My grandmother is crying again.

Albeit for a different reason, but still. "This is why earthquakes happen," she sobs, a handkerchief held to her eyes. "He get you pregnant, didn't he? The American boy get you pregnant?"

Theo, now fully clothed, raises his eyebrows at me. I shrug in response. My grandmother continues. "Now how are you going to have pure Greek babies?"

I bite my lip to stop from laughing before cautiously treading around my next words. "Yiayia," I say, using my Greek name for her. "Theo didn't get me pregnant. It was just too hot last night."

My grandfather cuts in. "Did you know the name Theo is from Greece?" he says. "Greeks made everything, I tell you."

"Agh! You were in the same bed with him!" she continues to rant. She points an accusing finger at Theo. "He get you pregnant!"

"I didn't get her pregnant," Theo says with a grin, seeming to have way too much fun with this.

"Now how will Christ get you into heaven?" she demands at me. "The American boy made you have sex before marriage!"

"Yiayia, please," I say levelly. "He was sleeping in a different room."

She clears her throat. "Tell me truth," she says, using her signature broken English. "Did you get my granddaughter pregnant, malaka?"

"What? This innocent thing?" he says, gesturing to me. "Not at all. In fact, I'd never have sex before marriage. I'm a good, Christian boy who has never caused anyone any harm." He looks at me, that devilish grin on his face. "Arden is a good girl, I tell you." He fixes his eyes on mine, smirking his stupid little smirk. "She gets on her knees a lot."

I want to reach over there and smack his pretty little face. "For praying," I add quickly. "You know me. Always gotta keep Jesus with me."

"Oh, thank god," my grandma sighs. "I've raised you well, my sweet baby." She holds a hand to her heart before pinching my cheek thoroughly. I wince as she lets go, my cheek searing with pain. "You get dressed," she says. "But make sure the American boy doesn't see your boobs!"

I smile at the fragile old woman. "Of course not," I say. I look over at Theo. "Come on."

He grins at me before taking my hand and bounding up the stairs. He reaches for the doorknob and twists it open, holding the door open before pushing me inside with a push on the butt. Once we're inside, he opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "Please," I say, raising my eyebrows. "Don't say anything about what just happened."

He grins. "In all my years of killing and injuring people," he begins, "I don't think I've ever made anyone cry as much as I did just then."

I sigh, slumping down onto the bed. "I can't believe that just happened."

He laughs, long and boisterously. "Don't worry," he says. "That was fucking hilarious."

I allow myself to smile. "Are you staying the whole time today?"

He nods, tugging his v-neck sweater over his head. "Arden," he says. "I'm not going to leave you alone today. I'll be by your side."

I stood up and smiled as I leaned into the kiss. "Thank you, Theo." My fingers grapple at the undone buttons on his dress shirt and do them up.

I go over to my wardrobe and pull out a black structured dress which sits just below the knees. I slip it on and look in the mirror. "Do I look churchy enough?" I ask, trying to make an attempt at a joke that falls flat.

Theo, who is dressed in a suit and tie — something I've never seen him in before — hugs me from behind. "Are you scared about doing this?" he asks softly.

I hesitate before shaking my head curtly. "I don't get scared anymore," I say firmly.

He draws back his arms from around my waist. "You're more powerful than you realise, Arden. With enough practice, you could probably take down the entire Vinceret pack with one word."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Then I better get practicing."

When we get to the church, there's a small crowd already gathering. I get out of Theo's pickup and take a deep breath, stepping out onto the pavement. My heels click against the cement at an unsteady beat as I will my legs not to tremble.

I feel a hand grip mine tightly and look up at Theo. He gives me an encouraging smile, making soothing circular motions on my palm. I keep my head held high as I walk to the front of the church. I try to be courteous as possible, saying hello to my mom's friends and family and introducing Theo when they asked.

Most of them look vaguely familiar, but I barely know their name and try to avoid the subject when I talk to them. I mostly keep to Theo and he asks me more often than needed whether I'm alright. "Do you think anyone here knows about the pack?" he breathes into my ear, leaning over.

The thought had never really struck me. "I'll ask around," I mutter back. "I'll ask if there was anyone close to my father here." Theo has his eyes fixed on something over my shoulder, squinting slightly and not answering me. "Theo?" I ask. "Wha —"

Theo places a hand on my back and begins to guide me in the other direction. "Just trust me," he says, a hint of urgency in his voice.

I begin to turn around, my hair whipping around my face, when I feel the tap on my shoulder. Theo's body language goes stiff, a muscle in his jaw feathering. When I turn around, I finally understand why he was so contemptuous.

Because, as if my day couldn't get any worse, standing before me is none other than Brett Talbot.

I bite my tongue to stop from all the obscenities waiting to be poured out. "Brett," I greet him curtly.

"Arden, I know you probably don't want me here —"

"I don't."

"— but I wanted to say that I'm sorry to hear about your mom," he finishes.

I feel Theo go rigid beside me. "Talbot, you don't have a right to feel sorry for Arden," he says. "You have never treated her the way she deserves. You never treated her right."

