14. Aeris #2
But still, Selene kept the footage.
Still, she pressed play.
“Why am I really here, Selene?” I asked, proud my voice didn’t waver.
She studied me as if I were a mere bug she debated whether to squish. Because this, forcing me to relive that particular memory, was excessive, even by her standards. A detective spending thirty seconds in my home didn’t justify this level of cruelty.
I expected her to turn the video off before the last part, the part that landed me exactly here in this moment.
But she didn’t, instead turning it up once more.
“Watch the screen,” she demanded, and I felt Renley’s presence, his hands landing heavy on my shoulders.
So I turned, watching the young girl on-screen covered in blood, mine, lie naked on a mattress that had been tossed to the floor.
My hair was a few shades lighter back then, but it was unmistakably me.
The same eyes. The same mouth trembling as tears carved slow, shining tracks through dirt-streaked cheeks.
I was alone, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until Luke appeared with a cigarette in hand.
He’d redressed since he’d raped me, then watched from a chair as he invited others.
For hours he didn’t touch me, watching, waiting until they were all done before he joined me again.
Used me even as I begged him to stop. But I had been too exhausted to fight, so I’d laid there, my cries now silent as he thrust on top of me.
He’d promised me he’d help search for my sister when my father had all but erased her from his life, burying her absence under work and silence.
But instead, Luke used me as nothing more than a toy, a plaything he’d planned to hurt, over and over.
He mistook my desperation for weakness, my hope for something he could exploit when their plan to use my father failed.
“Are we done?” I asked, knowing what was about to happen next.
“I’m just reminding you what you wanted.”
The laugh that almost left me died somewhere in my chest. “I never wanted this.”
“You should have thought of that,” she replied coldly, “before you killed my son.”
My hands trembled on the screen as I slid them down Luke’s back, my fingers finding the cold weight of his gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans.
He hadn’t even bothered to remove it before pushing inside of me.
I watched as I lifted it without him even realising, holding it to the side of his head.
He didn’t even stop thrusting before I pulled the trigger.
I turned to meet Selene’s gaze, hers hard, angry, while mine remained calm. I’d fallen for Luke’s charm and promises. I’d left everything for him, not knowing he was part of one of the oldest crime families in the UK.
The same family who kidnapped two young girls with the intention of using them as leverage against their prosecutor father and failed.
“I could have taken everything from you,” she said, her voice eerily composed.
“Your father. Your sisters. I could have erased your entire bloodline. But I didn’t.
They remain untouched because you chose this.
Because you offered yourself instead, and now I own your voice, your body, and your fucking soul. ”
Renley’s hands slipped from my shoulders as Selene rose gracefully to her feet.
“You are nothing but my puppet,” she continued, her voice smooth as silk as she began to circle me. “But it seems I’ve allowed your leash to run a little too long.”
Her nails dragged along my arm, her footsteps slow until she was behind me.
“I trained you,” she murmured, bending close enough for her breath to ghost against my ear. “Taught you how to weaponise your beauty. To create a spy network capable of bringing anyone who dares oppose me down.”
Her nails slid upward, pressing just enough into the side of my neck to remind me how easily she could tighten her grip.
“You were overdue for a reminder,” she whispered, “of who you belong to.”
“Is that why you hurt Olivia?” I asked, my voice hollow. Angry, although I couldn’t show it.
Selene stilled, lasting barely a second before she let out a cackle. “You clearly didn’t learn from the last time you used that pretty head of yours.”
I knew as soon as Graham had mentioned cutting out her tongue. Selene had a thing about silencing people, but I didn’t want to believe it. Because that meant it was my fault Olivia was dead.
“Why?” The last time I’d been punished, I’d infiltrated a party where the guest list had a direct thread to my sister.
I’d convinced myself the risk was worth it, but I’d been caught.
And in retaliation, Selene had taken my old assistant.
She’d cut out her tongue while she was alive, and then killed her as a statement, a reminder that curiosity came with consequences.
That every move I made without permission meant she would hurt someone I cared about.
“Just to remind you how little power you really have.” Her head dipped closer, her cheek pressing against mine. “That no one you love is safe. This is your last warning, Aeris. This time it was one of your Sirens, but next … next it may be one of your nephews.”
The numbness cracked, and anger surged through the fracture, sharp and violent. It spread beneath my skin until I felt like I might split open from it.
“You didn’t have permission to involve that detective,” she continued coolly. “So understand this: every time you go off script, I will punish you harder.”
I closed my eyes, drawing in a slow breath as Selene moved away, her tone shifting to one light, almost playful.
“You’ll do whatever I tell you to do, no deviations, and certainly no befriending law enforcement unless I ask.”
I opened my eyes to find her already seated again, legs crossed and lips curved into a smirk.
There was no point fighting. Not yet.
Her father had been one of the most infamous gangsters in the city, but his death in prison brought everything he’d built crashing down. Selene was left trying to piece it back together, fighting to reclaim even a sliver of his authority even after all these years.
“Caden not falling for Vivienne has been a disappointment … But, even so, it’s time to escalate the plan.”
I held her gaze, even as my heart thudded hard enough to ache against my ribs.
“Tell me what you need me to do.”