Forever After All(46)

“You’re a fucking embarrassment, Elena. What the fuck do you think you’re doing, sitting in someone’s lap like a fucking prostitute? You’d better get up right now, or so help me God,” Matthew hisses, his voice low.

His words wound me, but after years of him hurling abuses at me, the impact is dampened. It doesn’t sting the way it used to. Now it’s just a dull ache, the type of pain you experience when you know you’re holding onto something that you should’ve let go long ago. I look at him, and I barely recognize him. In the years since Mom fell into a coma, he’s strayed further and further from the brother I grew up with. We were never close, but he was never cruel either, the way he is now.

Alexander chuckles at Matthew’s words and presses a kiss to my shoulder, ignoring him.

“You stupid little girl. He’s using you. You think it’s you he wants? It’s not. You’re just a fucking pawn.”

Alexander looks up at Matthew. “So what? So what if I’m using your sister?” he asks, his voice low. My heart twists painfully at those words. I know I don’t mean a thing to him. I know he’s just using me. But half the time he makes it so easy to forget that. He makes it too easy to fool myself into believing that what we have could be real one day. It’s things like asking me to call him Alec, when that’s only reserved for those closest to him. It’s him acting jealous constantly and publicly claiming me as his that gives me the wrong idea. It gives me hope, and hope is the most cruel emotion of all. I glance at Matthew, a bittersweet smile on my face. If given a choice, I’d pick his cruel words over Alexander’s sugar-coated lies any day.

Matthew grinds his jaws. “You need to stay the fuck away from my sister, Alexander.”

Alexander chuckles, the sound sending a chill down my spine. “The way you stayed away from my fiancée?”

Matthew smiles and looks at me. His smug expression just adds to the pain Alexander’s words inflicted. I know it’s Jennifer he loves, but being confronted with it like this hurts. I glance at her, and the satisfied glint in her eyes kills me. She knows that even though it’s me in his arms, he’s not over her.

“I told you, Elena. There it is. That’s all you are to him.”

Matthew shakes his head and takes a step back, his anger waning, until all that’s left is annoyance.

“You want her, Alexander? You can have her. You think I care about her? Nah. You’re embarrassing me, I’ll give you that, but I’ll survive the reputational damage my slut of a sister is doing. But this? This won’t hurt me.” He laughs, the sound chilling. “You picked the wrong sister. This one I don’t give a fuck about.”

Matthew smiles and wraps his arm around Jennifer. He looks at Jennifer and pulls her toward him, kissing her, putting on a show for Alexander. He tightens his grip on me, and my heart shatters. He’s holding me while pining after someone else.

Matthew smiles and grabs Jennifer’s hand. I watch them walk away, Matthew’s words reverberate through my mind. My eyes fall shut and I inhale shakily.

“You got what you wanted,” I say, my voice breaking. “You’ve thrown me in Matthew and Jennifer’s face. He was right, you know? You’ve treated me like some sort of call girl tonight—and I let you. Because you’re right, Alexander. You own me. Is this enough now? Have you embarrassed me enough?”

He tightens his grip on me, his arms wrapped around me tightly. “Elena, there’s nothing shameful about sitting in my lap. No one knows anything more than that happened. That was just between you and I. If I wanted to treat you like a call girl, I’d have had you on your knees, sucking my dick for everyone to see. Instead, it’s your pleasure I was after. You’re letting your brother get into your head.”

I inhale deeply, trying my best to believe his words. “Was he wrong, though? You’re using me. I don’t mean a thing to you. You’re no different to my brother, Alexander. I’m just a tool to you.”

His lips graze against my ear, his voice soft yet harsh. “And you’re no different to Jennifer,” he whispers. “You’re disloyal. At least Jen never would’ve had my brother pick her fucking underwear, Elena. She’s a cheating bitch, but even she never would’ve stooped that low.”

I let my eyes flutter closed, helplessness overwhelming me. Alexander and I… we’re on a collision course. The way we’re headed… there’s no saving us. And this time, I’m to blame. He’s never going to forgive me for Lucian’s antics.





Chapter 33





E lena



“Don’t worry. She’ll wake up. Your mother and I have been friends since we were kids. She’s one of the strongest women I know. Don’t give up hope, sweetie.”

Sofia holds my hand tightly as we sit next to my mom’s hospital bed. She’s been accompanying me to see my mother once a week for a while now. She’ll sit here for hours and just talk to my mother about their childhood memories, about Lucian, Alexander and me. I like to think that my mother can hear her, and that the happy memories will help her want to wake up.

Today Sofia has been far more quiet than usual, and I know she’s worried about Alexander and me. He and I have barely spoken recently, and I can tell that it’s affecting her. Usually, we’d have dinner with her every other night or so, and the way Alexander would joke with her, the affection he’d display toward me, it’s always made her happy. Now he doesn’t even bother putting on an act for his mother anymore. He mostly ignores me, and it’s worrying Sofia.