CHAPTER 26 (2)

“Except lie about it to your husband.” She advanced a step and Keira actually backed up. Kelsey had never challenged her sister

before. Never gone head to head like this. It was so hard. But so incredibly satisfying. To finally speak up with a voice that she’d

held in for far too long. “Mom would have been really upset by what you did.”

“She would have supported me because she loved me.”

“You’re right. She would have pretended you made a mistake and told herself that what you did wasn’t deliberate. But I know it

was.” Kelsey steeled everything deep inside and said the things she should have said years ago. “I don’t support you. I don’t support

what you did. And I’m not giving you any sympathy. Unless you can admit how wrong you were and ask Ares forgiveness, I’m not

taking your calls, and I don’t want to see you.”

Keira stared as if Kelsey were ready for the asylum, all wrapped up in a straitjacket. “You don’t mean that.” Shock threaded her

words.

“I do.” Kelsey crossed her arms. “Every word.”

The storm built on Keira’s features, her cheekbones reddening, her eyes narrowing, and her lips pursing into a thin, ugly line.

“You bitch.” A tiny fleck of spittle flew out of her mouth. She crowded Kelsey, backing her into the living room. “He might enjoy

screwing you. He might have fun being worshipped by poor little Kelsey who always wanted him but couldn’t have him. But do you

actually think he could ever love you? Because he’ll never stop loving me.” Keira stabbed a finger into her breastbone with an

audible thud. “You’re a fool if you let yourself forget that the moment he saw me that first day, he forgot all about you. It was so

damn easy to take him away from you. But you still hung around all these years, begging for scraps, always underfoot, always

hoping he’d notice you. It would actually be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. My friends and I used to laugh about it all the time.” Her

voice dripped with sarcasm. “Poor Kelsey, the pathetic little puppy dog drooling after my husband. Did you really think you could

steal him away from me? I can have him back with a simple snap of my fingers. I just haven’t tried. But now you’ve given me a

reason to do it.”

Keira’s gaze was rabid, her features a mottled blue-red with her rage.

But Kelsey’s rage was just as potent. “You knew how I felt about Ares back then?”

Keira rolled her eyes. “I know everything about you. How you think. What you’ll do. You’re so pitifully transparent.”

Keira had used Kelsey to prop up her own ego, to make herself feel superior. She’d taken Ares simply because she could. Because

Kelsey wanted him, and Keira couldn’t stand to let her sister win. “You never really loved him, did you?”

Keira waved that away, as if the whole question of love was preposterous. “You didn’t deserve him. You were too weak. He needed

me to push him. To help him become the billionaire he was supposed to be. Lord knows if he’d ended up with you, he’d probably be tossing a baseball to a snotty-nosed kid in a little yard somewhere.” She looked disgusted by the image. “He was meant for bigger things than just being a father.”

Kelsey had always known about Keira’s ugly traits, that she could trample people like they were ants in her path. But this was

diabolical.

Purely malicious.

As a psychologist, Kelsey should have seen it. That was part of the reason she’d chosen her career, to figure it all out. But she never

had, not truly. She hadn’t been able to see the truth right in front of her. Hadn’t wanted to see, because the truth was too close. It was

too difficult to admit that the monster was real, that her sister was a sociopath who had never loved anyone but herself.

Until Keira shined a spotlight and forced her to see.

“You’ve lost him,” Kelsey told the woman who was no longer her family. Blood had bound them together…until poison destroyed that bond. “Not because of me, but because he finally sees what you really are.” She looked at Keira in her designer dress and towering high heels. Really looked for the first time. “He won’t ever be back.”

Keira laughed, a hollow, grating sound. Like the wicked witch. Then she snapped her fingers. “That’s how easy it’ll be to get him

back.” She shrugged, a rude and careless shift of her shoulders. “Or maybe I’ll just take every penny he has after I prove he was

screwing my very own sister behind my back.”

“Then all your friends will call you the drooling idiot, won’t they, Keira? You wouldn’t want them to know your pathetic, puppy-dog

sister stole him away from you, would you?”

Keira growled, tossed her hair over her shoulder, opened the front door, and slammed it on the way out, shaking the whole building.

Kelsey looked at the door, feeling like an earthquake had just rumbled through her. Or a tornado had snapped her up and spun her

hard and fast.

And yet, she was lighter too.

For her whole life she’d kowtowed to her sister. But she never would again.

Kelsey’s career was helping people achieve freedom after years of emotional oppression. Finally, she’d done it for herself.

She wanted to call Ares to tell him her news, her epiphany, her breakthrough. And she needed him to know that Keira was going to

mess with the divorce in any way she could.

Determination—and that growing lightness within her—made her hand surprisingly steady as she fished her phone out of her purse

and dialed his cell phone.

“Kelsey.” She loved the sound of her name on his lips, soft and low and full of need. “I was just thinking about you. It seems like I

can’t stop.”

She wanted to tell him the same, to talk as lovers did. But she needed him to know, “Keira was just here.”

He cursed, four letters that crudely, and accurately, summed up the situation.

“She saw us kiss at the door and disappear inside.” Her heart raced as she remembered the beauty, the passion of their connection.

“She was still watching when you come back out. After.” Heat infused Kelsey head to toes with the pleasure, the joy, and the love

still tingling deep inside her. “After we made love.”

Again, he swore, fury—and frustration—underlying the short word.

“She’s going to use it against you in the settlement. Use me against you. She wants to destroy you.”

“She won’t.” His tone was hard. All the warmth with which he’d said her name was gone now. “I won’t let her, damn it.”

Kelsey was suddenly holding a phone full of dead air. And wondering if, like an emotional vampire, Keira had just sucked away

everything that was good.

No. That was the past talking. No matter what Keira said with that snap of her fingers, Ares wouldn’t go back to her. How could he

possibly do that?

Shoving her insecurities away—the insecurities her sister had built up simply so she could toy with Kelsey—she rolled her suitcase

back to her bedroom and started unpacking. A simple, routine act that would help ground her back into reality.

But Ares imprint was on each piece of clothing. The hungry look in his eyes as he’d stripped her sweater away. The reverence as

he’d traced the line of lace along the top edge of her panties. The deep emotion in his voice as he’d said, I’m yours.

The doorbell rang for the second time that evening. She closed her eyes and took a bracing breath. Keira was back for more. Maybe

she’d thought of some new threat. Clearly, she hadn’t accepted that Kelsey was done taking her crap.

When she reached the front door, she threw it open, ready to do battle.

But this time, Ares filled her doorway.

And her heart.

“I was already on my way back to you when you called.” His gaze was fierce and passionate and protective. “I shouldn’t have left.

But I swear to you, I won’t make that mistake again. And I won’t let her hurt you,” he vowed.

Then he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. The purest vow of all.