A Tale of Two Centuries

Domenico?”

The desperation in his eyes turns to fury, and I swallow hard. Heat flushes through my body as my blood pounds through my veins.

I’ve never seen Austin this angry…I’ve never been this angry.

“Do you truly think I would choose that insufferable man over you? This isn’t about us. It’s about the man who gave me life. I can’t just forget about him or the rest of my family. My mother is my best friend. My brother is the most amazing man I know. I love them, Austin.” Then his words sink in. I reach out to grab his hand. “And what do you mean stay here with you? What happened to you coming with me?”

He scoffs. “And watch you marry someone else?”

My head jerks back in shock. “Marry? I wouldn’t marry him. Not if I had a choice—not if you were with me.”

Austin laughs, a cruel sound with a distinct edge that sends quivers shooting down my spine. “I hate to break it to you, Princess, but I’ve been sitting here doing my own research. You really think your parents will let you be with me? A stranger with no family, no money, no land?”

A vein bulges in his throat as he closes his eyes. And pain lashes my stomach. He’s right. My parents love me and would never do anything to hurt me, but a girl in my time does not have much choice in these matters.

Cat knows that most of all.

“Don’t you see, Alessandra?” Austin asks, opening his eyes again. “The only way we could be together is if we started our own lives, away from your family. So it is a choice between Domenico or me. You can either choose what we have together, the excitement I’ve seen in you the last few days, and fight for that…or you can do what you’ve always done. The right thing. The expected thing. Go back home to Domenico.” He pauses. “And get rid of me.”

In Cat’s bedroom, I promised him that would never happen. But I didn’t know everything then, didn’t realize the lives that could be affected by my oath.

I take a breath. “I just need time to think.”

“Then it’s too bad that’s one thing you don’t have.” And with that, Austin gets up from the table and walks out.

Chapter Twenty-eight

The beam of light shining down on me is just as bright as I envisioned in Reyna’s tent. I draw a deep breath, winded and spent from the rest of the scene, and look down at Reid as Romeo as he delivers his line on the stage before a packed theater. This is it, the last lines I may ever speak as an actress, and as I feel the energy in the room, hear the silence as the audience hangs on our every word, the realization is bittersweet.

“Sweet, so would I, yet I should kill thee with much cherishing,” I say, the words almost painful as I say them. My chest is so tight, it squeezes my lungs, and I draw a shuddering breath. I can’t believe I may have to give this all up tonight. “Good night, good night!” I tell Reid, and quite possibly this world. “Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!”

And with those words, I step back through the set acting as my bedroom window, and away from the spotlight.

As Reid says his final speech, I jog down the makeshift staircase, skimming my hand over my hair, the color of which is back to the same old boring auburn shade it was when I arrived (thus appeasing the hairy, scrunched- up monster otherwise known as Mr. Williams’s eyebrows). My sweaty palm slides across the wooden banister, and I skip the last step, making it to the side of the curtain just as Reid walks off, applause already rising behind us.

“You were amazing!” he says, grabbing me around the waist. His smile is full of life and humming with the force of all we accomplished. “You ready to take your bow, Miss Forlani?”

I nod, unable to find words. He leads me out onto the stage, and the crowd’s praise and ovation swell into a thunderous wave crashing around me. I close my eyes and soak it in. The love, the adoration, the acceptance. This moment is everything I hoped it would be when I cried out for adventure in my courtyard. Yet it doesn’t feel complete.

The absence of Mama, Father, and Cipriano is like a living entity beside me, reminding me that I am straddling two worlds and will soon have to make a choice. And not being able to share this moment with the boy I’ve grown to love in this world nearly crushes me.

Here it is, opening night, and I’m standing on an enormous stage overlooking a sea of people. I just gave the first and perhaps final performance of my life, and Austin may not have even seen it. It was possible he left after Jamie’s scene, no longer feeling the need to stay for mine. I couldn’t look down from my perch on the balcony and know for certain he was watching in the audience, smiling and sending me encouraging thoughts. I can’t hear him now in the front row, yelling my name or letting out a sharp whistle. It isn’t that the roar of the applause and the congratulations from my fellow actors isn’t wonderful. But without Austin to share it with, it feels empty.

Cat and Lucas both suggested I give him space to calm down and to think, so I did. Twenty-four hours and counting of space. As tempted as I was to pick up the phone or ask Lucas to drive by his house, I didn’t. And when I saw his father’s assistant picking Jamie up from dress rehearsal, I didn’t stop and ask her where Austin was or what he was doing. I knew.

Avoiding me.

As I exit the stage and make my way down the hall to the dressing room, I notice Kendal standing outside the door. Ever since Mrs. Shankle posted the cast list for Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical! and the class saw my name listed beside Tiffany’s—and Kendal’s next to Eileen’s, one of the nerds—we have given each other a rather wide berth. A part of me thinks I should step aside, give the role to her since there’s a good chance I won’t even be around for our first rehearsal—but the part of me that still believes in miracles, that is awed at winning the role and eager to play it, holds me back.

But even though I may not be willing to step down, there is something my adversary needs to know before I meet with Reyna. My steps quicken with determination, and Kendal’s eyes narrow in suspicion. “What do you want?”

Her snarky attitude is almost enough to make me keep on walking, but instead I bite the inside of my cheek and press on. “Kendal, I thought you should know that you did a wonderful job out there tonight. I have never seen the role of Katherina performed so well before.”

Of course, I have never seen the role of Katherina performed before ever, but she doesn’t have to know that. Plus she really did do a good job.

She scrunches her mouth and studies me—for so long I begin to wonder if anyone has ever truly given her a compliment. Then I see something I never thought I would. Kendal’s shoulders seem to relax…a smidgen…a very small smidgen…and her lips curve into what may be considered an actual smile.

“Thanks,” she says. Another miracle. She shrugs. “You did good, too.” Then, as if her praise wasn’t enough to stun me into total speechlessness, she adds, “I’m looking forward to working with you on the musical.”

And I burst into tears.

Kendal steps back, as if it is contagious. I almost laugh. For some reason, her unanticipated act of kindness took all of the fear I have about my meeting with Reyna, all my heartache over my fight with Austin and wondering if I’ll ever see him again, and all of my confusion over which path I should choose to fight for, and brought it to a blubbery head.

“I am, too,” I tell her through sniffles, although my future still hangs in the balance. “It will be an honor to share the stage with you again.”

Kendal eyes me quizzically, no doubt considering rescinding her extended olive branch on account of my apparent madness, and I decide it best that we part before I do something completely crazy like hug her. I bid her farewell, and watch as she walks confidently—and perhaps hastily—away, down the emptying hallway. Then I