With Nicholas, I had a chance of reading his face because of the depth of our knowing each other and because he was so terribly earnest.

Bridget was an actor by trade, her face could say anything, and there was no indication if that was what she truly felt. The fact that I didn’t know her all that well didn’t help matters either.

Yet when she looked at me now, I felt an uncomfortable chill run down the length of my spine, like I was staring into the eyes of a viper ready to strike.

Maybe that was an unfair comparison. I felt bad for thinking it. But I couldn’t deny it.

Bridget’s smile hadn’t dimmed, but her eyes turned hard.

“Keep your eyes on the stage, Piper,” Bridget said. “I’m about to show everyone what a real kiss of passion looks like.”