Chapter 27 The key
ALEXANDER POV
“You’re what?”
Sebastian stared at me from across the office like I had just told him I had grown a second head.
“I’m married,” I repeated. I hated saying things twice. It was one of my least favorite activities.
“You’re married.” He said it back to me slowly like he needed to hear it again to believe it. “You told me several times, multiple times Alexander, very specifically, that you had no business getting married again. Ever.” He leaned forward.
“Are you being threatened by the brotherhood again?”
The brotherhood.
The brotherhood’s threats meant nothing. They had no clue I was marrying again.
But they would. Soon.
And nothing would drive them madder than watching me remarry a woman who wore Ava’s face like it belonged to her.
My lips curled at the thought.
“You’re planning something,” Sebastian said. He knew me too well. “And it’s not good.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“You’re invited. Four days.”
“Four days?” He leaned forward. “You’re moving that fast? Who the hell is she?”
He would get his answers when he showed up.
“You’ll see,” I said.
That was all he was getting.
Silence settled between us for a moment.
Sebastian had known me long enough not to push when I used that tone. He was one of the few people still breathing who knew exactly what I was capable of and had made peace with it years ago.
“Should I be worried Alexander?” he asked finally.
“How about you worry about the Hargrove account instead,” I said. “Your numbers have been off for three weeks and you haven’t explained why. Or better still come around and spend time with Liam. He won’t let me near my wife anyway. He’s completely all over her.”
I picked up my phone and scrolled to the pictures Rosemary had sent a few minutes ago.
Aurora and Liam in the drawing room. She was teaching him how to paint. There were canvases on the floor and paint smeared across both their clothes , on her cheek, in his hair, on her hands. Liam was laughing with his whole body the way he only did around her.
My thumb froze on the screen.
I could picture it, paint streaked across her naked body. Her curves slick with color, her thighs trembling as I dragged my fingers through it. Her breath hitching when I pushed inside her, marking her from the inside out.
My cock hardened instantly.
What the actual hell was that?
I put my phone face down on the desk.
I was having a genuinely difficult time separating Aurora from Anastasia and I had been failing at it miserably.
I had even kept her panties, a childish, Mickey Mouse-print scrap of cotton. Is it sick that she smells exactly like my wife did? Or is it just the natural scent of doppelgängers?
My hand moved toward my suit pocket, grazing the underwear but I caught myself.
Sebastian’s eyes were on me. Trained and patient and pulling at the truth of me the way they always had.
I looked at him.
“What?”
“Is she beautiful?” he asked.
Beautiful didn't cover it. She had features that belonged in a museum, hazel eyes that held a world of sadness, and a pouty lower lip that looked like a permanent invitation.
Her lips would look divine choking on my cock.
After the maids had scrubbed the "poverty" off her, I knew I had a problem. If her ex-boyfriend ever saw her like this, he'd realize what a fool he'd been. Luckily for him, l'd likely kill him before he got the chance.
She hated herself. That much was obvious. She hated her body in particular, she carried it like an apology, dressed it in things designed to disappear rather than be seen. Which was downright stupid because she had a body that was genuinely maddening. Her breasts were full and firm in a way that occupied more of my thoughts than I had allocated for the purpose. The curve from her waist to her hips was the kind of thing that made you understand why artists had opinions. She had been hiding all of it under oversized cheap dirty clothes her entire life because the world had been unkind about it and she had believed what the world told her.
I had forced her to strip because I needed to destroy her image of herself.
I could strip away the self-loathing, the baggy clothes, the stutter, the shame.
I could rebuild her until all I saw was Ana.
My fairy fighter.
My wife.
"She's beautiful," | said.
Aurora is beautiful. Anastasia was beautiful. In my mind, they were becoming the same person.
Sebastian hummed. "I still don't get it. You don't love her. You can't love anyone who isn't Anastasia. Is this about your in-laws?"
Well. She was practically my Ana.
“Partially,” I said. “The men they sent to kidnap my son, I got my hands on them.” I leaned back in my chair. “I’m thinking of killing them and sending their skulls as a gift to my in-laws.”
I considered the timing. The wedding day would be a particularly beautiful occasion for it.
“Thread carefully Alexander,” Sebastian said. His voice had dropped to something quieter. “I don’t want a repeat of four years ago."
I looked at him.
“I didn’t know you cared so much Sebastian." I said.
"I don't," he shot back. "I just don't want Liam to lose the only parent he has left."
"Don't worry," | said, my voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "I'll have my revenge before I die. And my wife is the key to all of it."