New York, Summer, 1921 . Your new neighbor across the lake is the mysterious bachelor , Dutch. His reputation for excess and extravagant parties precede him in the prohibition era. But after an invitation to one of his soirees, you discover your...
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"Violet, go!" Tom said to you with haste. He grabbed your arms and spoke quickly. The fear behind his eyes was terribly unsettling. You did your best to focus on his words but your mind wanted to drift away. "Take the Roadster. It's the fastest. You remember how I showed you? Brake pedal, accelerator pedal...,"
"Gear selector," you finished with a nod. You haven't driven a car since that day he tried to teach you with Father's Ford. That was also the day your world was ripped out from right under you.
"Take your sister and go. Just get as far away as you can," he said. His face became frantic. The fear behind his eyes betrayed any veneer of certainty. He was clever, but entirely outnumbered.
"I'm not leaving you," you protested with a stubborn shake of your head.
"Violet, now's not the time to be bullheaded," Tom replied in a frustrated tone.
"Now's exactly the time!" you shouted in his face, "I'm through with being told what to do. I'm through with taking orders from anyone, even you, Tom! I'm not going anywhere. You have your demons to fight and I have mine."
Tom sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He started to pace, hands on hips, as he tended to do when he was thinking. You loved him for wanting to save you, to protect you. He seemed to have forgotten that he was the one who prepared you.
"You told me once that I was capable of anything. That I was so much more than this life of tea parties and cotillions," you said approaching him. You stood only inches from him. The heat coming off of him was invigorating.
"Do you remember that?" you asked brushing that rogue curl away from his brow. He nodded.
"And you said the world would eat me up and spit me out," you continued. "You were right, you know. It did just that. It took so much from me, but I remembered something else you told me. You said there was a fire in me that they would try to squelch. They came close. There were days when my spirit was so dampened, I thought everything pointless. But I bided my time. I tended to that flame, however diminished it became, I made sure it never went out, because one day, I knew the moment would come."
Tom just gazed at you silently. You saw something join the fear in his eyes. There was love, surely, but there was also pride.
You placed a hand on his chest. His thundering heart echoed beneath your fingertips.
"The moment is here and you won't take it from me. I'm not his wooden doll anymore. I'm a phoenix, a blooming blaze, and I will burn him to ash."
Tom kissed you suddenly. It was full of passion and pride and pure love for his fiery flower. But it was soon sullied by the revving of an engine and the blinding headlights that pierced through the curtains.
"Dutch, it's them," Harrison announced from the window.
