“Do you know what you’re saying?” she demanded shakily. “After what you’ve done to me, after what you’ve made me do – you have the gall to come here and tell me you’ve loved me from the very beginning?”
“Yes.” His tone was unequivocal despite of the way he had grown white at her words.
“And you expect me to believe you, just like that?”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prove it.”
She shook her head. “There’s no need because I can tell you right now. I will never believe you.” She stood up, and so did he. “Thank you for your time, Mr. de Konigh, but I hope this is the last time we see each other again.”
A look of devastation flickered in his face before disappearing, so quickly that she told herself she had imagined it. And she had, she had, Serenity told herself.
“I don’t love him,” she whispered, but even to herself the words sounded like the lie that it was. Her throat tightened, and she could barely choke the words past her tears. “I don’t love him. I don’t. I don’t.”
But still, it sounded like a lie.
She remembered the times that were oh so good between them. The time he had given Serenity her first pair of custom-designed shoes, the time he had taken her in his arms.
But right next to those memories were those that hurt, that might always hurt like wounds that had no way of healing. She remembered the way his lips had felt so cold under hers the first time she had kissed him. She remembered the way she had begged him, remembered the way her injured muscles strained to support her as she tried to run after him.
Slowly, the tears fell.
And the moment she started to cry, she could no longer stop.
He loved her, the billionaire said.
But no matter what he said, she knew it could not be true.
True love did not betray. True love did not lie. True love did not hurt.
And in her innocence and inexperience, Serenity believed this to be true. She believed it so much that soon her tears turned her emotions into a feverish desire for revenge. She would make the billionaire pay. She would make him take a dose of his own medicine.
She would make him fall for her and then humiliate him the way he had humiliated her.
****
“Hey there,” Willow Somerset-Manolis greeted sleepily when she saw her friend hovering awkwardly by the doorway. She was a violet-eyed brunette, petite and curvy, and – due to the doctor’s strict orders – was on enforced bed rest.
“Hello.” Serenity’s voice was grave, and she didn’t move from her position as she continued in the same tone, “I only wanted you to know I’ve arrived.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Stop being so formal and come in here.” She pushed herself up to a sitting position and, while waiting for Serenity to reach her, she took quick but careful note of the girl’s face. What she saw didn’t please her at all.
Serenity sat gingerly at the foot of the bed, fearful of making any movement that might cause the pregnant woman pain. When their gazes met, she blurted out, “You seem to get bigger every time we meet.”
Willow grimaced. “Why do you have to be tactless just with me?”
Serenity flushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just that…” She shook her head. “But you really are huge.”
Willow couldn’t help chuckling at Serenity’s worried tone. “Relax. How many times do I have to tell you? This is perfectly normal for someone who’s carrying twins, and then there’s the fact that Stavros isn’t exactly petite.”
Serenity wrinkled her nose at the mention of the Greek billionaire’s name. “I still think he’s made you pregnant too early, and it’s just his way of chaining you to him so that when you’ve regained your senses and realize he doesn’t deserve you, it will be too late, and you won’t be able to leave him.” Even now, Serenity couldn’t quite make herself forget completely all the things her friend had suffered in the name of love. In her opinion, Stavros Manolis would never deserve her friend, and it was something she had not attempted to hide from the billionaire.
Like now.
The door behind her opened, and when she glanced over her shoulder, Serenity and Stavros both grimaced upon seeing each other.
“I see your baby lioness has arrived to protect you,” Stavros murmured as he strode into the room. “She’s found out about my latest affair, hasn’t she?”
Serenity gasped. “How could you?”
Willow shook her head in amusement. “Stavros, you must stop teasing her. She’ll never—” The rest of her words was cut off as her husband gave her an open-mouthed kiss as soon as he reached her side.
When he straightened, Serenity was furiously blushing, and so was his wife. “I hate you,” Willow grumbled. “You’re supposed to be conservative, you know.” But her violet eyes were full of love and desire as they rested on Stavros’ face.
“It’s just a kiss between husband and wife,” he said with sham innocence as he lowered himself to the chair next to her. “Even when I did have an affair.”
Serenity made a face. “Ha. Ha. Ha.” But she was still reprimanding herself for once again falling for the Greek billionaire’s prank.
Stretching his legs while holding his wife’s hand in his lap, he told Serenity, “You have a male visitor waiting for you downstairs.”
Willow’s head snapped in her friend’s direction. “A classmate?”
Serenity’s heart started beating hard. Surely, it couldn’t be…surely, it wasn’t—
After throwing the younger girl an odd look, Stavros answered his wife, saying, “It’s Willem.”
Serenity paled. It was him.
Willow was squealing for joy, crowing to Serenity, “I told you he’d come running back and beg you to return to him.” But to her surprise, her friend started vehemently shaking her head.
“It’s n-not like that at all.” She chewed on her lip, her conscience wrestling with her desire for vengeance, which had grown to life the moment she heard Stavros’ name. Her fingers clenched and unclenched as she felt Willow’s curious gaze rest on her. She said haltingly, “I d-didn’t t-tell you everything about what happened.” Swallowing hard, she continued faintly, “He and I didn’t just have a fight over S-Shane. H-he made me think we were together, but then one night I saw him…” Her memories started beating her up like a punching bag, and she took quick, shallow breaths in an effort to control herself. “I saw him, Willow, coming out from my sister’s room.”
Willow bit back a cry, and she felt Stavros’ fingers tighten around hers, her husband knowing instinctively when to lend her his strength. She had experienced something like what Serenity had described with Stavros once, and the only reason she had been able to survive it was because she had known, even when she had heard the man she loved fucking another woman in the room next to her, Stavros had only done it because he thought he had betrayed her.
But this, with Serenity and her Dutch billionaire, was different.
“Serenity, I’m sorry,” she whispered helplessly.
Serenity quickly wiped her eyes. “It’s alright. He never did tell me—” Her voice caught. “He never did tell me he loved me.” She gulped back a sob. “But he…he made me believe I was the only one. He k-knew I thought I was s-special, when I was…not.”
****
Willem came to his feet as soon as the door to the private living room opened. But instead of Serenity, it was the house’s owner himself who had come to meet him, and he was not entirely surprised by this.
“Willem.”