As I struggle to learn how to do the things my father once did, so easily.
Until he was taken from me. Because ofthem.
And as the years slip by, I settle into his shoes. Outgrow them, even. Increasing our income, our influence, until even the royal family is reliant on us to subsidize their overblown, flamboyant lifestyle. We become the most influential men in Sorelle, and all I can feel… is numb.
Numb is better than the pain.
But no matter how much money I throw at the search, I can never find them. Angelica and Anastasia are gone, as if they never existed in the first place.
Stasi.
31 – Rafe
Iknock on the door of Silas’s office. “Si?”
When he doesn’t respond, I push the door open. “You didn’t come to breakfast.”
He always comes to breakfast. Always. One of the traditions we’ve kept from our dad. When we’re together, we eat together.
But as he glances up from his desk, I stop. “What is it?”
My older brother looks like he hasn’t slept at all. Dark circles sit beneath his eyes. “I told Stasi. About dad.”
I digest the information slowly, settling down in the chair in front of his desk. Guilt swoops, low in my stomach. I still haven’t apologized. I haven’t seen her since yesterday’s little incident in the hall. “Right.”
He sighs, sweeping a hand over his face. “I’m fucking this up, Rafe.”
I study him. My brother is the last person to open up, to share anything about himself with us. And I know why. “You don’t have to carry everything on your shoulders, you know.”
He gives me a wry look, and I shake my head. “We knew this was going to be hard. Having her here.”
Silas purses his lips. “We did. But… I didn’t expecther, Rafe.”
I turn the words over in my mind. But I know what he means. “We expected a brat.”
He nods. We expected a spoiled, demanding princess. We thought she’dchanged. But what we got was the same Stasi we remember. Strong, quiet, taking everything we throw at her and managing to give us hell whilst working her damn ass off. And we’re all struggling to reconcile it with the knowledge of what she’s done.
“It wasn’t just us,” I point out. “Ella Cooper, Silas. She left us, she went there, and we know what happened.”
“Do we?” he says slowly. “Kit seems pretty convinced we have it wrong. And she doesn’t act like someone who’s used to being waited on hand and foot.”
My jaw tightens. Kit and I are rarely at odds, and to be so now irritates the hell out of me. “He always sees the best in everyone.”
Silas nods, slowly. “And… maybe he’s right.”
I suck in a breath, and he looks up at me. “She was devastated, Rafe. When I told her about dad. She – she couldn’t even look at me. You can’t fake that kind of reaction. I could see the guilt written all over her face. None of her actions fit with what wethinkwe know.”
He hesitates. “And… I need to tell you something. About that night.”
As he speaks, my hand tightens on the arm of my chair. Tightens until I hear the wood snap. “Youthrew her out?”
My voice rises, and Silas glances at me. “I found her on the floor,” he says slowly. “All the jewelry was there. But… it’s possible that shewasputting it back. And the more she’s here, the more I watch her… the more I think that I might have gotten it wrong.”
Neither of us hear the door open. But Silas’s head jerks up, and I turn to see Kit in the doorway. He scans us, his face set. “You did get it fucking wrong.”
But he doesn’t sound surprised. Silas’s eyes raise. “You already knew?”
He nods. “She told me. And asked menotto blame you.”
