Page 63 of Reign

Then my phone rings.

Adriana.

For a moment, I look from my sister’s name on the screen to Elena’s face still open on my monitor.

Then I answer.

“Is your flight still on for tomorrow?” Adriana asks before I speak.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

I lean back in my chair. “You sound like you need something.”

“I’m pregnant. I always need something.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It was the perfect answer. You’re just impossible.”

“Adriana.”

She sighs. “Fine. Is the house you bought here ready?”

“Livable.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“The garden isn’t finished.”

“You bought a house and your concern is the garden?”

“It’s not my only concern.”

“Right. Because you’re emotionally normal.”

I say nothing.

She takes that as permission to continue, because my sister has always considered silence an invitation if it benefits her.

“Could you take on a guest?”

“What guest?”

Adriana hesitates.

That’s the first warning.

“Listen,” she says. “Angelo is trying to be all tough love about this, but I think it’s dangerous right now, and—”

“Spit it out.”

“His sister Elena needs somewhere to stay. Her apartment won’t be ready until the semester starts, Angelo won’t let her have the penthouse, and I—”

I close Elena’s socials and rise from the desk, carrying the phone to the windows.

Distance is necessary.