Page 70 of Forgotten No More

“Ellin—” Ruby set her gloves on a small table not far from her sister.

“He is gone,” her sister mumbled between sobs.

Anger flared within Ruby, threatening to take over her very being. “Why did you keep this from me?” When Ellie made no move to answer her or even look at her, Ruby’s rage grew. “How dare you steal this from me?”

“Steal what?” For the first time since Ruby had met her, Ellington sounded lost, without an ounce of fight left in her.

But Ruby was too hurt and angry to notice. “You stole my chance to know my father, to have a relationship with him.” The words reverberated through her, every word true to her core. “To find my place or who I actually am.”

Ellington finally lifted her tear-streaked face. “He was not worth your time…or your love.”

“That was not your choice to make.” Ruby knew she screamed the words when Ellie flinched at the harshness of them. “You had no right to decide whether or not I should have a relationship with him, whatever I chose that relationship to be. And now, I will never know. He treated you unfairly and cruelly, but at least he knew you and you him. You took that from me.” The tears fell then, hot and fast down her face and on to the expensive gown Vi had loaned her.

Ruby was tired of people making decisions for her, thinking they knew what was in her best interest. First her mother; now Ellington. And in some way, the marquis, too. He could have sought her out after her father had died—or before.

“Maybe I could have changed things—for you and me. I could have changed him, had he just gotten the opportunity to know me. Maybe as a family we could have worked through all his harsh words, shown him we love him regardless of how he treated us…given him a chance to love us.”

“He would have hurt you the way he hurt me…and our mothers.”

“You cannot know that.”

Ellington wiped the tears from her face. “Really? You think after all these years I did not know my father—our father?”

Ruby had no words—only emotions that no amount of words could express.

“He would have broken you as he did me and our mothers before that,” her sister sighed, no fight left. “He destroyed everything he touched.”

The words were overly wise and insightful for a girl so young. But that did not negate the wrongness of what Ellington had done. “Did you stop to think that your actions could destroy any relationship you and I could have had? Maybe you are no different from our father.” It was too late to take the words back. “But I would not know because you saw fit to take that from me!”

Ruby slung the cutting words at Ellie, as the young girl had done to her on numerous occasions. She didn’t care about the damage they did. She didn’t feel compassion for the injured look her sister turned on her. She didn’t—would never—forgive or forget the injustice done unto her by people who should care most for her.

No, she was done caring about and for others. It led to nothing but anguish for herself.

It was time she went after what she wanted. What would make her happy.

And she knew this was not it, surrounded by and at the mercy of deceitful family.

Viola and her family had always been there for her, never letting her want for something she needed. And how had she returned their kindness and love? By deceiving them, by sneaking around behind their backs in her search for information. She’d lied to them just as her mother and Ellington had. Was she that different from her family?

And Harold. He’d only sought to be her friend, and she’d pushed him away. She’d been unable to trust him when he was one of the few deserving of her trust.

“So, that is it?” Ellie asked.

Ruby was unsure if this was it or just the beginning of something completely different. “I do not know what happens next.” Her anger slipped away with the words.

“Just leave us.”

Walking away, as her father had done to her and her mother, was not what Ruby had envisioned when she’d been hatching her plan to find her father and possibly a sibling or two. She longed to find her place, who she was and who she wanted to be. But what choice did she have?

If she stayed, Ellington’s destructive behavior would eventually bring them both down. The lying, the pickpocketing, the gambling, the fights—Ruby was not equipped to handle this. Things would undoubtedly escalate to more erratic behavior.

But without Ruby, who did Ellington have? Marce Davenport, the Madame at the brothel? Or her equally questionable sisters? Ellington could be damned to a life in the workhouses or be taken to jail for her crimes, no matter how petty they were.

Ruby would be unable to live with herself if that fate came to be, knowing that she could have changed it. While the desire to walk away—to wash her hands of the situation—and be like her father was strong, she knew she was nothing like her father. She did not abandon people. Her mother had deceived her for years, but that did not stop or weaken Ruby’s love for her. Viola had been embroiled in scandal when they’d met, but that hadn’t stopped Ruby from coming to know and love her, and remaining by her side through the rough times the previous year.

No. The word echoed in her head. She would not, could not, give up on Ellington.

But first, she needed to make amends with Harold. She’d said so many horrid things to him and about him, though all he’d done was try to help her.