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“You hurt me,” I whisper, and the words make my own heart wrench in pain. I’ve loved them unconditionally. I was going to marry a stranger because of that love. I couldn’t bear the idea of my mum losing everything, but it was all a lie.
They played me. Manipulated me to save their skin, allowing me to lose everything.
“Evangeline, please, we’ll lose everything,” she begs; pain dripping from her lips.
“For once, I don’t care,” I whisper, and my eyes snap up as my brother walks inside the room. Right away, he knows that something is wrong when his eyes fall on Mum. He quickly straightens his back and looks at me.
My cold stare connects with his. I’ll miss my mum, but my brother means nothing to me. I’ll only hold on to the memories of who he was when we were young.
I will love that person, but not this one.
“What’s going on?” he demands.
“The wedding is over. I’m not going to marry your buddy, Thomas Meyer.” His face falls like Mum’s had, but while she showed guilt quite quickly, Frederic’s demeanour changes to the one emotion he knows so well.
Anger.
“You are going to marry him,” Frederic whispers menacingly. Anger covers his face and those cold eyes hit mine.
“No,” I boldly state, “I will not marry him or anyone.” My heart beats in my throat, but I’ve never felt so powerful in my entire life. I’m fighting for what I want. For what I deserve and my brother will no longer be the villain in my story.
Because I slay the monster.
“You will marry today,” Frederic whispers. Like a predator hunting his prey, he walks my way.
“You don’t have any bullets to fire at me anymore, Frederic. None. Your lies came to light and your leverage vanished. I will not marry to save your skin,” I snarl when he comes to a stop in front of me.
“You’re fucked up,” I whisper. “I’ll not pay for your mistakes. Your hold on me is gone because now I hold the power. Selling trade secrets is a criminal offence, Frederic. Did you know that?” He sneers at me and his lips start to tremble.
“I fucking hate you. You played me like a doll and it almost worked, but it’s over. I fucking won.” I breathe in, while hate rolls over me. His brown eyes grow dark, evil, and in the blink of an eye, he grabs my arm painfully, tugging me against him.
My heart stops for a second when fear hits me even harder.
“Look at you,” I whisper with pain in my voice, “I loved you. You would have been a great man, a great brother, and I’ll forever miss the person you could have been.”
My heart breaks when nothing changes and I realise he’s gone.
“You bitch,” he lets out while tightening his grip on my arm, and I wince.
A throat is cleared and my eyes connect to the person standing next to us, and suddenly, a fist flies past me, hitting Frederic square on the jaw.
“Topper, Jesus,” I screech when Frederic loses his balance and tumbles against the mirror before falling down to the ground. A laugh leaves me when my best friend hugs his fist between his thighs.
“Shit, that hurt,” he whispers, and I walk his way.
“My hero,” I say, kissing his cheek. “But don’t ever do that again.”
The circus isn’t over yet though because a loud voice screams my name before another softer one yells something back, but the bad acoustics of the church make it difficult to differentiate between them, or to even figure out who’s having a fit about something.
But still, my heart starts to beat in my throat, and love fills my heart like a shot of adrenaline injected straight into it. My hands grow clammy, and I try to focus on the voices and what they are saying, but to my disappointment, they tell me nothing.
The closer they grow, the more erratic my heart beats, and that fire starts to burn once more.
“Evangeline,” Chester yells as he stands in the doorway, then with long strides, he walks towards me. I’m frozen in place. That’s my knight in shining armour, and at that very moment, my life turns even brighter, and my dreams of our happy ending are dusted off and resurfaced one by one.
Chester approaches me, and without a warning, he grabs my cheeks and kisses me hard. His lips breathe air into me. The air I’ve been missing this entire day. All the time we’ve spent apart.
He breathes love into me. Hope. I grab his cheeks and kiss him back. Suddenly, he pulls back, scanning the room with a look of confusion covering his features.