He glances down at Theo fleetingly, a cavalier look painted across his face before he trains his eyes on mine expectantly. I press my lips into a painfully tight line before parting them to speak. "I don't know what makes you think that you can come in here and act like you care when you don't," I say slow and levelled.

"Arden," he says, as if carefully trying to pick his next words. "You may not see it, but he will ruin you." He jabs an accusing finger in Theo's direction. "He will turn you into a monster."

"I thought I was already a monster," I say through clenched teeth. "I can kill you with as much as one word, Brett. I suggest you leave here."

His eyes dart to and fro nervously. "You wouldn't kill me," he says, but he hardly sounds confident.

"I only won't kill people who mean something to me," I say, leaning over and eyeing him menacingly. "And, frankly, I don't give a shit about whether you live or not."

This trips him up. He opens and shuts his mouth numerous times, scrambling for something to say. With one final attempt at pushing out words and failing, he shoulders past me and stalks off. "That was a dick move," Theo decides once he's gone. Seeing my frozen stance, Theo pulls me into him and I bask in the warmth of his body heat. "Don't worry about him, Arden. He didn't deserve you." He leans in and nips my ear with his bottom lip. "Just remember I love you," he whispers with a breathy laugh. "And I can do a lot of things that any other guy can't do for you."

I smile and look up at him. "I love you, too," I murmur back.

When the hearse arrives, it's a burst of commotion, people crying and embracing loved ones. I feel a lump in my throat as I catch sight of the coffin, a smooth, rich mahogany casing with a fascicle of flowers arranged on top of it.

People sort themselves out, volunteering to carry the coffin. In the end, Theo decides he wants to stay with me to make sure I don't have a mental breakdown or something. My back is straight as a ruler and my head is tipped up slightly in a sort of defiance as I will my legs to keep steady when I walk in after the coffin.

The same words run through my head like liquid honey, their sounds as quiet as light wind and as loud as screaming all at the same time. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry.

I repeat the words as a mantra, as a prayer and so much that they seem to bleed into one continuous bout of speaking. The walk down the middle of the church feels like the longest of my life. I can see the coffin atop shoulders, seeming to be the only thing in my vision. I can't tear my eyes away from it and I can't seem to think about anything else but my mother's cold dead body in that wooden box.

My mother is dead.

It hadn't felt real until now; the words hitting me like a grenade that tears up my insides and shreds my heart to pieces. I feel sick. My vision is blurred by tears and my head swims.

But I do not dare cry, I do not dare let a single tear escape down my face. I owe myself that much, at least. I had made a choice and that choice detailed that I'd be strong. I'd hold myself high and keep my face sternly emotionless when inside I felt as if my lungs were deflating and my blood turning to ice.

I just had to hold out until I killed the Vinceret pack.

Such grim thoughts for a church, but they exhilarate me all the same.

Somewhere between holding back tears and keeping steady, someone sits me down in the front bench. Theo. My senses are deadened, my brain ceasing to process anything other than my mother's dead body in that coffin.

There is no sign of the blood or the greyish skin. Her skin is powdered so that she has colour in her cheeks and she looks like she's nothing more than asleep. Maybe it's the mirage of her looking so alive and unhurt that makes the first tears roll down my cheeks silently, or maybe it's that I'll never see her again in the flesh.

I feel my airways constricting, my lungs aching and crying out for more air. The candles on the wall are too bright and the walls are too close. The speakers sound like screams. No, not just any screams. My screams when I found my mother dying.

And then I'm back there in my living room with red writing on the wall and my mother's lifeless body propped up against the wall like a rag doll. My vision is smeared with red.

Blood. All I can see is blood.

My mouth is filled with the taste of metal, my lip leaking blood because of how long and hard I've been biting it.

I can't be in here. The sickly sweet stench of incense burns my nostrils, the light is too bright and every sound is magnified so much that it's painful.

I get to my feet and the sense of depersonalisation melts away. I'm aware of every pair of eyes in the building on me. I choke back my sobs and focus on getting the hell out of there. My legs move as fast as they can towards the door.

I haul open the door and slam it shut behind me, leaning on the brick wall to stay upright. I know if I'd stayed in there any longer I would've lost control. I could've killed everyone in there.

The talons at the tips of my fingers pierce into the fleshy part of my palm. My head starts spinning again. The tears come unwillingly, a flood of them running down my face in burning rivulets.

I hear the door click open and I turn around gingerly. "Theo," I choke out.

He looks distressed, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, his lips pursed and his jaw clenched. "Come here," he sighs. He envelopes me in his arms and runs his hand up and down my spine as he presses me against him.

I can't help the tears coming like a torrent, my body trembling slightly. He detaches himself a little and takes my face in his hands, the most gentle he ever has. And ever so carefully, he presses his lips to my cheek, where the tears are streaming down. He pulls away, his eyes searching mine. He leans down and kisses another one of the tears on my other cheek. "Look at me," he whispers. "Arden."

