He Left My Daughter With His Ex, So I Left the Sea King novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Ten Years Old

Melina's POV

I woke at dawn with my hand empty and a note on the pillow.

I'M AT THE GATE. DON'T WAKE HER, he had written.

I found him on the cobbles at the market gate with a basket of coins, the loft blanket across his knees and a fishwife's cup of tea.

"He's been here since four," said the gatekeeper, a stout woman with a ring of keys. "I told him the stalls open at six. He said he'd wait."

"I said I'd wait," said Kyros, with great dignity.

"He's very good at it," said the gatekeeper. "Frightening, but good."

I sat down beside him on the step.

"It's too early to be romantic," I said.

"It's not romantic. I'm in position."

I put my head on his shoulder and fell asleep, and woke when Zoe shouted from the street.

"You're both here! You're both here before me!"

She came flying across the square in her best dress with a ribbon on, and Kyros stood up so fast the basket tipped.

"Happy birthday," he said.

"Ten!" said Zoe. "Ten! Where do we start?"

"Anywhere you like."

"The fried dough."

"I thought as much."

The gates opened, and the market took us in.

I had walked these stalls for ten years, and I had never seen them as she saw them.

She stopped at the dough seller and watched the dough sink into the oil, and when it came out gold she took it in both hands, burned her fingers, and refused to put it down.

She stopped at the ribbon seller, who knew the whole story.

The ribbon seller tied a green ribbon in her hair for nothing.

She stopped at the shell stall.

There were wind chimes in the rafters, and spiral shells in baskets, and a tiny whistle carved like a fish.

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