I Let Them Think I Was Still Blind
Juniper Marlow · Completed · 7.7k Words
Introduction
Everybody in Harbor Point calls him a saint for staying with me. Our families put a ring on my finger when I was seventeen. He's been my eyes since we were ten. He tells me who just walked in and what's in every photo. He promised me in a hospital room that he would never lie to me.
Three weeks ago a surgeon in Boston gave my sight back. Nobody knows except my parents. I was saving it for my eighteenth birthday. Take the dark glasses off, look right at him.
I didn't get that far. At the table I read the message on his phone.
Honestly? Sometimes I wish that firework had just finished the job.
Then my friend since sixth grade leaned over to tell me he'd been staring at me all night, and he kissed another girl over my shoulder while he held my hand.
They think I still can't see. I'm going to let them.
Chapter 1
I lost my sight when I was ten, shoving Chase Whitaker out of the way of a firework he'd lit on the beach.
Three weeks ago a surgeon in Boston took the bandage off my eyes and I could see again. The only people who knew were my parents.
I was saving it for my eighteenth birthday party. Wait for the cake, take off the dark glasses I'd worn for eight years, and say his name while I looked straight at him.
Chase had been my boyfriend since we were fourteen. Last summer our families made it official over dinner, a ring and a toast and a wedding after college.
At 8:40 I read the message on his phone.
Honestly? Sometimes I wish that firework had just finished the job.
He was sitting on my left with the screen turned toward Tyler, his co-captain on the lacrosse team, a foot and a half from my face.
The whole table laughed at once.
"Sorry, sorry." Brynn, who'd been my friend since sixth grade, raised her voice for me the way people do. "Hazel, Tyler sent this video. It's so bad."
The chat kept scrolling under Chase's thumb.
Tyler: save that one. when she can finally see, somebody has to show her
Brynn: who's gonna want a blind girl lol chase is literally a saint
Tyler: she ran into that firework on her own btw 😂
Chase didn't correct him. He typed, ok ease up, she did save my life, and then, nobody screenshot this.
I closed my hand around the grip of my cane.
He felt me move. His eyes went to my glasses, then down to the cane leaning against the table leg. When I didn't turn my head, his shoulders dropped.
He rubbed my arm. "You cold, babe? They keep this room freezing."
"I'm okay."
"Ten more minutes and we'll do cake." He kissed the side of my head. His thumb never stopped moving on the phone.
Tyler tipped his chair back. "Honestly? I'd take blind if I got a girl like Hazel out of it."
They all laughed, and I smiled, because that's what I'd done at that table for two years.
Kenzie Doyle dropped into the seat on my right with a plate she had no intention of eating from. She'd been the team's manager for two years, and she'd spent those two years telling everyone she was just one of the guys.
"Okay, that's enough out of you," she told Tyler. "Some of us are nice."
She was wearing a thin silver chain with a little star on it. I'd never seen it before.
Kenzie: prove it then
Kenzie: kiss me. right here. she can't see anything anyway
Chase found my hand under the table and laced his fingers through mine.
Then he leaned across my shoulder and kissed her.
I was close enough to hear it. Phones came up around the table, four or five screens lighting at the same time.
Kenzie sat back and wiped her thumb across her lip. "Fine," she said out loud. "I believe you."
Chase: happy now?
He squeezed my hand. "You want water, babe? You look pale."
"I'm fine."
"Say the word and I'll take you home. I don't care about any of this."
Brynn leaned into my arm. "He's been staring at you all night, Hazel. It's honestly gross."
"Thanks," I said.
The lights went down. Somebody by the door started the song and everyone picked it up, loud and off-key, while a server wheeled the cake in.
Chase took my wrist and set my hand flat on the table edge so I'd know which way to face. Down at the other end, one of the moms who'd come by to drop off ice said, "He's so good with her."
Then he put his mouth against my ear. "Make a wish, Hawkeye. I love you."
He was looking at Kenzie when he said it.
"Oh my God, it's gorgeous," Kenzie announced. "Hazel, it says To my forever girl, and there's a little heart."
The cake said HAPPY 18TH HAWKEYE in blue icing. Under the letters somebody had piped two X's, the way you'd draw eyes on a cartoon that just got hit with an anvil.
Eighteen candles. A dozen phones pointed at my face.
He'd started calling me Hawkeye when we were eight, because I spotted the dolphins off his family's dock before anyone else could. He kept using it after the accident. Everyone thought that was sweet too.
At the winter formal, Brynn told me he'd watched me from across the room all night. In March they passed a photo around and described it for me, his hand on my back, both of us laughing at something. Kenzie said it was the cutest picture she'd ever seen.
My hand was already halfway to my glasses. I put it back in my lap.
If they knew, they'd have about three seconds to fix their faces. Chase would call it a joke, Kenzie would cry, and I'd spend the rest of my life believing whatever they told me next.
I didn't blow out the candles.
Somebody turned the lights back on. Kenzie grabbed for Chase's phone and he held it up out of her reach, and the two of them wrestled for it behind my chair, laughing, knocking my shoulder hard enough to rock the table.