I raise my head slightly, my teeth gritted to stop from crying out. "I have to go back in there," I say, lowering my eyebrows.

He sighs, brushing a strand of hair away from my face. "Are you sure?" he asks carefully.

"I'm sure," I confirmed. I straightened up and let go of his hand as I walked back into the church, grateful for waterproof makeup.

After the ceremony, they shut the coffin and for the last time, I savour the curves of the bones under her skin, the length of her raven lashes and the outline of her pink lips.

I don't cry, and hardly have to try to hold back my tears. I feel numb, seemingly unable to cry. My body is steady and I don't find it difficult to push the grief aside.

The cemetery is already bustling with family and friends when I get there. After weaving through the crowd and getting an umpteen amount of people asking whether I was alright and what happened to me, I found myself in front of the rectangular gaping hole, the mahogany coffin resting next to it covered in harnesses.

As they lower the wooden box into the ground, I feel an overwhelming sense of finality, almost as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I take a rose, and I allow myself to feel pain for one last time as I throw it into the hole along with a handful of dirty sand.

I shoulder my way back through the crowd, barely waiting for Theo to catch up. The day has grown cumbersome and I realise that I'm just going to stay to find out as much as I can about my father before getting the hell out of there.

"Arden," Theo calls from behind me. "Wait." He half jogs towards me. "I think it's best if we stick together. We don't know who here could have killed your mom."

Theo keeps true to his word and stays by my side all through the rest of the funeral. It's more boring than anything and the only thing close to entertaining is Theo pointing out who seemed suspicious when answering about my dad.

"I swear to god, Arden," he says. "Your grandma is shady as hell. Did you see the way she avoided me when I asked her about your dad?"

"Theo," I sigh. "She probably avoided you because of her traumatising encounter with you beforehand."

He furrows his eyebrows. "I still don't understand why she reacted so badly," he says. "Who wouldn't love to see me in my underwear?"

"I don't know why I date such an arrogant dick."

"You love me, baby," he says. "I'm going to go get a drink. You want one?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," I answer with a smile. "Thanks."

He smiles. "Coming right up." He disappears into the sea of suits and dark dresses. I check my phone and, upon realising there's nothing particularly interesting that has popped up, I put it on my lap face down. I drum my fingers on the armrest of the chair, bored out of my mind. I pick up my phone again and check the time. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Theo sit back down beside me.

"Theo —" My lips are just beginning to form his name when I look up and realise that the suited figure is, in fact, not Theo.

The man sitting down beside me is in his early to mid twenties and has a mass of black curls falling over his forehead. His irises are rings of of bronze and his mouth, which is stretched into a big smile, is framed by a sharp jawline. "I take it you were expecting someone else," he laughs. "Sorry to disappoint you. I'm Luke Cohen. Arden, right?"

I knit my eyebrows together. "Uh, yeah," I say, trying to sound as nice as I can. "I hate to sound rude, but do I know you?"

"Not in person, no," he says. "My mom was a friend of your parents'. I'm also the lawyer that's in charge of your mother's will."

"But I thought Adrienne was my mom's lawyer," I say, probably sounding more aggressive than I intend to.

He lets out a light, boyish chuckle. "Yeah, I actually had to go away for business for the last few days," he explains. "I told her to look after it." He pauses. "Enough about me, though. You know us lawyers, always too arrogant to talk about anyone but ourselves." His face takes on a serious look to it. "I'm really sorry to hear about your mom, by the way. If you need anything —"

"Yeah, I know," I say. "You're there. I've heard it from who knows how many people in the last few days."

I huffs out a small laugh. "Miss Caraway," he says in a mocking tone that suggests he's joking. "Don't you know not to interrupt?" I have no idea what to say to that so I keep quiet. He continues anyway. "Really, though, you're incredibly strong for staying sane during all this, you know that, right?"

I shift uncomfortably in my chair, my leg chaffing against his suit pants. "Thanks," I mutter.

He cracks a grin. "Are you nervous, Arden?" he asks, his eyes glittering. "Because you don't have to be. Not around me."

I swallow hard. Why isn't Theo back yet? "Not at all," I stammer.

"Good," he says, a look of self satisfaction filling his eyes. "I was hoping that we could find common ground." He reaches around in his pocket and pulls out a small, cardboard card. "I know it must be hard with everything going on, but I'd be happy to offer you a personal assistant job at the office. I think it would've made your mom happy," he murmurs. "And, besides, I usually find the best way to keep my mind off something is to keep myself busy." He hands me the card, pressing it into my palm gently. "It's been a pleasure to meet Alexandra's daughter," he says. "I'll hear from you soon."

And with that, he disappears into the hoard of people.

* * *

Hello, my loves. I hope you've enjoyed that chapter since a hell of a lot went down. The reason why I included Brett is because I'm not really a fan of having a character being dropped really abruptly from a story without any mention of them later on (ahem, Isaac Lahey and Danny, ahem). Tell me what you think of Luke's character, as well :)

xx Georgina