Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
“Hello, Hallie.”
The other woman’s smile could only be described as the bastard child of catty and condescending, but because Hallie didn’t want to be seen as an ex-girlfriend who wasn’t able to move on, she forced herself to play dumb and even managed to fake a smile. "Hi."
"I'm so sorry again about the last time. I actually meant to apologize that day, but the stress was just too much, and..." Monique made a show of placing a protective hand over her stomach. "I've never been the type to faint, you know?"
Just let it go, Hallie told herself. Just. Let. It. Go.
But people who liked to play games like Monique was doing had always been something Hallie couldn't stand, and so she heard herself ask baldly, "Are you pregnant?"
"I...ah..." Monique had hoped to make Hallie think she was pregnant, but as much as she wanted to lie about this, she could feel Andreus' gaze boring through hers, and she knew right away that one wrong word was all it would take to push him past his limits.
"No. I'm not." But because it grated on her so much to admit this, Monique simply couldn't resist adding, "Not for lack of trying, though."
Hallie only nodded, and as she turned to walk back to her seat, she didn't miss the infuriated expression that crossed the other woman's face. Monique had clearly been hoping to draw blood, but what Hallie couldn't understand was why.
The other girl had already won. She had Andreus. So why did she still care about hurting Hallie?
As Kalli's expertly trained staff started serving appetizers, MJ, seeing that Monique was about to call Hallie's attention again, hurriedly sought to distract the other woman. "Would you like some salad?" she blurted out. "It's one of Kalliope's specialties..."
Monique, seeing that the question had MJ's husband staring at her direction, quickly answered in the affirmative. "Yes, please." And since she was no fool to try pissing off Helios Andreadis for the seond time, she forced herself to smile and take a bite, even while cursing all of Andreus' friends in her mind.
Fuck all of you! Fuck you all! Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Turning to Andreus, she took a forkful of salad and lifted it to his mouth, saying teasingly, “Say ah.”
Hallie knew the other woman was trying to make her jealous, but all it did was make her want to cry...since Andreus' gaze had suddenly taken hers captive just as he opened his mouth to let his wife feed him.
Oh God.
Did no one see how dead his eyes were?
Someone’s fork clattered as it hit the plate, and Monique nearly laughed at how the volume of everyone's voices suddenly doubled. They could try to drown her voice all they wanted, but short of tearing someone’s eyes out, they wouldn’t be able to keep that bitch from seeing the truth.
Andreus was her husband, and there was no changing that.
Just. Let. It. Go.
Hallie was practically babbling the words out over and over in her mind. If she wanted to do the right thing, she had to let go. But the moment she remembered Andreus' dark, dead eyes—-
God, oh God.
Her throat tightened to the point of asphyxiation.
I'm sorry, God.
She had only but a moment to meet his gaze, but that one moment was enough to destroy her completely. In that one moment, Hallie already had seen too much—-
I'm so, so sorry, but I don't think I can ever let go.
She started shoving food in her mouth in an effort to keep her tears in check.
Stupid, stupid Andreus.
No wonder her heart was stupid. No wonder at all, since the man it loved was just as stupid, with how everything he had said and done up until this moment now made complete stupid sense.
So, so stupid.
She finally understood why he had changed, finally understood how he had ended up trapped in a horribly gentlemanly shell that wouldn't let Andreus be himself. And it was making her wish she could have one moment, just one moment where she could pretend she still had the right to sob his name out.
Andreus.
Andreus.
Andreus.
She could no longer hate herself, now that she remembered what she used to know with all her heart and soul.
Even if the world would think her stupid—-
He was doing all of this because he loved her.
Chapter Seven
Stop looking at me like that, princess.
The Hallie he knew had always been prim and proper, her actions never straying far from her moral compass.
So why, dammit?
His jaw clenched at the effort it took to ignore the way her blue eyes would rest on him every so often. He should've been good as dead to her, the moment he had married someone else.
So why, dammit?
Why the fuck was she looking at him like he still belonged to her?
"What do you think, Andreus?"
All eyes were suddenly on him at Silver's question, and Andreus, seeing the way Monique's lips tighten in suspicion as her gaze swung between him and Hallie, swiftly delivered the only appropriate reply when he wasn't exactly sure what was being asked of him. "Since Lace always gets her way in the end, my vote goes with whatever she thinks is best."