Eva nods. “It seems to me we are already in danger. I’d like to understand why.”
Silence stretches.
I take a breath, then another.
“Jules, Luna, and I don’t only work together… We are sisters,” I say.
A moment passes. No one speaks.
“Jared Whiteman was our father,” I continue.
The room stills.
Enzo’s face drains of color.
Hudson’s hand twitches in mine.
Eva’s jaw drops. She is the first to respond with knit brows. “I didn’t know Jared Whiteman had children.”
“Nobody does,” Luna says.
“We were born on Maribel Island,” Jules explains. “There’s no record of us. No birth certificates. Nothing. We never left the island until after he died in jail. Pippa was seventeen, I was fifteen, Luna thirteen.”
Hudson pulls his hand from mine to run both hands through his hair, before lowering his arms to the table, leaning on his elbows. “This doesn’t make sense,” he whispers. “Shit—I believe you, sorry—I just have so many questions. I’ve read those files so many times. How did no one find you on the island? You three don’t look like sisters; you don’t even look like him.”
“We assume we each have different mothers,” Jules responds. “We also assume they were victims, but we don’t know. By the time we were old enough to start asking questions, no one wasoffering any answers. And getting off the island, well, it’s a long story. We’ll get to that part.”
I continue. “Our dad wasn’tcruel, not like Sophie.” The name leaves a bitter taste. “But he wasn’t good or caring, either. I mean, obviously he was a horrible human being. You’ll get no argument from us on that. He cared about us because we shared his DNA. Like we were something he owned; we only held importance via our connection to him. Classic narcissist. We believe his ultimate plan was to pass his operation to us. We were still young when he got arrested, so we’ll never truly know.”
The silence deepens as everyone absorbs this information.
My hands curl in my lap.
Hudson’s comforting hand doesn’t return.
Time to rip the Band-Aid all the way.“The Volkovs ran security on the island. They didn’t live there like us, but they were there most of the time. Konstantin, Sophie, and Jared were business partners for the parties and the trafficking ring.”
Eva curses under her breath.
Enzo takes a deep breath and nods.
It’s Hudson who speaks. “So, Volkov got you off the island and to DC?”
Jules, Luna, and I all say “no” at the same time, shaking our heads.
“We realized Jared’s death was our way out. We weresupposedto wait there for Konstantin, but we knew how evil he and Sophie were. Without Jared to protect us”—Jules shakes her head—“we needed to escape.”
Enzo pushes his chair back to stand. He paces the room, tall and imposing as he walks. His face is dark and stormy, his hands clenching at his side. I can tell he’s working out what to say or ask next.
The room waits in anticipation.
“I’m with Hudson. I have a lot of questions,” he starts, “but only two matter right now.”
The three of us nod our heads in agreement.
“Are you in contact with Junior?”
I answer emphatically. “No. We haven’t seen him in fifteen years. He has no idea we are here in DC.”
