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They didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, and when they had reached her home, she said stiffly, “Thank you for the ride, Mr. de Konigh.”

Fuck.

But before Willem could stop the girl from leaving, she was already gone.

And things changed yet again between them.



















Chapter Eight

FOR THE FIRST FEW MONTHSfollowing the disastrous meeting with Serenity’s doctor, Willem did his best to get everything back to normal footing with him and Serenity. But as he came to realize for himself, the younger girl’s stubbornness was like no one else’s.

She rarely, if ever, called him by his first name anymore, and eventually, he had stopped calling her his angel as well.

Gradually, the phone calls and emails lessened, Willem deliberately taking his time to reply until he had decided to just stop. He told himself it was better this way, told himself that doing so would prevent anyone from misunderstanding his platonic relationship with Serenity. He would soon learn, too late, that Serenity had spent numerous nights crying herself to sleep, waiting for an email – or a phone call – that never came.

The distance between Willem and Serenity grew even though neither of them wanted to admit it. Eventually, the billionaire had managed to bury all the memories they shared – and all the feelings that came with it. Eventually, Serenity really did become just what the world had come to call her.

Willem Jr.

The girl everyone believed was perfect enough to be Willem de Konigh’s right arm in business.

But for Serenity, it was the opposite.

There was not one day that she didn’t pray for her feelings to stop, not one day that she was able to forget how he had changed her life...and how he was both her light and her darkness.

Two years had already passed since that day in Dr. Fergus’ clinic, and she was still desperately, quietly in love with Willem de Konigh. She had thought she would be able to keep it to herself forever until one day, she saw for herself what love really was.

Her name was Willow Somerset, a 24-year-old junior editor from Greece, who was as fiery as Serenity was reserved. The older girl fascinated Serenity, with the way she hid nothing about her love, no matter how much she ended up being hurt by it.

The Greek billionaire Willow had fallen in love with did not, in Serenity’s opinion, deserve her friend at all. He was cruel, selfish, and ruthless. But for Willow, his imperfections were immaterial, and the only thing that mattered was her conviction that Stavros Manolis was the only man meant for her. Willow had believed in this so much that she had given everything up, fought and sacrificed everything just to have Stavros realize the same truth.

And, one day, Willow had succeeded.

The two were married now, and since that day, Serenity had become restless.

Hope began to burn inside her, causing her to toss and turn every night, wondering if she should do the same.