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"I can come in with you," my boyfriend says.
"No. You can watch, if you want, through the glass, but I have to do this alone."
I tried to imagine what it would feel like when we finally met again, but after ten minutes of sitting across from her, it's like looking at a stranger.
Ares told me he's spiteful, that the whole family is. He confessed that he loves with the same intensity as he hates. I'm not like that. I think I have an abnormal ability to “unlove,” but it doesn’t turn into hatred.
I didn't know if seeing JeAnne would stir my emotions. I thought I was going to feel angry, but there's just an immense emptiness inside me.
She's been talking non-stop since I arrived. She’s tried to justify her actions, toyed with my memory, remembering happy moments, and talked about my mother too.
None of this has made my heart soften like I thought it would.
"You used me."
"No, Serenity, I?—"
"You did. I was an instrument for your ambition; you created me within a lie. You planned, deceived, inserted false memories. Along with that unfortunate man, you stole the life of the Blanchets' daughter."
Edgar Hazen was never heard from again, and I have a suspicion that the Kostanidou had something to do with his disappearance, but I haven’t asked Ares about it, nor will I.
"I need your forgiveness, Serenity. I know I will spend my whole life behind bars, but at least give me your forgiveness.”
I stand up, still staring at her. "It’s God who has to forgive you. He is the one who grants forgiveness even to people like you. As for me, I intend to forget you ever existed. If I ever forgive you, it won't be for you. It will be for myself."
Ares
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Eight months later
GREECE
"I don't like surprises,"Serenity shouts, smiling, when I carry her out of the sea on my shoulders.
I spank her ass. "Liar."
"Okay, I love surprises, but I don't want to go in to eat yet. The sea is delicious."
I turn my head and bite her hip. "Youare delicious."
"So that’s what you came to get me for?"
"Forwhat?" I ask when we arrive at the house, emphasizing the last word.
It doesn't matter that I currently know her body better than I know my own, Serenity still has a hint of a girl who is shy about saying dirty things inside her.
"You know what I mean." She rolls her eyes when I put her on her feet and hold her chin.
"No. Explain it to me. By ‘that,’ do you mean putting you on all fours on the edge of the bed and sticking my dick down your throat until you make me come?" She shifts her weight onto her other leg, and I know she's excited. "Or do you mean me lying down and making you ride me hard? Or maybe?—"
She doesn't let me finish, jumping into my arms.
When I catch her, she wraps her arms around my neck, her pupils dilated with excitement, licking her lips. "I can't choose just one option, so I'm going to take them all."
“You're shameless, Miss Lawrence,” I say, biting her lower lip.
As always happens when I use her mother's surname to refer to her, Serenity gives me the most beautiful smile in the fucking world. "What are we waiting for, then?"