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Fresh tears well in her eyes as her bottom lip trembles and for a split second, I actually feel bad for her. Believe she’s remorseful or maybe afraid.

Until I remember how despondent the three of us were when we received news she’d aborted our child and skipped town with some douche of her father’s choosing. The least she could have done was say fuck you to our faces.

Or maybe just not bother telling us about the baby in the first place. Letting her go might have been easier had we not been making plans to build a life with her, a family, had Kato not approached his father with the news.

That one night changed the trajectory of our futures.

And she thinks a few tears will be enough to sway me, to change our plans.

Fuck her. Fuck this whore.

Leaning back in my chair again, I nod at Nico to finish. I don’t give a shit if the lines are wavy. I don’t give a shit if he digs that needle too deep and draws blood. In fact, I hope that shit hurts.

As many times as I’ve had needles pierce my skin, none of that pain has ever or will ever come close to the agony I suffered for months…longer than fucking months because of her.

Nico leans over her, raising his eyes and one brow as though to ask whether I was sure, then goes back to work at my nod.

She sniffles and blinks rapidly a few times, like she’s trying to clear the tears.

When she drops her head back against the bed she’s lying on and turns her eyes to the ceiling, it feels as though she mightfinally be accepting there isn’t a thing she can say that will change anything.

“Will you at least tell me what happened to Mr. Antoniou?” she asks, her voice soft as she stares up at the ceiling.

She isn’t crying or flinching away from Nico’s work, but I can see the pain in the tightness around her eyes and the white knuckle hold she has on the sweater I tucked over her tits.

Tilting my head, I watch her a few seconds, trying to decide whether this is another fucking act. She has to know what happened to him. No way would her father not have celebrated and shared that little nugget of information.

When I don’t speak, she rolls her head to look at me. Everest has always been a shit liar. So when she watches me expectantly, I’m surprised to find actual curiosity in the depths of her pale gray eyes.

“Kato killed him,” I state. Nico knows this piece of information, too. I’m pretty sure there isn’t much that hasn’t been said in this room.

Her lips part on a soft gasp, her brows shoot up to her hairline, and her eyes go wide.

“What? Why? When…why would he kill his dad?”

“It was either him or you,” I say with a shrug.

Chapter 10

Everest

“It was either him or you.”

I blink. Then blink again, all the while trying to completely ignore the stinging tear of my flesh under the nonstop buzzing of the tattoo gun. This fucking thing is going to be huge. There will literally be no way for me to hide it except under clothes.

I’m pretty sure that was exactly why Brix chose the design and location; to paint my skin with his ownership. Making a public spectacle of me isn’t enough, plastering the news of my engagement to Kato Antoniou isn’t enough.

No. Now I’ll have this huge glaring reminder front and center on my chest.

I know why he chose across my chest instead of down – no way would the ink have stayed vibrant over the raised scarring of both the original initials and the savage ruin of those beautiful displays of commitment and love.

There’s no love in Brix’s eyes as he looks down his nose at me, his big frame making the chair he’s reclining in look so small.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask, not bothering to lower my voice. Because Brix sure as fuck didn’t whisper when he announced in front of who is apparently his former lover that Kato had killed his own father.

I’m not sure which new fact has me more confused.

Nah. That’s not true. I’m confused over the new information that, apparently, Brix isn’t picky when it comes to his bedmates.