“Rosie, what are you getting at with this?”
She cleared her throat. “I guess I am trying to say that I will not give up on you either.”
His hand froze and the liquid sloshed inside his glass. In the past, they had struggled to talk to each other but that had changed and Alexander still had to grow accustomed to this new frankness. He offered his sister a smile and she shrugged,pretending it did not matter that much but he saw the sincerity in her hazel eyes.
“Rosie… thank you.”
“No need to thank me, brother. I am just repaying the favor.”
Alexander scoffed and Rosie hid her smirk as she sat opposite him.
The sadness returned in the silence and fell over Alexander like a cloud. “Rosie, I am so tired of failing people.”
All humor vanished from her expression and was replaced by concern.
“You did not fail anyone, Alex.”
“Yes, I did,” he said slowly. “I failed our parents. And I failed you.”
Rosalind looked at him stunned. “Failed our parents? Alexander, what are you talking about?”
He swallowed hard. His throat felt tight and raw. “If I had not been at Eton… they would not have been on the road that night. They were coming to see me, Rosie. They were coming because I asked them to. Because I wrote to them and said I missed them. If I had not —”
“Stop that,” Rosalind said sharply.
He shook his head, tears burning at the corners of his eyes. “If I had not asked them to come, they would still be alive.”
“Alexander,” Rosalind hissed, leaning closer. “You cannot blame yourself for an accident!”
He let out a broken laugh. “Oh, but I have. Every day, for years.”
Rosalind looked at him, horrified. “All this time… you blamed yourself?”
He nodded, unable to speak.
She got up, knelt beside his chair, and took his hand. “I have never blamed you. Not once and not for a single moment.”
Alexander wiped at a rogue tear angrily. Even then he had to be strong for his sister. But Rosalind did not seem to mind.
She squeezed his hand tighter. “You were just a boy. A child who wanted to see his parents. That is not a sin. Nor is it a crime. And it is most definitely not your fault.”
He let out a breath. For a moment, the weight he had carried for so long had lifted only to be replaced by another.
Theodora.
“I failed Theo too,” he said aloud.
Rosalind froze. “Theodora?”
“Yes.” He closed his eyes. “I failed her, Rosie.”
Rosalind stood slowly. “Alexander… what did you do?”
Her compassion for him was quickly replaced by anger.
He wanted to chuckle at how fast her mood changed but he could not even bring himself to smile any longer.
“I do not know what I had with her. But it was not… nothing,” He admitted.
