“Not as much as you think,” she tosses back. “You’re doing that thing where you keep scrolling but your eyes never focus. You’re not reading anything. You’re trying to look busy so people won't ask questions.”
Fuck. I set the phone down and give her my signature cold stare that makes people back down. Works on everyone but my sister. “Every time Ivy spoke in that boardroom, you looked like you wanted to either screw her or throw her out a window.”
“Let’s go with throwing her out the window.”
Never mind the way my heart skipped a beat, and not just because seeing her in the conference room had been a surprise. My blackened heart had been happy to see her for half a second before the weight of my consequences crushed it.
“Uh-huh,” hums Lillianna.
Christ. “Drop it.”
“Why? Because I’m right?” She raises an eyebrow. “Because from where I was sitting, the tension between you two could've powered the entire building.”
The partition between the driver and us is up, but I still keep my voice low. “I said, drop it, Lilly.”
"No." She settles against the leather seat, and I recognize the posture. My pain-in-the-ass little sister is digging in. “You’ve been in Quebec for three years. Three years of flying in for mandatory board meetings and flying back out before anyone could have an actual conversation with you. Now suddenly you’re staying for three months? Living with a teenager who’s threatening our family? There’s a reason, and I don’t think it has to do with environmental liability.”
Outside the window, Kentucky hills roll past, thick, green, and hazy in the summer heat. Horse farms, bourbon country, Blackstone territory. I’d forgotten how much I’d missed it, even though coming back always feels like walking into a trap.
“Maybe I just want to help Sebastian,” I say.
“Nope.” The word is soft but absolute. Like the thought of me helping anyone but myself is inconceivable. “Sure, you might have meant what you said about not leaving him in the lurch. I could see that. But that’s not the whole story and we both know it.”
I turn to face her fully and my chest tightens. She's almost thirty-three, not the thirteen-year-old who used to follow me around like I hung the moon.
Now her eyes hold a sharp glint that refuses to let me hide. “When did you get so perceptive?” I ask.
“I’ve always been perceptive. You just haven’t been around to notice. Even when you lived here.” There’s no accusation in her tone, but the words land like a punch anyway. Maybe Sebastian isn’t the only one I need to make amends with.
“Lil—”
“I’m not mad,” she says quickly. “I get why you left. Why you needed to get away from—”
“Dad. I needed to get away from Dad. From the man I had become. It was never about you, Mom, or Sebastian.”
She holds up a hand. “I know. I get it. Dad’s a big reason I left and spent fifteen years traveling the world.”
“Yeah, but he’s not the only reason.” She didn’t leave because she’d become a rotten, soulless person like me. But a man as terrible as me had broken her heart and soul. First loves aren’t supposed to break a person.
“Doesn’t matter,” she says firmly, making it clear the topic of Olivier isn’t up for discussion. “Anyway, I get it. I just missed you.”
The admission catches me off guard. We don’t do vulnerable in this family. We do power plays and strategic alliances and carefully maintained facades. Emotions are weaknesses to be exploited.
But Lillianna was never good at that rule. She never believed in them.
“I missed you too,” I say, meaning it.
“Of course you do. I’m a ray of fucking sunshine. Everyone misses the sun.” Her familiar mischievous smile spreads across her face. Fuck. “Now that we have that heartwarming moment out of the way, want to tell me about Madison’s sister?”
“Please don’t call her that.”
Somehow her grin widens. “Any reason why, Brother, you don’t want me to refer to our half-sister’s guardian as her sister? Feels too much like you’re keeping it in the family?” she laughs.
I should lie. Should deflect. Should do what I've always done and keep my cards close to my chest.
“Ivy isn’t family. She and Madison share a mother, not a father.”
“Ivy…” Her eyes widen. “Youdoknow her.”
