Page 52

I turn her in my arms. “What do you want?”
“Let’s eat and watch the sunset,” she says.
I should be frustrated by her evasive answer, but her stubbornness to admit what she desires only excites me more.
“You can serve us, Juneau,” I tell my chef, my eyes never leaving hers. “Miss Foster is famished, even if she doesn’t know it yet.”
Athanasios
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
"Zeus toldme that if I want to go back to work, I can choose one of his companies or even one of his brothers'," she says, popping a strawberry into her mouth. I watch the motion, slightly mesmerized.
The staff set up a table on the deck, and as we eat, we watch the sun sink into the water.
I can tell Brooklyn is nervous, trying to fill the silence with conversation. I like that—seeing her restless, anxious. It’s a fitting lesson for someone who needs to stop lying about what her body truly craves.
"I thought you said you loved your old profession," I finally reply, forcing myself to engage in the conversation, though mundane chatter is the last thing on my mind right now.
"I really do love it. But I know that no matter how much I've recovered, I won't be able to handle running around all day just yet. Working in a salon isn’t easy. Beyond the constant hustle, there's also the physical strain of using scissors and blow dryers all day long."
"Why did you choose that profession?"
"You’ll think I’m sentimental if I tell you."
"I don’t make a habit of judging people, Brooklyn. I analyze facts and draw conclusions."
"Alright. When we were little, Madison and I didn’t have many friends, but there was one girl, Lorine, who we liked a lot. She lived in the same building as our family. If Madison and I had it tough, her life was a thousand times worse. Her parents were drunks. At the time, we were too young to understand alcoholism, but we saw the bruises on her arms. They hurt her."
"No one noticed?"
"I don’t know. Now that I’m an adult, I realize that some people prefer to look the other way instead of stepping in to stop something they know is wrong but think isn’t their problem. Anyway, Madison and I were tough. We had to be. My sister even more so than me. We couldn’t stand seeing those monsters hurt Lorine. We told a teacher. Looking back, I think the teacher knew but chose to ignore it."
"Why do you think that?"
"If I were a teacher and suspected one of my students was being mistreated, I wouldn’t call their abusers to ask if it were true. I’d call the authorities to investigate."
"She called the girl's parents?"
"Yes. They beat her so badly after that call that Lorine couldn’t go to school for almost a week. The irony is that no one checked on her. Neither the principal nor the teacher followed up to find out why she was absent. It was as if everything we’d said had been forgotten. Madison and I were furious and decided we’d go to the police ourselves." She shakes her head with a sad smile.
"What?"
"We were so naïve. The tragedy of being a child is thinking you can fix everything."
"What happened?"
"Lorine begged us not to. She said it would only make things worse. She was in terrible shape, Athanasios. Hurt badly. So I came up with an idea to make her happy: I’d sneak into her house as soon as her parents left and style her curly hair differently every day. She’d smile, happy. Her face was swollen, and I’m sure she was in pain, but she still managed to find some joy."
I feel my jaw tighten. Few things stir real emotion in me. Abusers of children ignite my rage. "Where is she now?"
"I don’t know. They moved not long after, and we were too young to try and find her. I even looked for her as an adult but couldn’t find her on any social media. Still, I never stopped thinking about her and how I was able to make her happy with my hairstyles. That’s one thing I’ve learned about us women: no matter how strong or tough we are, a good hairstyle and a new outfit always works wonders."
The corner of my mouth twitches upward. It’s impossible to remain indifferent to her. Brooklyn doesn’t just have a beautiful face and an incredible body. I admire what I see inside her as well.
"Have you ever thought about opening your own salon?"
"Of course. That was the plan before I got pregnant. Madison was going to start college for dance, and I was going to get rich styling celebrities. I even thought about volunteering at hospitals and nursing homes—offering beauty days for long-term patients or elderly people forgotten by their families."