I follow Lucian and Alexander into their home, pausing at the doorstep as memories assail me. I spent a lot of my childhood in this mansion. I might know every nook and cranny as well as Lucian does. Other than some new furniture, nothing much has changed, and walking in here still feels like coming home—more so than my own childhood home does these days.
I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed this. How much I’ve missed Lucian and the time we spent together. I’ve been so busy working and caring for my mother that I haven’t really stopped to think about how lonely I’ve become. How isolated I’ve let myself become.
Growing up, Lucian was always the brother I wish Matthew was, and I suddenly feel bad for not trying harder to stay in touch. I should’ve contacted Lucian as soon as I left home, but by that time it’d been too late. We hadn’t spoken in years, and we’d grown too far apart. I felt too guilty, even though I know I had no choice but to break off contact.
“Sarah?”
I look up at the mention of my mother’s name. Lucian’s mother jumps up from the sofa when she sees me and walks towards me, her eyes wide.
“No… Elena?”
She wraps me in a tight hug and I squeeze back just as hard, holding back tears yet again. I can’t remember the last time someone hugged me like this, yet today two people have held me close.
“Sofia,” I whisper, as though saying her name out loud will wake me up from this nostalgic dream. Sofia kisses the top of my head and tightens her hug.
Alexander clears his throat, and I reluctantly step back. He’s looking at his mother with an expression I can’t decipher. It’s almost like he hasn’t seen her in a long time, but I clearly remember him telling me he took her out for lunch recently.
“Elena is moving in with us,” he says.
My eyes widen in shock. Alexander and I have never discussed anything of the sort, and I haven’t actually told him that I’ve been struggling to pay my own bills, that I’m worried sick about both my own future and my mother’s.
I glance at Lucian, who looks just as shocked as I do, but Sofia merely nods and hums in agreement. “All right,” she says, no questions asked. “I’ll get the staff to prepare a room for her.”
I bite down on my lip in an effort to keep my tears at bay. Part of me wants to decline and retain my pride, to demand an explanation from Alexander, and ask him why he thinks he has the right to make decisions on my behalf. But then I remember what my alternative is and bite my tongue.
“A word please, Elena,” Alexander says. He tips his head toward the grand staircase and I follow him obediently, still at a loss for words.
“The layout of this entire floor has changed,” I murmur in surprise.
Alexander pauses and looks back at me. “Yeah. Two years ago, we renovated most of the house. Lucian, my parents, and I each have separate quarters now. They’re all still in the same building, but they’re essentially different apartments.”
He leads me into his bedroom and I follow, barely able to contain my curiosity. It looks like he knocked down several walls to create a loft-like space, resulting in a large luxurious room, with its own seating area, a huge bed, and a freestanding tub right by the floor to ceiling windows. It’s quite obvious that Alexander has created his own little sanctuary here, and I can’t help but be impressed with how tasteful and luxurious it all looks.
Alexander leads me to his seating area and I sit down opposite him, rather than next to him, purposely creating some distance between us. With everything that’s going on, I’m feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed and embarrassed. I can barely think straight. My mind keeps wandering back to Vaughn’s, and the way he touched me. I hate myself for how much I enjoyed it. It’s like my own body betrayed me, and I’m too scared to even imagine what Alexander might think of me now.
He stares me down in that way he used to when he was giving Lucian and me a chance to confess to whatever it was we’d been up to that day.
“Why don’t you tell me exactly what’s going on with you?”
I shake my head. “It seems like you already know more than I would’ve told you.”
I’m not stupid. I know how the Kennedys operate. I know he’d have done a background check on me the moment he realized who I am, and I’m not comfortable with how much that would have revealed about me. About the way I’ve been living my life, and how far I’ve strayed from the girl he used to know.
Alexander’s expression softens and he smiles at me pleadingly. “I’d still like to hear it from you,” he says, his voice soft.
I hesitate. There’s nothing I can say that he doesn’t already know, and at least this way he’ll hear my version of the story. So I tell him. I tell him about my father and stepmother, about their refusal to pay for my mom’s bills, my stepsister’s schemes, and my difficulties paying my own bills. Alexander just listens to me patiently, nodding every once in a while to encourage me to keep talking.
“I see,” he says when I finish telling him my story. No questions, no judgement. Just simple understanding. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Other than telling Lucian about the basics in the car, I haven’t told anyone the full story, and it feels nice to get it off my chest.
“What are you going to do now? Even if you did attempt to sell your body at Vaughn’s club, you’d at most make 20k a month, and that’s at most. That likely won’t even be enough to cover your mother’s bills on most months, let alone your own expenses on top of that.”
I shake my head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I have another week until my mother’s current bill is due, or they’ll take her off life support. I figured I’d go to Vaughn’s and then take it from there. It’s not like I have any other options. I’ve asked my dad for help countless times and he’s always refused. I’m not in touch with any of my old friends either, not since I left home.”
Just the thought of my mother being taken off life support sends shivers down my spine. I’m terrified, and I hate feeling this helpless. Alexander looks at me and then looks away.
“I can give you the money. Under one condition.”
I sit up straight, filled with hope. “I’ll do it. Whatever it is, I’ll do it,” I say, involuntarily revealing my desperation.
I notice the brief look of anger in Alexander’s eyes and I know he’s reminded of what I was about to do at Vaughn’s, but I simply do not have the luxury of retaining my dignity right now.
“You don’t even know what I’ll ask of you, Elena. But then again, there’s nothing you wouldn’t do, is there?” he sneers. His hands move to his belt and his fingers twitch as he touches the clasp.
“If I ask you to get on your knees right now and suck my dick for 10k, would you do it?”
I bite down on my lip, unsure of what to say. I know this is exactly what I’d signed up for at Vaughn’s, but when it’s Alexander asking me, I suddenly feel ashamed of myself. Of my choices. I hadn’t given much thought to what it’d be like to do stuff like this, but I thought I’d figure that out when it came to it.
“How about 20k? You know, I’ve been fantasizing about those lips of yours since that night at Inferno,” he says.
He undoes his belt and zipper, and reaches into his suit pants. My heart is beating a mile a minute, and I can’t tell if I’m terrified or excited.
