“Ew. No. Gross!” She moves closer to me and sticks her hand out. “Hi, I’m Valentina. Luke’s sister. And if this place had a decent signal, you would have seen me blowing up his phone. I’m pretty sure I’m listed as the poop emoji in his contacts.” She snickers as I take her hand and slowly shake.
Sister. This is Luke’s sister.
“H-hi. I’m Daisy.”
He’s mentioned her before, but now that I’m meeting her in person, I feel like there’s so much more I should have asked.
As if she can read my mind, she interjects. “Oh, we’re not related by blood—Thank God—because I love showing emotions far too much to respond in monosyllables like this one seems to prefer, and I fear that might be genetic.”
“You know Mom doesn’t like it when we say adoptive. Makes her weepy. Plus your parents always called me mijo,” he grumbles down at her.
She smiles tenderly at that and lifts her fist up sideways. Luke taps it twice with his in a move that tells me they’ve done this thousands of times.
“Now that you’ve bulldozed your way into my home, would you please tell me why you’re here instead of back in the city finishing up your move?”
She waves his comment away. “Moving boxes make for great coffee tables while I wait for my stuff to arrive. And besides, I was over in Burlington shooting a wedding and I needed to check in on you after I heard the news that she—Daisy—didn’t get married.” She loudly whispers the last part.
“Thanks for the breaking news,” he deadpans.
She rolls her eyes, and I think I fall in love with her a little bit right then. “I’m a smart cookie. I put two and two together after Daisy was nowhere to be found in the tabloids and you were up here avoiding my calls like the plague. And I was fine with calling to needle you and see if you’d finally told her that you’ve been in lo—”
“Val.” He stops her from continuing.
She pulls her phone out of her purse and unlocks the screen. “Anyway, I would have waited for the chisme when you got back like a good sister. But when I saw this, I knew I had to get up here and show you before you headed back into the city and went full King Kong or something.”
“What is it?” he asks, extending his hand for her phone.
She pushes it toward me instead with a grimace on her face.
“It’s Damien Fischer. He sent out his official statement. It’s a save the date. To your rescheduled wedding. Two weeks from now.”
thirty-one
Valentina takes the phoneout of my hand before I have a chance to break it in two.
I snatched it from her because I needed to see the news for myself.
She’s not marrying him, my mind chants.
Fuck, not this shit again.
I look over at Daisy, expecting her to be on the verge of tears. Instead, she looks like she could go on a rampage right alongside me.
“How. Fucking. Dare. He?” she seethes as she stomps over and flips on the cell booster, bringing her phone to life.
Unsurprisingly, Nick is the first call that comes through. “What the fuck?” she answers, taking her brother and me by surprise.
She places the phone on the kitchen island and puts it on speakerphone.
“D-Daisy? Are you okay? I’m assuming you’ve seen what Damien’s posted? That fucking twat,” Nick fumes.
“Yes. What the hell is he thinking? Even if I hadn’t dumped him on our wedding day, a message that should have been crystal fucking clear, he told me all the horrible things he was doing behind my back, using me for votes, cheating, conspiring with my father. Like am I missing something here?”
My sister almost growls next to me as she hears this unfold. Guess some things do run in the family, genetics be damned. “Fucking scum,” she mutters under her breath. Blood or not, we are alike when it comes to protecting the ones we love. And while I can’t say this is how I expected the last day at the cabin to go down, I am happy to see her.
“No, Daisy. The only thing that is missing is a strongly worded cease and desist letter from my attorney. And if you want to stay out of this, I can have a statement out in five minutes as well. I’ll use much more colorful language this time around too. I’ve got my team on standby ready to bury him with the accusations of infidelity alone. Family values, my arse,” Nick spits.
I move closer to Daisy, needing to feel her pulse under my hand.
