A Gift from the Goddess by Dawn Rosewood novel Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine 

Chapter Twenty-Nine Within the hour, I found myself at a clothing store in town with one very over excited Myra by my side.

The look of her complete unabridged joy when I’d shown up at her door to ask if she wanted to hang out, had been worth the bribe to skip out on Luna studies. I didn’t particularly need clothes, nor have any desire to impress anyone, but spending time with the one positive presence I could always count on was refreshing. Seeing her flutter around looking at the different outfits while gushing about how good they’d look on was so simplistic and easy. I was able to relax and shut my mind off to everything that had gone wrong the day before.

However, after we’d gone to several shops, I started to notice a trend with Myra. She seemed t o love so many of the clothes she would try on, which was a fair amount of them, but every time she would leave the store without buying anything. When we had reached the fifth shop, I watched her coming out of the changing room with a

gorgeous red dress on. It complimented her hair and figure perfectly.

“Wow, Myra, I really love that one,” I said encouragingly.

“Yes! It’s so pretty!” she did a spin in the mirror, checking it from all angles. When she was finally satisfied with how it looked, she went back into the changing room to return to her normal clothes.

“Ready to go to the next store?” she asked once she’d finished dressing. I watched and saw how, once again, she returned the dress back to the clothing rack without purchasing it. “Aren’t you going to buy it? It really did look amazing on you.” She smiled a little timidly. “No, that’s ok.”

I frowned, confused as to why she wouldn’t want to buy something when I was under the impression the whole point of the shopping trip was to… Well, shop.

“No seriously, I think you should get it! It will be great for semi-formal events!”

Her cheeks suddenly became red and she looked away a little awkwardly.

“Ah… the truth is,” she said hesitantly, “the stores around here are a little out of my price range.”

I stared down at the price tag on the dress but only got more confused. I’d chosen this strip of stores in town because they always looked to have a lower price range. And it wasn’t even an expensive dress by any means. I knew I had been born into a wealthy family, but I still had an understanding of what would constitute as expensive. And this dress definitely wasn’t that pricey. “Where do you normally shop then?”

“Oh, downtown. There are some really nice second-hand shops there that usually have some amazing finds.”

I stared at her, seeing her now in a completely new light. Of course, that perspective wasn’t due to the fact she had minimal spare funds, but rather because she had always acted so kind and cheery to people regardless of her home situation. She had never let on that things were any different from the other kids at school. “… You never told me,” I said finally. “Because it’s not a big deal!” she said with a smile. “I’m actually really fine with how things in my life are. My family owns the local orphanage and so we donate a lot of what we have to help support the children in our care.”

It was probably the most goodwill life story I’d ever heard. It only made me want to protect Myra even more and never let anything ever hurt her. She was too precious for this world. “That’s really incredible of you and your family to do that,” I said. “No, it’s fine! But, oh, actually…,” she said, touching a finger to her lip in thought, “if you’re interested, it would really mean a lot if you’d come to our big annual charity event that we’ll b e hosting soon. I’m sure the children would love to meet you in person. A few of them look up t o you already.”

Look up… to me? Like a role model? I’d never aspired to call myself that, or even ever considered that it could be possible. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to be like me If they ever truly found out who I was then they would probably all be terrified of me.

Myra saw my conflicted expression and immediately backtracked. “It’s fine if you don’t want t o come! It wasn’t meant to pressure you into doing something you didn’t want to do.” “No! No… it’s fine,” I replied with a smile. “I’d love to come. Let me know all the details and I’ll definitely be there.”

Her face lit up with excitement and immediately squealed, pulling me into a hug. I was taken completely off guard by her sudden embrace and it took a few seconds before I finally put an arm around her in return.

She must have felt my uneasiness because she pulled away almost immediately.

Truthfully, I didn’t mind. I wasn’t exactly the most affectionate of people by any means, given my past history, but I was pretty sure Myra was by far one of the most pure-hearted people I’d ever met.

I think a part of me had always known that though. Every day, subconsciously, I had been putting on the moonstone necklace she’d given me and I felt a slight glimmer of peace whenever I touched it. It reminded me that I was capable of doing good and that there were good people out there, even when I refused to acknowledge it. Maybe I had been relying on Myra this entire time too, just like I had been Cai.

My eyes wandered to the red dress again behind her, a small nagging in my head ensuing. And