"You bitch—-"
"Thank you for confirming on record that Andreus has never touched you."
Hallie's polite tone was just too fucking much. Monique leapt to her feet, intending to claw the other girl's eyes out, but instead she found herself on the receiving end of a resounding slap.
Aaaargh!
Monique charged forward, but the other girl was just too fucking fast, and the next thing she knew, she ended up on the couch, with Hallie painfully gripping her by the hair to keep her still.
"You hate me, and I hate you, too," Hallie said curtly. "But as much as I also hate admitting this, I can see there's a part of you that really loves Andreus, and that's why...I wanted to give you this one last chance to make it up to him."
"Fuck you!"
But Hallie only went on speaking like she hadn't heard Monique at all.
"You were probably told that the second video would show Andreus doing nothing while a girl was being raped in his bedroom. But did you ever ask why that was?"
"He was on drugs—-"
"He was also being raped." Hallie released his hold on Monique the moment she saw the other girl pale.
"Y-You're lying. You have to be."
"I wish I was," Hallie whispered. "But I'm not."
Monique's heart was racing.
Oh God.
Her heart just wouldn't stop pounding.
God, oh God.
It was only when she dimly felt Hallie grabbing hold of her shoulders to give her a shake—-
"Breathe, Monique!"
She finally realized she was hyperventilating, and she released a shaken gasp as she tumbled dizzily back into her senses.
Her Andreus.
Raped.
Her proud, beautiful, charming Andreus.
She remembered all the times she had deliberately put him down.
Remembered all the ways she had tried to destroy his very soul just to keep him from leaving her.
She would've done almost anything to own him, but to know that he had been raped, and to realize that she had practically taken the side of those who had raped him—-
No, no, no.
Monique's shoulders began to shake. "I didn't know. I d-didn't know. I d-didn't."
"You can still make it right, Monique. Just please tell me the truth. Who was it that tried to blackmail you?"
The other woman started to speak, and every word just made Hallie want to run back to Andreus' arms and tell him she loved him.
Oh, if only she could.
But for now, she still had to fight for him.
THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS that night broke the Internet, and because the world would always be shamelessly fickle, the thousands of people that had been so quick to cast stones on Andreus were now just as quick in saying that they had believed him all along.
It's the soul-shattering twist that no one saw coming, and stock prices of the company Andreus Economou and the rest of the Afxisi owns have skyrocketed as a result...
Bradley Springer, who has been in an on-and-off relationship with Faustus Economou, had been able to obtain the original copies of the videos prior to the latter's death. It is believed that Economou had taken his own life upon learning of his imminent arrest. Springer is now in the custody of the FBI and facing multiple charges.
A legal representative of Ms. Pratt has recently released a statement. 'My client has been aware from the very start of the tragic circumstances in her former husband's past. She wishes Mr. Economou well and prays that justice be served."
Andreus was starting to feel ridiculous as he turned the TV off. How many times did his princess mean to make him cry like a fucking mama's boy?
Hallie: I just have one last surprise for you.
Andreus: I don't think I can take another one.
Hallie: I'm afraid this is non-negotiable, since I'll need him for our wedding.
Andreus: HIM?
Someone knocked on his hotel room almost on cue, and Andreus got to his feet.
Him?
Who the hell was Hallie talking about?
He opened the door, and it was Hallie, of course, and the grin on her face was just too fucking adorable. But when he started to reach for her, she jumped back with a sheepish shake of her head, and Andreus frowned.
"I told you I have a surprise, remember?"
His entire body went rigid at the reminder. "And?"
"He's here."
"Who the fuck is he?"
He saw Hallie turn her gaze to the side, and Andreus' frown deepened. When nothing happened, he stepped out of the room—-and froze.
Sabbas Economou, now grey-haired and with a cane in one hand, was gazing at him with suspiciously bright eyes.
"Hello, son."
Stop. Please. Stop.
Andreus slowly started to remember all the other things that he had forgotten.
Stop. Please. Stop.
He remembered Sabbas sobbing and falling to his knees the first time he saw Andreus lying on the hospital bed. Remembered telling his father everything that happened.
Stop. Please. Stop.
And finally, he remembered waking up one day, with no memory of being raped—-or of Sabbas begging for his forgiveness and swearing to him that he would change.
It was the last piece of the puzzle falling into place, and Sabbas started to weep when he saw in his son's eyes the forgiveness he could never deserve.
Sabbas nearly tripped on his own feet in his need to get to his boy, and Andreus could only squeeze his eyes shut as his father tightly wrapped his arms around him.
"Son. Son. Son. I'm so damn sorry, son."
"I love you, Papa."
Epilogue
It was the simplest celebrity wedding of the year, but it was easily the most unforgettable, and would most likely stay so for years and years to come.
There was the bride, radiantly beautiful and already in tears from the moment she stepped out of the car, and her ethereally handsome brother began walking her down Amaryllis Plantation's famous oak-lined allée.
Her tears were silent and endless, but they were happy tears nonetheless, and everyone couldn't help but cry alongside her as they watched Hallie hug her older brother one last time—-
"Thank you, Yuri."
—-before picking her skirts up so she could throw herself in her future husband's arms.
It had the crowd laughing, if only for a moment, but their hearts broke all over again, in a good way of course, when they heard the tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome groom speak his vows in a voice that cracked every so often.
"I don't know where to start, Hallie. You taught me how to live when I didn't even want to feel. You gave me back my father. My past. My dignity. You loved me when no one else could, loved me when no one else would. You did exactly as you promised. You blew me away, and although I know I will never be able to do anything to deserve you...I will always be Hallie's man—-"
A choked laugh escaped her, but she was also crying again. Had she really thought she could hide anything from him? How could she when he was exactly what he said he was? He was her man. Hallie's man.
While she would always, always be his.
Andreus' girl.
AG | HM
Forever.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends...