Page 94 of Seduced By Contract

She covers her mouth, looking at our family behind me, laughing and shaking her head.

"I fell in love with you the day destiny placed you in my path," I correct myself. "I thought it was obsession, but the day I hurt you was when I finally realized that it was always love. Marry me. Keep teaching me to be a better person. I'm not your Prince Charming—what I said that first day is still true—but I am the man who will love you until your last breath on Earth."

She starts crying, and I get up, because only now do I remember that I’ve rushed things. I don't even have a ring.

"I love you. Yes, I will marry you," she says when I pull her into my arms.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even buy a ring."

She pulls back to look at me. "Don't be mad, but if it's okay with you, I'd like to keep this one."

"Are you sure? It belonged to . . ."

"It belonged to the woman who gave birth to the man I love. To a woman who was loved a lot by your father. It will be an honor to wear it."

"My children, you’ve finally managed to understand each other." Eleanor comes over to hug us. "Now we'll definitely all have lunch together on Sunday."

"Congratulations, sister-in-law," Ares says to Madison, then gives me a hug. "Jesus, you know how to surprise us. It was obvious that you were heading towards this, but this was a lot of shit . . . a lot of events for just one day."

"I didn't want to wait," I summarize, when in fact the occasion, even though unplanned, has turned out to be perfect, since only Joseph and Brooklyn aren't here.

After talking to Dionysus and Ares, I pull Madison aside. "If you really want to keep that ring, I'll have it enlarged to your size."

"Yes, I want to, but only if it doesn't hurt you."

"I don't care, as long as you're happy."

She stands on her tiptoes, holds my face, and gives me a kiss. "Zeus, I'm the last person in the world to talk about forgiveness. To this day, there are things my father did to me that I can't forget, but at least I try not to harbor so much hurt. It's a poison that, unfortunately, we drank ourselves."

"I'll keep the promise I made to my grandfather, Madison. I can't forget what my mother and Adrian's actions did to my father."

"And then will the revenge end?"

"I could lie and say yes because I just asked you to marry me, but I don't want there to be any more secrets between us, so no, it's not over. In addition to breaking up the bank, I have scores to settle with Celine and Gordon. I won't forgive what they did to you."

Madison

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Five days later

"I'm sorry,I don't understand. Do you want me to come to your office?" I ask the doctor who treated me here at home the day I fainted, and who I only later discovered was the Kostanidis's “family doctor.”

I was just getting ready to go to work. I start to get anxious and twirl my engagement ring, which Zeus had enlarged in record time.

Lord, do not allow him to have found some serious disease in my blood.

"What’s happened, darling?" my mother asks from my side.

I hate doing this, but I don't want to scare her, so I once again use something my father taught me and lie. "Nothing, Mom. Don't worry."

I’ve thought a lot about everything that’s happened, and at first, I wanted to stay away from theKostanidis Group. However, I came to the conclusion that that was exactly what those two Gordon bastards had planned.

I have nothing to be ashamed of. They'll never prove that I danced at the club, but even if they could, dancing was just what I did, and I'll never be ashamed of it. I guaranteed food on my family's table and was able to buy clothes and toys for the babies, in addition to the medications that my mother uses.

"Yes, I can stop by,” I tell the doctor, “but I'm going to work now. What time would be good for you?"

"Four p.m.?"

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