Rejected Proposal, Found Forever

g in the night sky above the city that never sleeps. They formed hearts, they formed champagne glasses, they formed his face and hers. An

the look of pure, unadulterated joy on Chloe' s face, watching from a pri

e he' d had for her. Lou

bordering one another. He had been the quiet, brilliant boy, always tinkering with circuits and cod

he t

h grade, dragging him away from the library and into the sunlight to play tag. "You think too much, Eth

use she was always flitting from one social

But with Chloe, he was different. He was soft. He was vulnerable. He would spend weeks designing a custom

they' d sat on the dock by the lake that separated their properties. He'

back, her head on his shoulde

had built his entire fut

sn' t a Hayes by blood. He was adopted, the son of a distant cousin who had passed away, taken in by Chloe' s p

invited him to hang out with their friends, treated him like the little brother he now was. Ethan, who had no si

w, always there, always watching. And s

d with sm

d go to that new Italian plac

on her phone. "I promised Liam I' d help him w

felt a prickle of annoyance. By the fifth time she' d cancele

ays together-studying in the library, going for drives, having inside jokes he was

laughing it off. "He' s my brother. He

rd a traumatized teenage boy? He would sound like a monster. So he said nothing

is first company. He was on the verge of a massive breakthrough, something that would revolutionize data proce

anceled dates and the whispered conversations with Liam, but he didn' t comprehend their meaning. He saw the way she looked at

ose to believe it was just a minor bug in the system, easily patched and forgotten. He never imagined that the entire sys