Page 43

Serenity

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

“Serenity?” Debra shrieks, looking at my foot, horrified.

“Someone filled my shoe with blades. Call Ares, please.”

She looks dazed as I examine my foot. There are tiny cuts all over, the kind you get from razor blades. They’re not deep cuts, but they’re bleeding a lot, and I start to cry, not because of the pain, but because I know it means I won’t dance for weeks. Maybe more than a month.

Automatically, I look back, but I know there’s no one hiding in here. Security checked the dressing room.

“Call, Ares, Debra. The person who did this could still be out there!” My voice sounds a little hysterical with panic.

She finally seems to wake up from her trance, but she doesn’t even get to the door before it opens with a bang.

“Ares . . .” I hate that my voice sounds whiny, but I break down when I see him. I show him my foot, and without saying a word, I know he understands that besides fear, the reason I’m crying is because this is going to ruin my season.

He approaches me and picks me up. He kisses my forehead and then carries me into the hallway.

“Where are we going?”

“To the hospital, to have your foot seen to.”

“Ares!” Debra calls.

“Warn my brothers, Debra,” he orders. “Have them check all the cameras. I’m going to get her out of here.”

Ares

Hours later

“They were superficial injuries,” Zeus says, as I pace the corridor of Athanasios’s hospital.

As the family came to watch her debut, they are all with me right now.

“I checked the cameras. No strangers entered the dressing room. The only people other than our family were the mentor, Debra, and the nanny, JeAnne,” Odin says.

“JeAnne?”

“Yes.”

“But she didn’t come to the premiere. She said she was feeling ill,” I say.

Odin takes his phone out of his suit jacket and after unlocking it, accesses the photographs and videos.

Seconds later, I confirm what he said. JeAnne snuck into the dressing room.

“I want these images to be handed over to the police,” I say, distrust starting to settle inside me.

“I’ve already done that. They should be arriving at Serenity’s apartment right now to take JeAnne to the police station. She will have to give a statement.”

“Do you think it was her?” I ask.

“There is no other possible answer.”

“Why would the woman who cared for Serenity her entire life harm her by doing something like that?” Hades asks as he approaches.

“We don’t know yet,” Odin says, “but I think it was her. Ares told me that when Serenity came to New York, the excuse her nanny gave for not coming with her was that she was sick.”

“Yes. That’s what she implied, at least.”

“There is no record that she was admitted to any hospital for treatment,” says Odin. “She kept her normal routine in Louisiana before traveling here.”

“I suspected she was lying after she arrived here in New York,” I say. “She’s looking great. But even with the evidence that she was the one who put the blades in Serenity’s shoes, I still can’t understand why. Do you think it has something to do with her father’s ex-partner?”

At this point, all my brothers know about my girlfriend’s past, and like me, they are obsessed with unraveling this mystery.

“Perhaps,” Odin replies, “but why harm Serenity? Even if she hurt her, he wouldn’t gain access to her fortune. Furthermore, the man prospered anyway. He acquired his own assets. He’s rich.”

The phone rings, and when I look at the screen, I see that it’s one of my lawyers.

“Mr. Kostanidis, I was just contacted by a police detective about the incident with your . . .”

“With my girlfriend.”

“Yes. He has someone in custody, and I’d like to know if you want to watch her deposition.”

It’s standard procedure. As our name is known, when any incident is related to us, the police officers first contact our law firm.

“I’m coming to you. I’ll be at the police station in an hour. Do you think you can hold the statement until then?”

“Yes, I will find a way.”

“Did you hear that?” I ask my family when I hang up.

“Yes, and we are coming with you.”

“I need to see Serenity first.”

I go to her room, and when I get there, I see the women in my family—Zoe, Elina, Madison, Brooklyn, and Cici—as well as Debra, gathered around Serenity, who despite her sad face, seems calm.

“Could you excuse us for a moment?” I ask. They all start to leave, but I tell Debra, “Stay.”

She nods.

“Where is JeAnne?” Serenity asks as I sit on the edge of the bed.

I clench my jaw, controlling my anger. Today was supposed to be the most important day of her life. Serenity told me how she dreamed her whole life of becoming the prima ballerina of a major ballet company.

I cup her face and pull her in for a light kiss on the lips. For a few seconds, I consider hiding the truth, but then I decide it’s time for her to learn about her world and, perhaps, begin to unravel the mysteries of her past.

“In jail.”

“What?” she and Debra ask simultaneously.

“Apparently, she was the one who put the blades in your shoe.”

I push the wheelchair into the room where Serenity will watch JeAnne’s testimony. There was no way to convince her not to come, and after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it would be better this way.

It’s how we handle grief. You have to see the person in the coffin yourself to make sure they are gone.

Serenity manages to get up because they gave her a powerful painkiller, but she is still limping and a little dizzy.

Only my cousins, brothers, and Debra came with us, all of whom couldn’t believe this shit.

We get to the living room, and almost like she did in my nightclub, when she watched the couple fucking, she puts her face against the glass. This time, however, she is shaking, broken, sad.

I position myself behind her to watch the woman who has cared for Serenity her entire life confess the truth.

She reveals how she put the blades inside the shoe and that her intention was to make it impossible for Serenity to continue performing.

When the detective asks her why she wanted to disrupt Serenity’s career, however, she says she will only tell me the truth.

The deposition doesn’t even last an hour, and when it ends, Serenity spins in my arms. “I want to see her.”

“Baby . . .”

“I need to see her, Ares. I’ll go in with you,” she says. “That woman took care of me like a mother.”

“She’s right,” Debra says. “We need to know why she did what she did.”

Five minutes later, with Serenity sitting in the wheelchair again, we enter the room where JeAnne is. When she sees us, she tries to get up, but I notice that she is handcuffed to the table.

“Why?” Serenity cries.

“To protect you,” she replies, her look completely insane. “They are coming, and they will not spare you. Run away with her, Ares. Get her out of here before it’s too late.”