“Again, I’m sorry you had to see this. I would have spared you this horror show if I thought you’d believe me without seeing it.”
“How kind of you.”
“I’m not the villain here, Nero.” She steps closer, protesting my tone. “I’m not the one who betrayed you.”
Betrayed. The five-letter word fires arrows straight into my heart, and it bleeds memories of the images now spread across the floor.
There are many of them. Different men. Different rooms. Different beds. The only constant is Nina—my Nina—naked, giving to others what she swore was mine alone. The pain in my chest threatens to consume me, held back only by the hope that there is an explanation—because there has to be one.
Those photos aren’t from a time before us. That would be a valid explanation, even if it wouldn’t quiet my jealousy. But Nina was a virgin, wasn’t she? And there’s the ring. The ring I moved heaven and earth to get, stamped on every photo that makes me wish I’d been born blind so I never would have had to see them. But there is an explanation. There has to be.
“This is what she does while you leave your house to play the fool in love,” my mother throws the words in my face without mercy. “It’s probably what she’s doing right now, while you’re here mistreating the only woman in your life who truly wants what’s best for you.”
“What are you talking about, Lysandra?” I ask, and she jerks her head back, looking shocked that I used her first name. It’s the first time in many years I’ve said it out loud. “Nina is—”
“A con artist!” she accuses, cutting me off. “A woman with no morals! A fortune hunter! What more do you need, Nero? Do you want me to put those men in a room—with you? Because I can do that if necessary!” Just the idea of being confined in the same place as the men in those photos makes me feel feral. I’d probably leave in handcuffs. “That woman was after an idiot, Nero. You’re not the only one she was playing the good girl for—suddenly pregnant. She had options and probably would have stuck with whoever fell for the scam first.”
“That makes no sense,” I refuse to believe it.
“I didn’t find out by accident,” she begins. “I hired a detective to look into her, and I didn’t like the results. I asked him to follow her for a few days, and he brought me the first evidence. I was also shocked to find out I wasn’t the only one who’d hired him. That girl was never the saint she pretends to be, Nero.”
“She was a virgin!” I try to defend the indefensible.
“With you—and with all the others.”
“I’m sure of it.”
“Based on how many data points?” she mocks. I shift on my feet and rake my hands through my hair. I’d never been with a virgin before—but it can’t be. She wouldn’t have lied about that too, would she? Fuck. Even about that? “Wake up, Nero. She told you what you wanted to hear!”
“I never cared about that.”
“Of course not. But you certainly started treating her differently after you learned you’d be the first man in her bed. There’s a reason it’s called the oldest trick in the book. You’re not the first to fall for it, and you won’t be the last.” Lysandra sighs. “After I discovered you weren’t her only victim, I needed to know what kind of scum we were dealing with. I had her investigated more deeply, and the things I found… Since college, she’s been playing games, going after the most promising young men on campus. She didn’t succeed back then and kept trying. Well, I suppose those who wait eventually get what they want.”
“That makes no sense. It doesn’t make sense,” I tell myself, pacing back and forth. “Nina never wanted any of the things I offered her. She never gave me any indication she was interested in money, in possessions…” I lift my eyes and find my mother sliding her hands through her hair as if she’d just given up on pulling it out.
“I can’t believe I invested millions in your education only to still have to teach you how to identify a manipulation strategy. I thought I’d raised you better than this, Nero.” She looks away, shaking her head before sighing. “One thing I have to admit—using the few resources she had, that girl managed, in just a few months, to do what you’ve silently accused me of trying to do your entire life.”
“And what would that be?”
“Manipulate you. If my son weren’t one of that wretch’s victims, I’d applaud her.”
“Enough!” I shout, losing the last drop of control left in my body. “Enough.” I lift my hands as if I could place a barrier between myself and the abyss my mother has opened. “That’s enough!” I grab her arm and take her to the door with more force than necessary.
“You’re throwing me out of your house?” she accuses, stumbling on her heels. “You’re pathetic, Nero. When that bitch comes back with her tail between her legs—and she will, because the mothers of the other idiots were faster than I was—take her back into your home. Let her introduce you as hers, the son of another man.”
I throw my mother out as if the truths in her demonic words were lies—but when I close the door behind her, they’re still here, scattered across the living room floor.
CHAPTER 43
NERO ZANTHOS
The wall that used to be cold is warm against my back now, after I’ve spent the entire night leaning against it. The phone, tossed on the floor between my legs, unlike the concrete that warmed under my weight, remains just as cold as it became the moment Nina disappeared.
She still hasn’t answered me.
She still hasn’t called back.
She still hasn’t replied to a single one of my messages.
