Chapter 263: Kisses
Chapter 263: Kisses
The words were almost too sweet.
Big sister.
Soft, warm, and sticky with devotion, the call carried the kind of trust that made Serena’s entire body go still. It sounded as if she had become the center of Elias’s world. As if everything outside her could vanish and he would only blink, search for her hand, and wait for her to tell him where to go.
Serena had wanted this.
She had planned for this.
Still, hearing it from his mouth made belief come slowly.
Disbelief crossed her face before she could hide it. Her lashes flickered several times in quick succession. She stared at the boy on the bed, at his bright eyes and softened mouth, at the way he leaned toward her scent as though finding her meant safety.
For one breath, Serena wondered if she had finally broken enough to hallucinate.
Elias tilted his head.
She had not answered him.
Confusion entered his clear green eyes, open and unguarded in a way Serena had never seen from him while he remembered the truth. He looked at her as though he could not understand why the person he had called did not come closer.
"Big sister!"
This time, his voice was brighter. Still sweet, still intimate, but with a spark of youthful impatience under it. It carried a little complaint, the tone of someone who knew he was loved and therefore had the right to be spoiled.
Serena finally breathed.
It was real.
He was real.
The hypnosis had worked.
The smile that broke across her face was the brightest Elias had ever seen from her. It did not resemble the careful, polished smile she used for boardrooms or donors. It was too unguarded for that, almost frightening in its relief.
"I’m here," Serena said. "Your big sister is right here."
The words left her mouth before she could consider them.
A second later, her expression shifted.
That reaction was wrong.
A normal older sister, seeing her younger brother wake from sedation, would not smile like that. She should have sounded worried, restrained, maybe relieved, but not as if the world had just been handed back to her.
Fortunately, Elias did not seem to notice anything strange.
He only puckered his mouth slightly. The corners turned down, and his face filled with grievance so quickly that Serena’s newly steady heart lurched again.
"Then why didn’t you answer me right away?"
His lower lip trembled.
"Do you not love me anymore?"
The question came out with a faint thread of tears in it.
His voice was already beautiful. Now, softened by hurt and trembling with the belief that Serena might reject him, it became nearly unbearable. Any woman with a heart would have struggled against the instinct to give him whatever he wanted.
Serena was no exception.
She had only just recovered from the shock of success. Now he looked ready to cry because she had hesitated for a few seconds, and all the control she had rebuilt began to crack.
She did not understand why he had become this sensitive. She did not understand whether Karen’s procedure had shaped him too deeply, or whether the new memories had made him dependent in ways she had not fully anticipated.
None of that mattered in the moment.
She lowered her voice at once.
"How could I not love you?" Serena reached for him, then stopped herself just short of touching his cheek too quickly. "That was my fault. From now on, if Eli calls me, I’ll answer right away."
Elias blinked through wet lashes.
Suspicion lingered, fragile and childlike, as if he wanted to believe her but needed the promise given properly.
"You promise?"
Serena nodded without hesitation. "I promise."
Only then did Elias brighten.
The clouds in his face disappeared. He looked at her with sudden expectation, then pursed his full mouth toward her.
Serena froze.
She knew what the gesture meant. Of course she knew. His face was tilted up, his eyes half-lidded with trust, his mouth waiting for her to lean down.
But she did not move.
If she had misunderstood, if this small movement meant something else inside the false memories, she might frighten him. Worse, she might make him hate her again. The old Elias would have used a mistake like that as a knife. Even now, while he looked at her with complete dependence, the fear of rejection had not left her.
Elias waited.
And waited.
His brows drew together.
"Big sister."
The third call was different.
No confusion this time. No soft grievance. It carried irritation, disbelief, and a clear demand.
Serena bent almost before she decided to do it.
The moment she moved close enough, Elias seemed satisfied. His eyes closed. Then, to Serena’s shock, his pale arms lifted around her neck and pulled her down.
She had to bend further, almost over him, one hand bracing on the mattress.
Elias kissed her first.
He was clumsy with it, eager and clingy, pressing himself into the contact with the confidence of someone who believed affection should be answered the second he asked. Serena’s breath caught. The kiss was not long by any fair measure, but the room disappeared around it. There was only his warmth, the pull of his arms at her neck, and the soft sounds of his mouth against hers as he stole from her without any fear.
For Serena, it might as well have lasted a century.
When Elias finally let her go, her composure was no longer where she had left it.
He smiled at her.
