“Hey,” I softly say, wrapping my hands around her face, pulling her up to look at me. “Hey, Jules.”
“Holt,” she whimpers, her eyes softening, full of sadness and regret. “I’m truly sorry. I didn’t do this to hurt you. Rome has the ability to break me, and I couldn’t let him do that. I couldn’t let him win.”
I have no fucking clue what she’s talking about. I’vewatched the two of them over the past year, in the times we’ve run into each other. I’ve seen the way they look at each other.
There’s more there than meets the eye.
I cradle her face in my hands, wiping her tears away. She’s my little sister and I will do anything to protect her. Seeing her this broken and distraught only confirms that our relationship isn’t completely lost. We’ve just wandered a little too far from one another for now.
I couldn’t protect my mother the day she died, but I will spend the rest of my life protecting those I love the best I can.
“I know, Jules,” I whisper. “Please stop crying.”
“But I hurt you. I hurt you and the magazine.” She hiccups. “I promise, I’ll make this right and then I’ll cut Rome off completely. If he tries anything else, I’ll ignore him. We need to move on from who we were—who we are.”
I’m no longer angry, only heartbroken over my sister’s pain.
I pull her toward me in the grass and hold her. I let her cry. I allow her to release it all, whatever it is that she has bottled up inside her.
Her cries grow quiet, and soon all I hear is her breathing.
“I’ll tell him.” She slowly lifts her head from my chest and wipes her drying tears from her cheeks. She almost looks the same as she usually does, strong as titanium, and beautiful like our mother. But the light she usually carries with her has dimmed.
“What do you mean, you’ll tell him?”
“I’ll find him.” She sniffs. “I’ll barge into his office and demand he hear me out. I’ll tell him it was me who wrote that article.”
I shake my head. “Jules, you can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can. If I tell him, then maybe he’ll drop the lawsuit. Before, I was only wanting to convince him to drop it, butmaybe if I actually confess and tell him it was me, it’ll get him to listen.”
“If you tell him, he’ll smear your name and the Capuleti name. The headlines will be worse than they already are. You know he won’t hesitate in dragging us through the dirt. He’ll ruin our family, Julianna.”
“I have to confess. This is my doing, and it’s on me to fix it. Don’t you understand?”
“I do understand.” I breathe in and stare into my sister’s eyes. “But don’t you understand that I am your brother and I will always have your back? I won’t let you replace my name with yours in the headlines.”
“But what about the lawsuit?” she asks, her perfectly-manicured eyebrows pulling together. “What about Rome?”
“The lawsuit will play out.” I crack a tiny smile. “Let me handle Rome Montgomery.”
Julianna sighs, her shoulders dropping. We’re still sitting in the grass. Our clothes covered in wet dirt. But we don’t care.
We turn to look at our mother’s headstone together, and from the corner of my eye, I see a single tear slip down Julianna’s cheek.
“I know I haven’t always trusted you, Holt.” Her teary eyes find mine again. “I don’t agree with your pursuit to finding Mom’s killer. It’s dangerous, and I often wonder if it’s worth the risk. But I do believe you love Selene. For what it’s worth, I think Mom would have liked her. In fact, I know she would have loved her.”
That one statement from Julianna heals parts of me I didn’t realize were as fractured as they are.
I’ve proven my love for my sister. Now, I just need to prove to Selene that love does exist, and it’s mine she already has right in front of her.
TWENTY-TWO
SELENE
I told myself I was going to stay at my apartment tonight. Sleep in my own bed, cook my own dinner, and curl up on my couch to binge watch a new series on Netflix. Same as always.
It wasn’t easy, but I did it. I had to. Holt is all I can think about.
