“Aw, bless her, she had so much to carry,” Mum sighed. “I did offer to help—”
She opened the door with a smile that froze when she saw who stood there.
“Hello,” a female voice said awkwardly. Tone and enunciation. “Zoltán?”
And, peeping round the door frame, was Everly Bacque.
I’d seen her on and off in the last seven years since I raced. I’d never paid any attention to her petite frame, her long, dark hair, or her judgmental brown eyes. I’d been afraid of her over the last few months — because shehatedme — but right now, she was my lifeline.
A connection.
Hope.
I gripped my phone tighter, each step towards her landing quietly. “Fia? With you?”
She shook her head with a frown. “No. Course not.”
“She ok?”
Her syllable was full of poison. “No.”
She gestured at the threshold, and Mum steppedback. “Please, come in.”
Everly did. Fia and her weren’t related biologically, but they were similar in their demeanour at times. I’d never seen Everly so small — she was just over five feet — but her confidence in my house had diminished.
Her eyes looked around, the rest of her body still.
My home had looked better. Mum tried to keep on top of things, but she was often on the phone, trying to find me a new manager and lawyer. My publicist, Derek, was staying in one of the spare rooms, but he kept quiet, I assumed, doing his job.
“I’m here to collect Fia’s things,” she said, her pronunciation robotic.
Mum gave me a weak smile, closing the door.
“You speak Hungarian?”
She blinked at me. I repeated my question in English.
“No. Fia taught me some phrases. Including ‘hello’ and ‘fuck you.’” A smile flickered across her face, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
That sounded like my Fia.
The smile worried me, though. Everly was normally headstrong, dramatic, but mostly chipper. And she was protective as hell over her sister.
“As I said, hopefully correctly,I’m here to collect Fia’s things.”
The first time she’d said it, it hadn’t landed. I was too taken aback by the language.
“Why?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Because they’re hers?”
“She no—she—Fia—”Fuck sake!I swallowed the lump in my throat. I just wanted to get a message to her.
“She isn’t coming back,” Everly said firmly. “Not this time, Zoltán. Frankly, you’ve ruined her life.”
Frank?My head snapped.Frank—a man? Ruined her life? Or saved her from me ruining her life?The image appeared before I could shake it. A tall man for Fia to rest her shoulder on. A man to care for her when I couldn’t.
A man who wouldn’t have been capable of letting this happen to her.