"Kenzie, you're going to knock her over," Brynn said, laughing while she said it.
"Relax." Kenzie was out of breath. "He's basically my brother."
Nobody at that table looked up. The server started cutting the cake.
I found my cane and stood.
Kenzie got in front of me before I took a step, and her voice lost all of its sugar.
"Everybody drove out here for you. You didn't even blow out your candles and you're just leaving?"
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
The Lycan Kings and the White Wolf.
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
The rejected white luna
BROKEN TRUST
Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.
Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.
Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
The MC Hacker’s Stolen Princess
She did not come to find out her father had promised her to another man.
As the only daughter of Shane “Rook” Rourke, president of the Lost Coast Renegades MC, Taryn has always known club business comes first. But when Rook signs a treaty with the dangerous president of Iron Mesa, he crosses a line even she never imagined.
Safe passage through Arizona territory comes with a price.
Her.
Kellan Stroud is thirty, powerful, ruthless, and already waiting at Sturgis to meet the woman he expects to marry.
Taryn wants no part of him, no part of the agreement, and definitely no part of a future chosen for her by two men who think a signature is enough to decide where she belongs.
Then she meets Bobby Fuentes.
At twenty, Bobby is one of the youngest fully patched members of the Sons of Doom MC. He is quiet until he has something to say, dangerous when he needs to be, and smart enough to get into places no one else can. Hacking is what he does best.
Until Taryn gives him a new problem to solve.
One reckless connection at Sturgis becomes something neither of them can ignore, and when Bobby realizes exactly what Rook has promised away, walking away stops being an option.
But stealing another president’s future wife is not a misunderstanding.
It is an insult.
A betrayal.
And in the MC world, it can mean war.
Taryn refuses to be anyone’s property.
Bobby has never been good at following rules.
And Kellan Stroud does not forgive what he believes belongs to him.
The road out of Sturgis may cost them everything first.
Filled, Owned, and Fucked by My Best Friend’s Father
He was supposed to be off-limits. Untouchable. The kind of man you only fantasize about when you’re alone in the dark with your hand between your thighs.
But the night I caught him eating another woman alive by the pool, I couldn’t look away.
And he knew it.
The moment his dark eyes locked on mine through the glass, I became prey. His filthy smirk promised one thing—he saw me touching myself to him, and he wasn’t about to let me forget it.
Now, every time I’m in his house, I can’t breathe without thinking of his mouth between my legs.
I left my cheating boyfriend behind, only to fall into something even more dangerous:
a man who could ruin me, break me, and make me beg for his cock while his own daughter sleeps in the next room.
He’s too old. Too powerful. Too forbidden.
But Gianni doesn’t ask—he takes.
And I don’t want him to stop.
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Tempted By The Enemy
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
Faking It With My Worst Enemy On Ice
But on his birthday, everything falls apart when his girlfriend exposes Clare's most humiliating secret in front of the entire team.
Just when Clare is ready to disappear, Rhys Calloway, her worst enemy and the team's arrogant captain, pulls her into his arms and tells everyone she is his girlfriend.
She should have pushed him away, but she kissed him back instead.
Now Clare is locked into a two-month fake relationship with the most infuriating man she has ever met, trying to get over a stepbrother who never cared and survive a captain who makes her forget why she was supposed to hate him.
The problem is that Rhys kisses like he means every single second of it, and just when Clare starts to move on, Zane decides he wants her back.
One girl, two hockey players, and a heart that was never supposed to feel this much. Will she choose the stepbrother who broke her or the enemy who caught her when she fell?
Rejected By My Family, Desired By The Mafia
While the real heiress struggled to survive, the nanny’s daughter, Talia, was raised in luxury as the beloved jewel of the Laurent family, pampered by Camille’s parents, adored by her three brothers, and even promised to the prestigious Matteo Devereux through a childhood engagement arranged by their grandparents.
Then the truth came out.
Six months ago, Camille was finally brought back to the Laurent family. To protect the family reputation and prove their devotion to their bloodline, the Laurent patriarch transferred 35% of his personal shares into Camille’s name overnight, instantly making her one of the wealthiest heiresses in the country.
It brought anxiety to all the Laurent family. But what they don’t know…is that Camille never needed them.
Behind her elegant smile lies a woman filled with secrets powerful enough to shake the whole family. She's a miraculous healer capable of curing the incurable poisons.
Yet despite everything, her family still chooses Talia.
Every accusation against Talia is forgiven. Every scheme against Camille is brushed aside. Even Matteo, the man who was supposed to be Camille’s fiancé—cannot let go of the woman he always believed belonged by his side.
But while the Laurent family underestimates Camille, another man begins to see exactly who she is.
Dante Moretti.
The ruthless heir of an old-money dynasty. A billionaire CEO worshipped by the public…and the merciless king of a criminal empire hidden beneath the city’s glittering surface. When Dante is poisoned by a rival syndicate with a deadly toxin no doctor can cure, he offers a fortune for anyone who can save him.
Only Camille can. Their deal is simple: she becomes his personal physician, and he gives her anything she wants.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
