Wen speaks up, grinning at me. “Ok, next is you and I. If you could change two things about your past, what would they be?”
I cross my arms over my chest, leaning back in my chair. “I would attach a security force to his ass,” I point toward Zo, “so that I wouldn’t have to see him lying in blood and mud in the rain with three holes in his body.” I hate that night when I almost lost him.
“And I would take his words seriously, the words he said on Christmas five years ago, when we were standing on the terrace of Pa’s house, watching the sunset.”
He told me that day that I should think about how I wanted Iselyn in my life. That Christmas, she didn’t call me, and I didn’t like it. I waited the whole morning for her call, eventually calling her myself out of impatience, but she didn’t answer. Zo was observing everything. He said I would regret it if I took whatever was between us lightly, and I brushed his words off with denial.The same denial that became my doom.
“Here I thought you’d choose not to act like an asshole on someone’s birthday,” Wen scoffs.
“The second change was about that,” Zo says.
Wen and Avi watch Zo with questioning eyes, but my gaze stays on my wife. She’s not only watching me with questions; there’s also confusion and that thing I know so well,the curse of our love:denial. Back then, it was in my eyes; now, it’s in hers.
Wen’s voice breaks our staring. “Lyn and Avi.”
Avi looks at me with narrowed eyes, then turns her head toward Iselyn.
“What do you hate the most about this Leo? I know there’s a never-ending list, but give us the most hateful thing from it.”
I glare at her. She sticks her tongue out at me.
I divert my eyes and place them on my Angel, who looks like someone has just asked her the most difficult question in the world. I purse my lips.Are there really so many things she hates that she can’t pick just one?
She looks toward me, watching me from head to toe.
“I think… I think I hate his ugly bracelet.” She nods to herself. “Yes. I hate its color. This strange blue doesn’t suit his olive skin tone.”
This is perfect.She doesn’t hate anything about me.
“Are you sure the thing you hate the most about this arrogant, manipulative, stubborn, mannerless, emotionless, horrible man is his bracelet?” Avi asks.
Only the fact that she’s my sister, and Zo’s woman, is helping her breathe right now.
“Zo, why don’t you take your girlfriend to bed before I change my mind about keeping her alive,” I say, getting up and walking toward my wife.
I bend down and grab Iselyn’s hand, tugging her up. “It’s not good to sleep late for your health. Let’s go.”
She stands, pulling her hand out of my hold. She wishes Zo and Avi good night, and with Wen, follows me inside.
chapter 31
Iselyn
He traps me between the door and him, both his hands beside my head. “My gift?”
“Only shameless people ask for their birthday gift like this.”
He nods. “Very true. Now give me my gift.”
I purse my lips and pull out a box from my shorts pocket. “This is your gift.”
He raises his brow, takes the box, and opens it. He pulls out the tie bar and laughs. “Shameless.”
My lips twitch. “Perfect gift for you.”
I had ordered it that morning. I asked the men’s accessory boutique of Nexoil to make a tie bar in the shape of the word shameless.
He closes the box and puts it in his sweatpants pocket. “This is good. But I’m not satisfied.”
