Sienna wanted to protest, but they weren’t wrong.She had pulled away, blamed him—not in words, but in attitude.Her guilt over what she’d done to him had been so all-consuming that she never considered the harm she was still causing.
“I thought I was giving him space,” she said, the words thin and uncertain.“After what I did to him…”
“What you did was wrong,” Kitto said bluntly.“But what you’ve been doing since is worse.At least the kidnapping had a purpose.This was cruel.”
The word landed like a slap.Cruel.Is that what she’d become?
“Sienna?”Her mother’s voice came from behind her.“What’s wrong?”
“Liam left,” Jago said when Sienna struggled to find her voice.“Sienna’s upset he didn’t say goodbye.”
Her parents exchanged one of their wordless conversations before her mother sat beside her on the fountain’s edge.
“Oh, sweetheart,” Tamsin said.“What did you expect him to do?”
“I thought we had time to resolve things.”
“Did you tell him that?”her father asked.“Because from where we stood, it looked like you wanted nothing to do with the poor lad.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?”Her mother’s brown gaze was sad but direct.“Sienna, we’ve watched you pull away from him bit by bit.Every time he tried to get close, you found a reason to step back.”
“Because I felt guilty!Because I ruined his life.”
“So you kept upending it?”Calan asked with devastating logic.
Sienna stared at her brother, who rarely spoke up, and felt something crumble inside her chest.He was right.She had been so absorbed in self-recrimination she’d never truly tried to set things right.
“I didn’t know how,” she whispered.“How do you apologize for something like that?How do you make it up to someone when you’ve stolen months of their life?”
“You start with the truth,” her father said.“You tell them why you did it, and you let them decide if they can forgive you.But you don’t get to make that decision for them by pushing them away.”
“And you shouldn’t use your guilt as an excuse to keep hurting them,” her mother added.
Sienna leaned forward, letting her palms cover her face.They were right.All of them.She’d been so focused on guarding herself against his potential rejection that she’d pushed him away first.Over and over again.
“I’ve made such a mess of everything,” Sienna said.
“Yeah,” Jago said with typical bluntness.“You have.”
“But you can clean up a mess,” their mother said.“If you’re willing to do the work.”
Sienna scanned her family.They weren’t angry.Frustrated, maybe, but also hopeful.They still believed in her.“How?He’s gone.He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“Then find another way,” Kitto said.“Write him a letter.Suzie can send it for you.”
“And then what?He’s building a new life.Why would he want me in it?”
“Because maybe,” her mother murmured, “if you’re honest about your feelings instead of hiding behind your guilt, you might discover you have more to offer than you think.”
Sienna sat in the garden long after her family had gone inside, watching the stars emerge one by one.She allowed herself to think about what she actually wanted, rather than what she thought she deserved.
She wanted Liam.Not because her family needed him, and not because he was convenient or kind or helpful.She wanted him because somewhere between Cornwall and Scotland, between camping and crisis and quiet moments stolen together, she’d fallen in love with him.
And she’d been too afraid to admit it, even to herself.
By the time she went inside, she knew what she had to do.It might be too late, but she had to try.She owed him the truth, and herself the courage to deliver it.
