If the lawyers wanted to play and proved to be a problem when sorting out the final paperwork, then I had other means in which to hurt them. Morejustmeans. We’d dealt outside the law for so long, a few more ‘loose ends’ could be managed in the same way.
Tex had stared ahead, his hands clasped and face hard. If I let myself feel what he went through, I’d suffer a clout of shellshock. He hugged Emma’s last remains, twirling her engagement ring from the box as if he could invoke a spell to bring her back.
But nothing would bring her back.
Nothing could undo what Emma had announced.
And I feared what Nila would do once the wounds of tonight had been tended to and she’d had more time to think about the sudden revelation of having a sister.
I hid my derisive snort. Daniel had been right, after all. His stupid joke in the car about stealing the wrong sister—he’d meant nothing by it—a stupid ploy to unsettle Nila even more.
But somehow, he’d guessed the unthinkable.
There’d been another Weaver.
A firstborn girl hidden from us.
Jacqueline.
A few minutes older than Vaughn. A few minutes older than Nila.
The love of my life had been sacrificed to a fate that wasn’t hers to bear.
Did that make me happy or sad?
Happy she’d become mine?
Sad I’d put her through so much?
Who was Jacqueline?
What did she look like? How would she have reacted?
My hands balled.
One thing I was certain of—whoever Jacqueline was, she wasn’t Nila. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with her. I wouldn’t have broken my vow or bowed at her feet.
Jacqueline wouldn’t have changed history.
Succumbing to torrenting thoughts, I remained silent, locked where I would stay for the rest of my life—beside Nila.
I didn’t leave as she threw paperwork and audio and video into the raging flames. Every time Nila looked my way, I kissed her. I passed her file after file, delivering my family’s crimes into her hands to dispose of.
Only once the grass was empty of history did we disperse our separate ways. The fire would continue to rage on its own while we retired to different corners to rest, revalue, and regroup.
Textile was the first to disappear, wordlessly hugging Emma’s box and disappearing into the orchard grove.
Vaughn rolled Jasmine toward the Hall, her wheels sucking in the mud of her tracks from carting so many files earlier in the evening.
Nila and I—we headed back to my quarters.
Her cheeks smudged with ash and charred pieces of paper decorated her hair and lined her jacket hood. She looked as if she’d been in a battle. She looked endlessly tired.
Entering the bachelor wing and my bedroom—ourbedroom—I shrugged out of my jacket and draped it over an ancient sideboard.
Nila drifted to the middle of the carpet, staring blankly at the bed.
My heart clenched. All I wanted to do was take away the weight of decision and grant her peace. Moving behind her, I unzipped her jacket and slid it off her arms.
