Flashback ( PDFDrive )

Her gaze drifted back to the enormous Vacker family portrait,
which must’ve been painted somewhat recently.
Between their poses and their jewels, they . . . looked like royalty.
The prettiest of all the pretty people, with their perfect posture and
perfect hair and perfect clothes.
And she didn’t fit.
“What’s wrong?” Fitz asked, stepping closer.
She blinked to cool her burning eyes. “Just trying to figure out
when this was painted.”
“A couple of months after you healed my dad. My mom said we
needed to commemorate that we were all still together. Aaaaaand then
we found out about Alvar.” His hands curled into fists. “He looks
smug, doesn’t he? I bet it’s because he was sneaking into my dad’s
office during the breaks to snoop around.”
That was definitely possible.
And Sophie tried to compare Alvar’s cool, painted expression
against the scarred, emotional guy she’d seen that morning.
But her eyes kept shifting back to the portrait of Fitz, and the
longer she looked, the more she wondered how she could’ve let her
silly crush go on and on without putting a stop to it.
How could she have ever fooled herself into thinking she had a
chance?
“Seriously, what’s wrong?” Fitz asked, stepping in front of her.
“You look like you’re ready to cry.”
She shook her head, knowing if she tried to speak right then she
would cry—and that would be a thousand times worse than the day she
threw up on him.
“Is it Alvar?” he asked. “Did he say something?”