Page 22

It was nice to see the mask of pride and happiness fall off Selene’s face, leaving behind a look of rage.
Truth is the most deadly weapon there is.
And Lena was really happy with how this weapon worked at that moment. She didn’t waste any more time and turned around. As she was going away, she heard Selene below.
“You bitch! I should have just…”
For some reason, Selene stopped in the middle of a sentence and didn’t finish the pointless threat she had planned to throw at her. Lena sighed and relaxed her shoulders as she walked away from the annoying woman.
But Selene wasn’t done yet. It seems that she has one last weapon stashed in her stock for the concluding section. “He asked me to marry him. We’re getting married, and soon you’ll see him throwing the divorce papers in your face,” Selene said. “That’s what a dirty woman like you deserves.”
Lena stopped in her tracks as she heard the news. Her heart stopped for a second, and her stomach hurt a lot.
So, they were about to tie the knot.
As the engine roared and the car drove away, she heard a door slam shut.
That night, exactly like they had planned, Lena sank back into the warm water of a bathtub. A faint smell of flowers and vanilla filled the air, and the warm water eased the knots in her stiff shoulders. The meds she was taking were keeping the pain from her tumor at bay, so that was one less thing to worry about.
It didn’t help with the ache inside her, though. Her sadness was here to stay. And it looked like this was her only eternity.
She had known for a long time that Kellen and her love were over. It had shriveled up faster than a handful of sand could slip between one’s fingers.
But hearing of his upcoming new marriage still ached like a dagger cutting up an old wound. She had failed every time she attempted to get rid of the affection she had for him.
Did she have to ask Kellen one day how to get over him? How do you stop loving? He was doing a very good job of it, and she was bewildered because she thought she was the only one in the world who loved someone so much that it was killing her more than the disease did.
Lena shut her eyes tight. Tears ran down the sides of her temples and into the hot water, which rippled because she was shaking.
She despised him for putting her through so much anguish. And she despised herself for letting him have that power.
Kellen’s face was harsh, and his eyes were focused. “You’ll never insult Selene again,” he said.
Lena groaned and didn’t take her eyes off the file in her fingers.
The next day, after Kellen met Selene, he barged into her cabin without warning. At first, Lena jumped in surprise from where she was standing in front of her desk, but then she got quite angry.
Selene would definitely hurry back to her new dad and tell him that Lena was rude to her on the street. But it looked like Selene had failed to say one key thing about the whole thing.
Kellen said, “I’m talking to you, woman.”  “Look at me.”
Lena didn’t listen to what he said. It may go to hell with him.
She said, “I guess she forgot to tell you that it was she who stopped me on my way home and started what I just ended.”
“But I’ve heard that it’s the other way around,” Kellen said angrily. “You called my fiancée a name that hurt her feelings…”
What? Mistress? Wasn’t Selene just that before Kellen ended his current marriage?
Kellen stopped right there, and Lena finally glanced up, her stomach churning.
It was funny how easily he could believe all the falsehoods, yet he got so defensive about one clear fact.
Lena was able to grin with her lips closed.
Lena said, “I don’t expect you to believe me.” She really didn’t anticipate anything good from him, only pain and cruel remarks. “Anyway, I don’t see anything wrong with what I said. It’s not my fault that the truth hurt someone.”
In a split second, Kellen was on Lena’s face. He grabbed her elbows hard, and the file fell out of her grasp. She felt her b**t grinding into the edge of her desk as Kellen’s big body loomed over her small body, and her perfume surrounded her in a very personal way.
“You have no right to try to humiliate others when you haven’t been any better yourself,” Kellen said with a furious sneer. His words were as poisonous as the night he destroyed her heart…  a long time ago. “Did you forget about the terrible things you’ve done, Lena?”
His fingers were getting tighter around her elbows, almost breaking through the skin.
Lena fought the temptation to hiss in anguish, but her face could have given it away, and she felt Kellen’s grip slack a little. She used it as her moment, shook her arms free, and pushed her hands against his strong chest, trying to push him away with all her effort. He didn’t move much, though, because she was so weak.
“Out of all people, you don’t have to remind me of what I’ve done,” she whispered and shouted, praying that no one heard through the thin walls of her modest hut. “I know exactly what I’ve done and what I haven’t done, and I don’t need to explain myself to hypocrites like you. Not ever again!”
That just made Kellen more angry. He was only a few inches away from her, but now he was bending down, closing that gap, too. Lena couldn’t even move back because the desk was in the way. She just leaned back as much as she could with her upper body. But Kellen didn’t give up until their pelvises were pushed against one other, which made Lena gasp.
“You make me so angry,” Kellen muttered through clenched teeth, his gaze full of fury and a hint of want.
Lena was thrown off by how strange and exciting his combination of feelings was.
He put his hand on her hip, and her whole body shook.
“Kellen!” she said softly.
It was as if hearing her say his name had sparked something in him. He whimpered a little and moved his face down till their noses touched very tenderly.
“How can you still do this to me?!” his confused voice said in a worried tone. It seemed like he was talking to himself.
His lips brushed against hers lightly, making her dizzy from a very old, familiar addiction. Her heart raced a million times faster than her breath.
The door suddenly burst open, and Lola rushed in, full of energy. “Lena baby!!! Did you see this?” Lola was too busy flipping through the magazines in her hands to pay attention. “It’s clear that Kellen’s not just a maniac but a perverted two-timing scoundrel to dip his anchor between that slutty supermodel’s legs permanently while chasing you like a frustrated wolfy everywhere! Just look at what they’ve written over here…,” and the rest of Lola’s words trailed off as she finally looked up from the magazines to focus on the very much glued bodies of Kellen and Lena before her.
Lola’s eyes got bigger when she saw Kellen. The next minute, her scream rang out through the store. She looked embarrassed, perhaps because she had just said awful things about the individual without any filter. Was directly in front of her and, from the looks of it, had heard everything while they were in a very uncommon, private circumstance.
Lena finally got her senses back and pushed Kellen away again. But that wasn’t necessary because Kellen was already backing away on his own.
Kellen cleared his throat, and then, a second later, he was out of there in a rage, leaving Lola speechless.
Lena groaned in anger, her cheeks crimson. She turned back, away from Lola, and slapped her shaking hands on the tabletop.
She loathed him for still influencing her to this level.   She loathed herself for giving him that power.
It was funny how Kellen could make her already bad self much worse.
“Lena!” Lola screamed. “What the hell was that back there?”
Lena clenched her eyes tightly and drew a big, nervous breath. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Lola got closer. “It didn’t seem like nothing, Lena,” she said, and then she screamed again. “Lena! What—oh my—are you okay?”
Lena was having trouble breathing; her mind was spinning, and she felt tired as when she was in the hospital. She couldn’t say anything because an ache that was becoming quite familiar to her suddenly started in her head and got worse with each passing second.
Lena remembered that she had forgotten to take her prescription that morning.
Lola instantly ran up to her in a panic and gripped Lena’s shoulders. “I need to call the doctor—”
“No—just—” Lena was groaning now because the agony was so bad that it made her eyes ache. Lola helped her get to the chair.
Lena had to work hard to gesture to her purse on the opposite side of the desk, but Lola got it right away.