When he broke free, his lips ghosted my forehead, then my cheek, before he spoke. “You’re so beautiful, Tulya.”
All my barriers tumbled down with these couple of words. To think, a few days ago, that I was resistant to any come-ons from this man. “Back at you, Donovan,” I said, smoothing my hand down his face, taking him in… “What are we doing?” Thequestion popped out of my mouth without my directing it to, and I wanted to take it back. I didn’t care what we were doing; I wanted to do it.
“We’re doing what we want. That’s what,” was all Donovan said.
Sadly, we were interrupted by his phone ringing.
“It’s Magnum,” he said, and I knew the magical moment was behind us.
Maybe it was for the best.
I didn’t wait around for much after overhearing that Magnum had spoken to Valerie and she was back in Miami. I knew what task was staring me in the face—the hardest job I’d ever been asked to do. Without saying anything to Donovan, I retreated to my room and filled the bathtub.
Enveloped in vanilla-scented bubbles, I closed my eyes and dreamed of a life where I wasn’t in servitude to Rubia. One where I didn’t have to make sure everyone else was pain-free, except me.
My phone rang, pulling me from any delusions of love I might have been having. Drying my hand, I picked it up and set it on the side of the tub on speakerphone.
“Caro?” My sister’s name bumbled out of my mouth like a question, likely because we didn’t speak daily at home. We loved one another, but Caro was an extrovert, and I was the resident introvert.
“Tuvy, are you okay? Mom just told me everything. She’s back from the Minister’s.”
He might be our uncle, but we never called him by his name—Elon—onlythe Minister.
“I’m fine. I haven’t really had to do much yet… I guess I’m waiting on Cinder, and then it will all start…” I sank a little deeper into the bubbly warmth.
“That’s why I’m calling. Apparently Cinder is refusing to come now. She’s very upset about—” I heard her take a breath. “The kid,” she finished, her voice almost nonexistent.
“What?” I’d never expected that. My mind was always on Cinder getting what, or who, she wanted. “She’s keeping Magnum,” I stated, thinking she was getting exactly what she’d begged for and then some. “Isn’t that all she wants? Her man?” I spoke quietly, wondering if maybe Cinder would give up and move on, and I wouldn’t have to do the transfer.
“Yes, but she said since he had a child with someone else, apparently that takes something away from her. Makes it less special. At least that’s what I heard through my channels.”
This gave me a little laugh. My sister had channels, and I craved peace and solitude. “The Minister won’t allow her not to raise Blake as her own. You heard Blake can do some complicated emotional telling or showing already, in kinder?” There was no reason to lie to Caro; she’d hear it eventually if not already.
“Mom told me as much, and said to keep it quiet. But she is now telling Cinder she has no choice but to come and follow through. Mom is spitting mad, and annoyed she has to do the Minister’s dirty work while holding Ceci together. By the way, Ceci is crying nonstop and I haven’t seen Magnum.”
I blew out a long exhale.
“Are you okay?” my sister thought to ask me. “Is Donovan being nice?”
I slopped my free hand out of the water and dried it on the towel over the edge of the tub. With it, I attempted to smooth my hair back, feeling fidgety over the Donovan conversation. “I’m fine, mostly spending time in my room outside of doing what is needed.”
“At the Christmas party, I saw you two talking. I wondered if maybe there was more.”
There was no way I was giving in to my sister’s prying or theorizing. “No, he was ordering a drink and I was at the bar.”
“Hmm,” she responded.
I knew Caro, and she was a dog with a bone when it came to gossip. But we were not flirting, at least not for long. Donovan was apparently betrothed, and I was forbidden to be happy for some unknown reason. For a quick beat, I wondered who Ceci had picked for him, and I couldn’t help but be curious why it was under such wraps.
Caro finally relented and changed the conversation. “I thought maybe you would make it back for Christmas, but I think Cinder is really digging her heels in. I’m sorry, I’ll miss you.”
“Yes, it looks like I’ll be having dinner in the hotel and taking a hot bath for the holiday.”
“Sounds sort of nice, yeah?” My sister didn’t enjoy the confines of routine and the holiday the way I did. Caro was to excitement and living loud like I was to solitude and quiet.
“You know what? It kind of does,” I admitted, letting Caro off the hook.
“Listen, call me if you need to talk,” she said in a rare moment of sisterly love.
