Page 79 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

“Thank you. How can I ever thank you. You made me a real person tonight, and now you’re giving me back my family.”

“I guess now you know. You are Athena Kamaras.”

Athena who remembered nothing of who she was, that Athena would have loved that without condition, would have lived for this. It was not the family that made her ache now. It was the name. She had been Athena McKenzie.

She had been so certain she would not cling to that, and yet now she felt she was.

And Cameron was so quick to want that undone. It hurt, and it shouldn’t.

Kamaras.

She was a Kamaras. She had a family. A place.

Where she was the desired daughter. Not a replacement. Not a doll.

It was all she had ever wanted.

She blinked to keep tears from falling. “Yes. Yes. Now I know.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ATHENAWASVERYquiet the entire plane ride to the United States. Her family lived in Massachusetts, out in the country. He had done his due diligence on them, to make sure that they were the sort of people she should be brought to.

And he... His time with her would now be at an end. He would take her to her family, and he would leave her there. It was perhaps the most selfless thing he had ever done. Because everything inside of him wished to hold on to her. To crush her against his body and claim her for his own. To make her his in every possible way.

Yes, everything in him longed to do that. Absolutely everything.

But he could not. Because he might be a beast on the outside, but he had learned to care for someone other than himself. What he wanted was Athena’s happiness. And he could never give that to her.

“I remembered something else,” she said softly.

“What is that?”

“I remembered the day we were taken. It was terrifying. Constantine fought. He fought everyone. He tried to save me. They separated us. I was put in a small room, and given tea. Given cookies to eat. I was lonely, and I was afraid of what was happening to Constantine. And then... They told me my brother died. They told me that Constantine was dead. And then they took me into a small room, and everything after that is blank. I think it was the trauma of hearing that my twin had died. I think it is what stole my memories. They told me... They told me he was dead. And...”

Even now he could see that it hurt her to talk about this. Even knowing her brother was not dead. He could see the little girl she’d been, the fear, the terror. She wanted to comfort him.

“He is not. He lives.”

“My younger brother. He is dead.”

“Unfortunately. He died in a car accident. Your return to your family will undoubtedly bring them great joy. It will heal some of the wounds. Can you imagine. Your parents must feel as if they lost two children. And now you’ve returned to them.”

“That is quite a lot of pressure.”

“I don’t have a family to return to. I don’t say that to try and make you feel only good things, because of course this will be tinged with all manner of bittersweet joy and pain. Only that it is a miracle to have this. I want you to look forward. Not back.”

She nodded slowly. “Of course.”

He sat down next to her. And she closed the distance between them by putting her hand on his. He did not pull away.

The plane landed on a private airfield, and his car took them to the edge of the property. Right up to the gates. They parted for them, opening wide. Just as the clouds gave way, and the rain began to fall.

And he felt like something had given way inside of him as well.

This is why you can never let anyone too close.

This was why.

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