Page 192 of Heartless Beloved

“Of course you are,” he chuckles. He grabs something in his back pocket as he adds, “I’ve got a present for you. It’s your birthday, after all.”

He shows me his closed fist and opens it when he brings it near my face. A necklace hangs from his finger.

I gasp. “That’s my grandmother’s necklace. Xi, how…”

There’s a flash of guilt in his eyes when he says. “I had kept it with me. I’ve had it for a year. I got it fixed for your birthday.”

I blink up at him, shocked. “You had it since…”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“For the same reason I went back into that abandoned house to save you. Because of the connection I felt. Because of the spark of interest that grew into the biggest obsession of my life. Because of you.”

There will never not be a strange feeling between us when we think about the night we met. On my eighteenth birthday…when he kidnapped me. But my nightmares began disappearing when I started sleeping next to the man who haunted my nights.

I turn around and present my neck as I lift my hair. He attaches the necklace, and I grab the locket my grandmother had given me.

“Thank you. It’s my second favorite present today. My first one was you.”

I feel his arms wrap around my waist from behind. The smell of turpentine mixes with his soap from the shower we took earlier. He was working while I was sleeping.

“Do you like it?” I know he’s not talking about the necklace.

“I love it,” I murmur. “Abstract is beautiful. What will this collection be?”

“This is the last piece ofA love that lasts forever.” He nestles his head in the crook of my neck, inhaling my skin.

Goosebumps rise everywhere on my body. The idea of being his muse seems eccentric, and yet I love it so much.

“But I thought you finished that collection.”

“No, it needed one last piece. One I won’t sell.”

“Oh. Why?”

“It means too much to me. Look again,” he says softly.

I narrow my eyes at the painting, looking for a clue.

It's signed XI at the bottom right. Next to the canvas, he wrote something on a piece of paper.

The night she chose me.

The end.

ELLIOT

Alexandra Delacroix notices the second our car parks in front of Xi’s house. She gasps, her eyes rounding with fear. She’s wearing a large t-shirt that must belong to her boyfriend. Ethan cuts off the engine as she runs inside.

I grab the gun in the glove compartment and load it.

“Patience, brother,” he says calmly.

My stepbrother and I don’t always have the same way of doing things. He’s quiet, composed,patient.

I’m a ticking time bomb. Especially since we’ve started looking for our ex-girlfriend.

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