---- I tried to speak, but my throat was raw and my jaw ached from Damon's blow. Serena's smile widened. "Oh, but I have something very interesting to tell you. Something that will make this all so much mote... satisfying." She knelt down, bringing her face close to mine. Her breath smelled like expensive perfume and lies. "Your son was only five years old when he died. But my Ethan? He's already six. Do you know what that means, Aria?" The implication hit me like a physical blow. "T was with Damon first," she continued conversationally. ''I was pregnant with his child before he even met you. He was mine from the very beginning." "But you think Damon loves you?" She threw back her head and laughed. "Oh, sweet, stupid Aria. You ---- have no idea what he really thinks about you." "He told me how much he despises you. How your whining and neediness make him sick. How he has to force himself to touch you because you're so pathetic." Each word was designed to cut deep, to destroy whatever remained of my self-worth. "Just looking at your face makes him want to vomit. His words, not mine." I should have been devastated. A month ago, these revelations would have destroyed me completely. But now? Now I felt... nothing. Ino longer loved Damon. His opinion of me had become as irrelevant as yesterday's weather. My lack of reaction clearly frustrated Serena. She grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look at my reflection in the cracked mirror on the opposite wall. ---- "Look at yourself! Look at that pathetic, ugly face! No wonder you couldn't keep your man!" I saw myself in the mirror-bruised, chained, broken. But I also saw something else. A cold determination that hadn't been there before. "Oh, and about your son..."" Serena's voice dropped to a whisper. "I want you to know something special. Something that will make this perfect." She leaned in closer, her voice full of malicious glee. "T tampered with that silver cage. I made sure those spikes were extra sharp, extra painful. I wanted him to suffer, and he did. Oh, how he suffered!" My blood went cold. "He was in agony for hours before he finally died. Hours, Aria. And it's all because of me."