“Avery?”
The second I heard my name, I stepped back from the trophies. Hastily, I closed the compartment I’d released on the desk.
“In here,” I called back.
Libby appeared in the doorway. “This is unreal,” she said. “This entire place isunreal.”
“That’s one word for it.” I tried to focus on the marvel that was Hawthorne House and not on my sister’s black eye, but I failed. If possible, the bruising looked worse now.
Libby wrapped her arms around her torso. “I’m fine,” she said when she noticed my stare. “It doesn’t even hurt that much.”
“Please tell me you’re done with him.” The words escaped before I could stop them. Libby needed support right now—not judgment. But I couldn’t help thinking that Drake had been herexbefore.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Libby said. “I choseyou.”
I wanted her to chooseherself, and I said as much. Libby let her hair fall into her face and turned toward the balcony. She was silent for a full minute before she spoke again.
“My mom used to hit me. Only when she was really stressed, you know? She was a single mom, and things were hard. I could understand that. I tried to make everything easier.”
I could picture her as a kid, getting hit and trying to make it up to the person who hit her. “Libby…”
“Drake loved me, Avery. I know he did, and I tried so hard to understand…” She was hugging herself harder now. The black polish on her nails looked fresh.Perfect.“But you were right.”
My heart broke a little. “I didn’t want to be.”
Libby stood there for a few more seconds, then walked over to the balcony and tested the door. I followed, and the two of us stepped out into the night air. Down below, there was a swimming pool. It must have been heated, because someone was swimming laps.
Grayson.My body recognized him before my mind did. His arms beat against the water in a brutally efficient butterfly stroke. And his back muscles…
“I have to tell you something,” Libby said beside me.
That let me tear my eyes away from the pool—and the swimmer. “About Drake?” I asked.
“No. I heard something.” Libby swallowed. “When Oren introduced me to my security detail, I overheard Zara’s husband talking. They’re running a test—a DNA test. Onyou.”
I had no idea where Zara and her husband had gotten a sample of my DNA, but I wasn’t entirely surprised. I’d thought it myself: The simplest explanation for including a total stranger in your will was that shewasn’ta total stranger. The simplest explanation was that Iwasa Hawthorne.
I had no business watching Grayson at all.
“If Tobias Hawthorne was your father,” Libby managed, “then our dad—mydad—isn’t. And if we don’t share a dad, and we barely even saw each other growing up—”
“Don’t you dare say we’re not sisters,” I told her.
“Would you still want me here?” Libby asked me, her fingers rubbing at her choker. “If we’re not—”
“I want you here,” I promised. “No matter what.”
CHAPTER 19
That night, I took the longest shower of my life. The hot-water supply was endless. The glass doors on the shower held in the steam. It was like having my own personal sauna. After drying off with plush, oversized towels, I put on my ratty pajamas and flopped down on what I was pretty sure were Egyptian cotton sheets.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there when I heard it. A voice. “Pull the candlestick.”
I was on my feet in an instant, whirling to put my back to the wall. On instinct, I grabbed the keys I’d left on the nightstand, in case I needed a weapon. My eyes scanned the room for the person who’d spoken, and came up empty.
“Pull the candlestick on the fireplace, Heiress. Unless youwantme stuck back here?”
Annoyance replaced my initial fight-or-flight response. I narrowed my eyes at the stone fireplace at the back of my room. Sure enough, there was a candelabra on the mantel.
