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This is just painful.
I should put them all out of their misery.
Turning toward Lenny and Jace, I decide to go for it. “It’s okay. I know. I’ve known for a few days. Not as long as you’ve known, according to Sam. But he told me a few days ago. So we don’t need to pretend there isn’t a giant freaking pink elephant in the room.”
“Did you know that the pink elephants in that movie were pink because the guy who wrote it was trippin’ on acid?” Jace looks proud of his random fact, and I’m not sure whether to laugh or be disturbed that he just ruined one of my favorite childhood movies.
“Jesus Christ, Jace. Shut up.” Lenny angles herself away from her brother and toward me. “I’m sorry if you feel ambushed, Amelia. It’s just that when Sam called this morning, it felt like a chance. It felt like a sign. We’ve been looking for you for so long, and we finally found you. But then everything happened with the bombing. We’ve wanted so badly to reach out, but it didn’t feel like the right time. I forced Sebastian to bring me with him, and the moron over there tagged along.”
“Hey...” Jace whines exaggeratedly.
Lenny ignores him and continues. “Max is going to kill us when he finds out what we did. But it’s just so crazy. I mean, we only found out recently that we even had a sister. So, when we found out it was you and that a few of us had actually met you before at Kings games... Then we realized you’re with Sam Beneventi, and I’m in love with his brother.”
Bash’s hand moves under the table, I’m guessing to lend strength to his girlfriend.
But I don’t think she needs the help.
She seems to be doing just fine on her own.
“I just didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to spend time with you. To get to know you.” She chews on her bottom lip. “And to be perfectly honest, there’s a lot of us. It might actually be easier on you if you meet us in small doses.”
Eleanor Kingston is beautiful. Her long, wavy, dark hair hangs around her shoulders. Sparkling gray eyes dance as she tells me her reasons for coming here today. She looks from me to Bash, nerves breaking through her calm façade. “Please say something, Amelia.”
Jace has hung on her every word. His eyes never straying from his sister until now. Now he looks at me like my answer will save the world.
And I realize we have something in common besides DNA.
Everyone sitting at this table is an orphan.
Our parents are dead.
Maybe everything really does happen for a reason.
Trying to lighten the tension hanging thick in the room, I ask, “How many of you are there?”
Really? I mean, really?
That was the best I could come up with?
Why didn’t I just ask if I could carry a watermelon?
Jace smiles, showing off perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth.
Yup. He’s going to be a heartbreaker one day.
Then he answers me and manages to add another crack to the walls I’ve spent years building. “Counting you, Amelia, there are nine Kingston kids.”
Counting me.
Well, hell.