A sweet, bright smile that showed the two pointed little canines she had always noticed and never allowed herself to linger on.
"Hehe," he said. "Kisses."
Serena’s pupils tightened.
She had not expected this.
She had known the new Elias would depend on her. That was the whole point. She had asked for a version of him who loved her first, turned toward her first, and saw her as the one person who could never be replaced.
But she had not expected him to be this clingy.
Every small movement had become a trap. The tilt of his head. The call of big sister. The wounded look when she hesitated. The way he kissed her and then smiled as though it were the most natural reward in the world.
He was like some sweet little devil designed to undo a person from the inside.
The contrast made it worse.
Serena knew the old Elias. She knew his ridicule, his sharp timing, the way he could cry in her arms and still make every tear feel like an accusation. He had told her to die. He had ripped himself out of her control and made her watch Giselle take him away.
This Elias looked at her as though she was his entire home.
Serena’s breathing became a little unsteady.
She forced it even again.
No.
She did not regret this.
Her eyes settled.
From the moment she chose this method, regret had stopped being useful. She had not acted on impulse. She had weighed every path left in front of her and found them all leading to the same end. If nothing changed, Elias would leave her behind. They would become strangers with too much history and no way back.
So she had chosen to create a way back.
A new Elias.
One who relied on her, needed her, and loved her with his whole heart.
That was the result she had wanted.
Now it was sitting in front of her, flushed from waking, asking for kisses as if Serena had always belonged to him.
And compared with locking him away, hurting him, or forcing him to spend every day hating her, was this not better? He had not suffered the way he would have in a cage. He had only slept. When he opened his eyes, pain had been taken from him, and love had been placed where it used to hurt.
That was what Serena told herself.
Her mouth curved.
"You’re grown up, and you still love acting spoiled."
Elias made a sound through his nose and sat up suddenly on the bed. He lifted his chin, looking proud enough to be ridiculous.
"I only act spoiled with you. If you don’t like it, stop loving me."
He folded his arms, still damp-eyed and smug.
"When you stop loving me, I’ll stop."
Serena had already decided she would adapt.
This version of Elias was different, painfully different, but he was still Elias. Perhaps the best way to keep him was not to compare every movement to the past, but to accept the person the new memories had made.
She smiled and stroked the top of his head.
"How could I stop loving you?" she asked. "I’ll love you forever."
Elias looked pleased with himself.
"Not forever," he corrected. "You have to. You have to love me. If you don’t..."
Serena withdrew her hand, amused despite herself. "If I don’t?"
His dark pupils rolled slightly as he thought. Then he gave her a secretive little smile and beckoned her closer.
Serena leaned down, curious.
Elias hooked one arm around her neck as naturally as breathing, bringing his mouth to her ear.
"If you don’t," he whispered, "I’ll go act spoiled with someone else."
The effect was instant.
Serena’s face changed.
She turned her head toward him.
Before that cold rush could fully form, Elias’s expression crumpled. His brows pinched together. Pain, confusion, and fear flooded his face, as though the joke had hurt him the moment he imagined it becoming true.
"Big sister, I’m sorry." His voice broke. "I shouldn’t joke like that. I wouldn’t leave you. I won’t. I’ll stay with you forever."
He looked close to tears again.
Serena gathered him into her arms at once.
"It was only a joke," she said, rubbing his back. "I’m not mad."
Elias clung to her.
"But Eli has to promise me something," Serena continued, soft and coaxing. "Don’t say that again, all right?"
"Mm."
The answer came thick with tears.
Serena’s tension slowly loosened.
How could this Elias betray her? Even the thought of leaving her had made him collapse into guilt. He could not bear it. The past would not happen again. He would not look at Giselle with that injured devotion. He would not turn Liora’s watching into another stage. He would not run from Serena and call someone else home.
He was hers now.
She held him for a while, letting his breathing settle.
Then Elias sniffled against her shoulder.
"Big sister," he murmured. "Kiss me."
Serena hesitated.
The hesitation lasted only a moment this time.
Then she smiled with helpless indulgence.
"You," she said, smoothing his hair back. "What am I going to do with you?"
She leaned in and kissed him.
This time, she initiated it.
This time, she let the kiss carry everything she had been swallowing since he woke: relief, hunger, fear, possession, and a love made sharper by the knowledge that she had manufactured the ground beneath it.
Elias nearly lost his breath.
Instead of resisting, he smiled into the kiss, happy and pliant beneath her, letting Serena take what she wanted.