From Shadow to the Longest Sun

On our sixth wedding anniversary, I felt a seam split open in my skull.

Not from pain, but from truth.

“Ethan, that new assistant… how does she taste?”

Marcus’s thought, slick as oil.

Ethan's reply slithered through my veins: "Young. Tender. Like summer berries."

His lips shaped a lie.

His hand shielded me from the crowd, even as his fingers pressed a blood-red cocktail into my palm.

"Don't let Lena find out,"he thought, the words clear as speech. "I’d in a big trouble."

Laughter swirled. Champagne clinked.their mind.

Nobody knew I could hear every thought ,the ability to read minds awakened in me last night. .

Nobody knew I had already known about his betrayal long ago.

There were no tears, no screams

I just replied “yes” to Professor Johnson’s encrypted call-the path I should have chosen six years ago.

In three days, I would vanish.

Not running from him.

Running back to who I was at twenty—the rising star of virus research.

The mental static receded like the tide slipping from shore.

I forced my fingers to unclench. Shattered glass bit into my palm.

Ethan caught the shift.

His laugh cut off like a blade.

He turned; his grip was iron-clad, his voice like​ dripping honey.“Sweetheart?

What’s wrong?”

English.

But my mind replayed his thought, slick and smug:

“I want Celia right now.”

I studied him.

The vampire who knelt in moonlit beach six years ago.

He begged me to accept the Embrace.

He had Chased me from Boston campus to New York labs.

“You’re my fated mate. In 300 years, I’ve felt nothing… until you.”

I believed him. And so, I abandoned my viral mapping research, died in his arms, and was reborn from his blood.

All to walk eternity by his side.

For six years, I showed no aversion to sunlight, no super-senses, no sensitivity to Vervain—only the hollow gift of immortality.

He would ruffle my hair and say, “Even if you never awaken, it’s fine. You’re my mate. That’s enough.”

Yet I did awaken. And the first gift of my awaken, was the sound of him, in his mind, tasting another woman.

A brittle smile touched my lips.

Don’t flinch. Don’t question. Play the tired human wife.

"Nothing," I murmured.

Then—let the question slip.

“What were you guys doing?”

Voice casual. Like idle curiosity.

Ethan smiled naturally, pinching my cheek.

“Just discussed some business things. I knew you wouldn’t want to hear that boring stuff.So we did that in a quiet way.”

His mind whispered: “Let her go. Easier to slip to Celia after the toast.”

He didn’t mention Marcus asking about “his little assistant.”

Didn’t mention “young and tender.”

I wouldn’t tell him about my awakened telepathy.

The air thickened and grew​ suffocating.

I pulled my hand free.

“Don’t let me interrupt. I wanna take a walk outside.”

Before he could answer, I turned and left the banquet hall.

Hudson River wind slapped my face on the terrace.

Vampire whispers drifted:

“Ethan’s mate.”

“Human-born scientist.