I feel dizzy, disoriented. My head swings back and forth between them like I’m watching a tennis match from hell. I’d always known she was going to find Alex, but…
Gabriel speaks. Low. Heavy. Like every word costs him something.
“Ana… is her daughter,” he says. “As is Emilee.”
The ground tilts under me. The air goes thick, sharp. Like I’ve been kicked through a memory I didn’t know I had. My ears ring. My mouth goes dry. Suddenly, I can taste blood. Or maybe it’s just the truth splitting me open.
No. No, that’s not?—
My knees almost give way. Two daughters. Both hers. Both his.
Alex.
Gabriel finally turns to face me—his expression hollow.
“Alex was your sister’s boyfriend,” he says.
I stare at him.
Then at her.
Back to him.
I can’t speak. Can’t do much of anything. The words don’t come. Even the air in my lungs feels obsolete.
“Ah, yes. Aaaalex,” America drawls, stretching his name like she’s singing a goddamn song. “He’s actually who I was expecting to find here tonight.”
Her brilliant-green eyes burn with something darker than anger—pure hate. I’ve seen that look before, plenty of times—directed at our father.
But never like this.
There’s something twisted in it now, something sharpened. I recognize the shape, the tilt of her head, the gleam behind her eyes—but it’s wearing a new face. Older. Meaner. Maybe smarter. It’s her, and it’s not. I want to look away, but I can’t. My body remembers this, even if my mind tries to make sense of it. I’m not afraid. Not exactly. But something in me folds in on itself—instinct, warning—as if I’m standing on the edge of something I’ve fallen into before and barely crawled out of.
America. Spiraling. Splitting. Surviving.
My sister.
My savior.
The one who vowed to find my brother.
The one who promised to stay behind with me.
But now?
God, who is this?
Still naked, heart pounding, I rise to my knees, barely aware of anything but the firestorm in my chest.
“SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!” My voice booms through the room like thunder.
I swing my gaze back to my sister, eyes wild, breath ragged, panic clawing up my throat.
“How the fuck did I not know you had children? And with Alex?!Putain!”I clutch my head as if I could stop this truth from sinking in.
Erica starts walking toward me, slow and measured, hands raised like she’s wading into a storm she helped create.
“Noah, baby. Calm down.”
