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Part I

A cold winter day at the beginning of summer

1

DAWN

A ring I was looking at a wedding ring My ex-boyfriend wanted to e

Revenge That word echoed inside ofsecond Meanwhile, Victor stared atme that ten years of ownership would be the price for my betrayal

He looked so different froet so floppy while ere dating was all business now His inky lockson top, but they’d been ruthlessly gelled back and molded into place Underneath his thick brows, his eyes had sootten even darker The kind of dense black that put me inon who you asked, could either crush you in an instant or send your spaceship hurtling to another time or dimension

His face was still a beautiful sculpture that even a lapsed artist like me would want to capture on paper But the planes of it had sharpened over the years They were now razors that cast shadows

I’d only compared him to a raven in my mind before That “like” stuff was done He was the human e right across from him

This was Victor

Victor The boy I fell in love e were both high school students in Japan

Victor The mafia prince I had watched kill aan eye Less than an hour before he proposed to me

Victor The ex as now proposing again

No, not proposing

Despite Mount Holyoke’s best efforts with required writing classes, I still had to majorly edit myself At least when it came to Victor

Co ten years from me

Of e

I was breathing I , or else I would’ve passed out That’s basic biology But for an eternity of minutes, there was no air to be had I couldn’t inhale I couldn’t talk I couldn’t even think