“I sense the answer is no,” Salvatore stated matter-of-factly.
I took a shuddering breath in and slowly exhaled before I said, “Correct.”
My heart squeezed in my chest. I had never experienced the love I could feel between Lykos and his children. My mom’s affections were offered when he wasn’t around, and my father had none for me.
But while I had failed to protect my sister, I hadn’t failed at protecting my daughter, and that was the most important thing to me right now. She was safe and would live to grow up never feeling the emptiness of a loveless home like I had.
I hated my father, and a part of me wanted to make him pay. I wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt me. The perfect opportunity came when my grandfather left me his fortune. I refrained, because I knew there was no way to punish him without punishing my mom. AndthatI couldn’t do.
“Are you close with your mom?” Dimitros asked, surprising me. “Or is she more like… our mother?”
God, I didn’t want to have this conversation. I didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of all of them. Yet, I sensed the importance of answering the question directly, at least for Dimitros’s and Aria’s sake.
I took a deep breath.
“My mom and I have a complicated relationship.”
“She doesn’t love you?” Aria breathed, her eyes shimmering sadly.
“She loves me,” I answered, my voice cracking slightly. “In fact, I believe she loves me very much, even though we’re not very close.”
My father was always in the way, I thought to myself silently.
Until Lily’s kidnapping. After that, I suspected she was reminded of that loss and my role in it every time she saw me.
“Do you talk to her a lot?” Aria asked.
“No.”
“Why not?” Dimitros asked, studying me. I had a feeling the boy saw way too much.
“Something that happened when I was your age, Dimitros,” I started, reaching for the pendant hanging around my neck and twisting it nervously. “I was told to stay home and watch my sister when my parents went out for the night. She was two years younger than me. But there was a high school dance I was dying to go to.” God, what I wouldn’t give to go back and make different choices… “Lily Elora, my sister?—”
“Hey, that’s my middle name!” exclaimed Aria, and I froze. “Wow, I’ve never heard anyone with my same middle name before.”
I cleared my throat and rushed to say, “It’s a pretty name,” hoping she would drop the subject.
Aria smiled happily, but shattered my temporary relief when she added, “I want to meet your sister.”
My shoulders slumped. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Aria, let her finish the story.” Lykos’s voice sounded distant. “Please, Violet.”
I didn’t look at him as I continued in a quiet voice.
“Lily knew about this dance. I talked about it for months. Anyhow, she convinced me she’d be fine. All I had to do was slip out of the house and be back before our parents returned from a fundraiser.” A single tear rolled down my cheek, and I wiped it with the back of my hand. The air stilled, the clanking of silver stopped, and I stared at my pita, recalling the past with a clarity I wished weren’t there. “I was so excited to go. I’d had a dress for weeks. So I got dressed and kissed my fourteen-year-old sister goodbye and gave her my necklace she’d always loved, tasking her with keeping it safe until I returned. I went to the dance, never even dreaming it would be the last time I’d see her.”
“What happened?” Aria whispered, and I raised my head to meet her wide eyes. God, she looked so much like Lily it hurt.
“When I got back, she was gone.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “There was a… break-in. She was kidnapped, but no ransom note was left.”
“Did you find her?” Dimitros’s voice was soft.
I shook my head. “No. I came home to the blood stains on the carpet and no sign of her. All that was left was this pendant the police found five years later, so my parents decided it was time to bury her on that cold winter day.”
And that same week, I flew to DC and met your father.But those words I kept to myself.
Salvatore spoke up for the first time and asked, “How old were you when you buried your sister?”
