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I lifted my shoulders in a slight shrug, evading the topic of Gian a little longer. “I’m just as pregnant as you are, Mila. Haven’t you been emotional lately, too?”
A piece of scone flew at my face, and I quickly deflected it, glaring at my sister for daring to waste the sweet goodness of our snack.
“Don’t be a brat,” she chided. “You’ve been avoiding me all week. Yes, I’m emotional more often than not, but I don’t sit around sobbing like you so obviously were doing when I got here.” I grimaced, knowing she was right, but I kept my lips sealed and she huffed unhappily. “You can pull the blinders down over Mom and Dad, but I’m your twin, Monroe. Your other half.” She caught and held my hands tightly in her own. “I love you. Please just tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”
Fresh tears blinded me, and I let go. “No one can help,” I got out brokenly. “I messed up. I love him, Mil. I love him so damn much, and everyone thinks he’s a monster. But he isn’t anything like his father. I swear he isn’t. I tried to tell Lexa that, but she wouldn’t listen to me. I-I know she has more reason than anyone not to believe me, but he’s a good man.”
“Who?” Her voice was soft but full of strength I wished I possessed.
“G…” I whispered, my heart breaking all over again as I swallowed the lump in my throat. I had to tell her who he was. There was no getting out of it now. “G is Gian Fontana.”
She fell back against her chair, her eyes widening in shock. “Ah fuck, Monroe.” Her eyes went to my stomach, and she touched her own. “Is he the father of your baby? It is just one, right? Not twins like me?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I haven’t had a scan yet. I-I only did a home pregnancy test a week ago and told Mom and Daddy once I knew I was pregnant. I was waiting.”
“For what?” she demanded. “You could be carrying twins right now. I’m having issues with my blood pressure like crazy. Lyric is a mess. Worrying about me every other minute of the day. What if you have issues like that, too? What if something else is going on? We’re identical, Monroe. Identical twins, especially females, are more likely to have twins of their own.”
“I’ll see a doctor as soon as I can,” I assured her. “I just have to tell G first.”
“So, tell him already!” she exploded.
“I don’t know how!” I shouted back at her.
Her eyes narrowed on me. “What do you mean, you don’t know how? You don’t have his number?”
Another tear spilled over my lashes. “I don’t have anything,” I whispered and told her about waking up in Italy all alone.
“The sonofabitch just abandoned you?” she gritted out between clenched teeth.
My heart flipped painfully because I was starting to wonder that myself, but I quickly shook my head in denial. “No. He wouldn’t do that to me. I know him. He… He…” My heart cracked a little more, and I fought back a sob. “I thought he loved me like I love him.”
Mila’s arms wrapped around me as she took the seat right beside me. She pulled my head to her chest and hugged me tightly, and I lost what little control I still held over my emotions and just cried and cried while she rubbed my back and told me it was all going to be okay.
She sounded so convincing, but I knew she didn’t have a clue what was going to happen to me and this baby. She had Lyric, who, from what I had seen so far, worshiped the ground she walked on. He’d told her how much he loved her repeatedly the few times I’d seen them together.
What did I have? A man who was MIA and hadn’t said those three little words a single time. Were they such scary words to him that he couldn’t repeat them? Or did he just not feel them?
I was beginning to suspect that it was, in fact, the latter, and I’d just been full of wishful thinking, believing he could ever love me.
I pushed those thoughts aside for the moment, however, and focused on my sister. I’d missed her during the week I’d been avoiding her. A lot had been going on, and she was planning her wedding, which still boggled my mind. I’d honestly thought Mila would be single forever. That she would rather have her options open than tie herself to one person for the rest of her life.
That just showed me how much she really did love Lyric, though, and I was happy for her.
She wasn’t really interested in the planning part of the special day, though, and between our mom, along with his parents and his aunt Emmie, they seemed all too happy to plan the event for them.
As we walked out to our vehicles, Mila turned to me suddenly. “Do you think I’m crazy for marrying a guy I don’t even really know? River said I was insane for agreeing to marry Lyric so soon.”
I wanted to ask her if she thought I was crazy for falling for a guy she’d constantly told me was nothing more than a stalker for years, but I kept my mouth shut about that, not sure I wanted to know her honest answer. Instead, I asked, “Do you love him?”
Her eyes brightened, her face lighting up in a way I’d only seen happen when she talked about Lyric. “More than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. It’s kind of scary loving someone this much. Letting him have all this power over my happiness and heart…”
She didn’t have to tell me how scary it was. “Believe me,” I told her with a shake of my head. “I know what you mean. No, Mil. I don’t think you’re crazy at all. As long as you’re happy, who cares what other people think?”
She threw her arms around me in a tight hug. “I love you so much, Mon. You know that, right?”
I hugged her back. “I love you too,” I whispered, holding on to her as tight as I could.
I heard a car’s engine seconds before its tires screamed angrily to a
