Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
She said between dry lips, “But that could be faked.”
“Do you really think I’d go to such lengths to lie to you?” Helios demanded. “I wouldn’t—”
She whispered, “If you really loved me, you would.”
This time, Helios cursed out loud, realizing how neatly MJ had trapped him, probably even without planning to. “MJ, dammit, I swear to you, I haven’t even fucking left the school since we broke up, and that’s the goddamn truth. I love you – just you, and it will always be you. Can’t you make yourself believe that?”
Before she could answer, her own phone rang. She answered it unthinkingly and was surprised to hear it was Jack. She had come to know the other guy fairly well, with both of them into photography.
Helios stiffened when he heard MJ say another guy’s name. It was that asshole again. MJ had admitted to him long before that Jack was more Katya’s friend than hers, but he wasn’t buying it. He had seen the way Jack looked at MJ and knew the interest wasn’t platonic.
When he heard MJ citing a time and place to meet, he reached for her phone without thinking, snatching it out of her hand and ending the call.
“Helios!” MJ’s face was full of indignation.
So she would only say his name out of anger?
In one move, he had her against the wall, hands slamming on each side of her face like a cage. She tried to get away, but there was no escaping and they both knew it.
“Let me go,” MJ muttered.
“Why are you meeting up with that man?”
She looked away as she answered, “It’s none of your busi—”
“It is my business because I love you,” he growled.
“Do you really?” she asked tightly.
“What else do I have to do, dammit? I’ve bared my fucking heart a thousand times. I’ve let you trample on my pride a thousand times more. What else do you fucking need to believe that I love you?”
Tears slipped through her tightly squeezed eyes at his words. MJ knew what he said was true, and she also knew that not believing him was more her fault than his. “I don’t know,” she said finally, wearily. “Every time I want to believe you, something like this happens and I just don’t think...I don’t think I’m cut out for it.”
This time, when she pushed him off her, he let her, and somehow this terrified her. But she didn’t let her fear show, and only the quiver in her voice betrayed her emotions as she whispered, “I don’t think it’s you this time. I think it’s all me. You did your best to be normal, but you...can’t.”
“Stop talking,” Helios said between clenched teeth, his body tense for he already knew what she was about to say, and he didn’t want to hear it.
“You’re Helios Andreadis, and I’m me—”
“I said stop talking,” he roared.
“—and I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough for you.”
The words fell between them like the most fragile glass shattering in the ground, never to be pieced back together again.
A raw look crossed Helios’ face as he looked at MJ, making her cover her mouth because she knew any time now, she would start breaking down.
“Is that it? The first sign of trouble and you bail out? Is that what ‘normal’ fucking means?”
She shook her head, crying silently at the look of betrayal in his gaze. “It just won’t work. You deserve better—”
“No. Don’t do that. Don’t fucking say that. This time, let’s have it all fucking out in the open. You’re the one who wants me to change, and you’re the one who thinks I haven’t changed enough. So this?” Bitterness colored his voice. “You’re the one thinking I’m not good enough for you.”
Chapter Nine
IT WAS ONLY WHEN EVERYONE was settled in their seats in the common room of the Afxisi’s private jet that Kellion finally asked, “How did MJ take the news?”
Helios answered curtly, “She dumped me.”
Silence.
“Fuck.” Andreus was the first to speak. “Did you explain to her that the photo was taken years ago?”
“She doesn’t believe me.”
“You want me to talk to her?” Yuri offered.
Helios shook his head. “This is between the two of us. We’ll find a way to fix it.” And they would, he vowed. If he had more time, he would have forced MJ to stop being blind to the truth. She still loved him. He could feel it, even if she never spoke of it. He could see it in the way she looked at him when she thought he was busy with something else. Only a girl who was fucking in love would be able to gaze at a guy’s sleeping face (or at least someone who was pretending to be asleep) for hours without ending up sick of it. She did all the things a girl in love did except say the words.