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She smiled. “Maybe we could combine them.”
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean it’s a boy?” I stared at her. She said that she and Brandon were waiting a little longer.
She nodded. “It is.” She rubbed her stomach protectively. “Crew and I had an appointment together. He wanted to know. So did I.”
“That’s wonderful, Seraphina. I’m so happy for you.”
She exhaled. “And it’s another reason I can’t let this baby grow up as a Castille. It’s shitty that just because he’s a boy they’ll care more about him than if I was having a girl. Maybe I should have wished for a girl instead.”
“Don’t say that.” I knew she was right, but we had to make the changes in the organizations so that the girls born into the families were as powerful as I was. Or at least, working for me.
“They don’t know. Brandon doesn’t know. Just add it to the secrets I keep.”
I raised my martini to my lips. “We all have secrets in this world. You aren’t alone in that.”
“What names do you like?” she asked, getting us back on track.
“Seraphina, that’s for you and Crew to decide.”
She laughed. “No. I’m talking about you. When you and my brother decide to start the next empire.”
I blushed. Kids? Us having kids? “I don’t know that Knight wants children.”
She rolled her eyes. “With you he does.”
“How are you so sure of that?” It wasn’t something we’d discussed. He hadn’t proposed. We didn’t have a contract for the merger. A baby seemed like a fantasy. Besides, our parents were horrible role models. We were trained, not nurtured. Why would we be any better than they were at raising the next generation?
“Can you imagine you two not having a baby together?”
I sat back in the chaise lounge. Holy shit. Did I want that? Were Knight and I capable of raising kids that weren’t going to turn out the way we did? A baby. With him. I bit my lip.
Seraphina giggled. “See? It’s written all over your face. You want a baby with Knight,” she teased.
I laughed. “Shut up. That’s far, far away.”
If I could have held on to that laughter a little longer, I would have. I didn’t know that it would be so long before either of us would laugh again.
Seraphina’s mouth dropped. I looked at the rustle of the palm trees near the end of the courtyard and Knight walked on to the patio. I ran to him. He was stained with blood.
“Oh my God.” I threw myself in his arms. I didn’t care that I was wearing a pastel coverup. I didn’t care about anything. “Are you hurt?” Was it his blood? Where was he cut?
“Hey.” He buried his face in my neck. I wrapped my hands around him.
He pulled away. His eyes were filled with sadness.
“Crew?”
He shook his head.
“No,” I whispered. I lightly touched the stains on his shirt. The horror spread through me as I realized it was likely Crew’s blood on my fingertips.
Before he could even get to Seraphina, she screamed. She heard our whispers. She saw our pain and grief. And I knew her instincts had been strong this entire time.
She picked up the tray of drinks and smashed it on the patio. The glass shards scattered in hundreds of tiny pieces. She lifted the end table the drinks had been resting on and threw it in the pool. We watched. All of us motionless as she moved from chair to chair. She threw anything she could get her hands on. A potted plant. An ottoman. Her phone. She screamed, hurling her anger and grief into the deep end of the water. When there was nothing else she could physically grasp, she took a step toward the diving board.
Knight ran, almost shoving me out of the way to get to his sister.
