"Don't let her get to you," Aunt Ellie says, settling beside me. "Venus is bitter because she wanted something she was never going to have. That's not your fault."
"She's not wrong, though." My voice is small. "I did disappear. I did break his heart. Over and over again."
"Yes, you did." Ellie's not one to sugarcoat things. "And now you're here, trying to make it right. That's what matters. Not what Venus thinks. Not what anyone thinks." She pats my knee. "You just keep showing up, honey. That's all any of us can do."
I nod, but the words stick with me long after she's gone.
Worthless. Junkie. Still the same.
Is she right?
Am I fooling myself?
I put my hand on my stomach, feeling the small swell that's just starting to show.
No. I'mnotthe same. I can't be the same. I have too much to lose.
Leah comes to the clubhouse two days later.
I'm in the kitchen, making tea, when I hear the front door open.
Voices in the hallway—Garrett's low rumble, then a woman's voice I don't recognize at first.
But when she steps into the kitchen doorway, I knowexactlywho she is.
Leah Mercer.
Garrett's sister.
The woman whose mother's jewelry I stole and sold for drug money.
She looks like Garrett around the eyes—the same watchful intensity, the same guarded expression.
But where Garrett is all hard edges and leather, Leah is softer. Curvier.
She's wearing scrubs under her coat, like she came straight from the hospital, and there's a scar running from her eyebrow through her forehead.
The scar from the fire.
The fire that killed their parents.
The fire Garrett saved her from.
"Leah." Garrett's behind her, his expression tight. "This isn't a good time."
"I'm not here for you." Her eyes are fixed on me. "I'm here for her."
The temperature in the room drops ten degrees.
I set down my mug with shaking hands.
"I'll give you two some space," Garrett says, but Leah cuts him off.
"No. Stay. You should hear this too." She steps into the kitchen, her arms crossed. "I've been trying to figure out what to say to you for weeks. Ever since Garrett told me you were coming back."
"Leah—" I start.
"Don't." Her voice is sharp. "Don't apologize yet. Don't try to explain. Just... let me say what I came here to say."
