We knew that early on and we own up to it. Besides, as she told me, we already know what we want, so what’s the point of delaying it any further?
She has always been mine as much as I’m hers and there’s no force in the world that will change that.
Before Ethan can give her to me, I snatch her close, my impatience getting the better of me. She smiles, her bright dark eyes shining with the motion.
“What do you think?” she whispers.
“I think you’re mine till death, ma belle.”
“And you’re mine, Ronan.”
I kiss her before the wedding even starts. Laughter breaks out in the audience, but I couldn’t give two fucks about them.
All of this is a formality. Teal and I always belonged together.
We just didn’t know it at the time.
Now, we do.
Now, nothing will stop us from owning the world and leaving our gruesome experiences behind.
“I love you, Mrs Astor,” I murmur against her mouth as I pull away.
She smiles in a soft, breathtaking way. “And I love you, Mr Astor.”
10
Cole
Age Twenty-eight
Chaos works in unpredictable patterns.
When I first met it after being kidnapped, I thought something was wrong with me and I needed to hide that something.
Until I walked to that park and saw it again.
Until I witnessed Silver in her truest, rawest form. It was a different type of chaos and I didn’t feel the need to hide.
Not from her.
Never from her.
She’s the one who saw my chaos and took it in both hands as if it was always hers to take.
She’s the one who grabbed me, pushed me onto that bench, and straddled my lap so I wouldn’t leave. Not that I could after that moment.
An invisible thread bound us together and there was no way in fuck anything could break it.
So what if we were siblings at one point? In my mind, she was mine before that even happened.
So what if she was engaged to that fucker Aiden first? It was never real. She and I are. In fact, we always were. It might have started when she cried her glitter tears on me or when she kissed my cheek for the first time or when she saved me all her firsts, just like I saved her mine.
“You didn’t save me all your firsts,” she told me the other day while we were lounging by the pool at her parents’ house.
She was wearing her bikini and I was distracted, thinking of ways to have her remove it, but at the same time, I didn’t want any of the staff to see her naked. I don’t even like them seeing her in her bikini.
I adjusted my shades and tilted my book, Calila e Dimna. It was a special edition paperback she got for me on my birthday after the fucker Ronan burnt my previous one in a fit of jealousy. “Yes, I did.”