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All those doubts she’d whispered in my ear. How she thought she’d seen Sienna flirting with a businessman the night before. How she’d heard her gossiping about some human boy with the waitress. How I was a fool to worry about her…Didn’t I know how flighty pretty human girls could be, especially in a theatre district? Some of them had new guys every week. She probably asked that mogul from Lliandor to buy out her contract, she’d told Rhovier how much she longed to travel–
“I told you he’d better not find out!”
Her words from earlier haunt me. She would have been content to keep me in the dark for the rest of my life.
Rhozier nearly cost me my family. And I never guessed, never knew. I woke up every day and worked with her, allowed her to torment the poor zagfer, nag me about start times and setlists and…
The entire time, it was all her fault.
The truth of it is like a blow to the gut. My pacing stops as I bend over the kitchen counter and just try to breathe.
“Ris.”
I shut my eyes and take a deep breath. I don’t turn around. I can’t. Because Rhovier almost took her from me, but Sienna is the one who walked away.
The one who let her.
“Ris,” she says again, mournful, pressing herself against my back and soothing my hands with her own. I didn’t even realize I was gripping the kitchen counter hard enough to make my knuckles turn white. She eases them free, rubbing them with a shaky breath. “Ris, I’m sorry.”
She’s sorry.
On the one hand, she has nothing to be sorry for. I know my sister well, how threatening she can be when she wants something. Sienna had every reason to believe her threats, and I know Rhovier probably even meant them
But she should have told me. Damn it, if she would have given me so much of a hint that Rhov was being unkind to her, I’d have…
I’d have fired her years ago, but I can’t help but remember all the times I pulled away from Sienna whenever Rhov walked into the dressing room. How I kept distance between us whenever she was near.
I’d done it as a foolish attempt to protect Sienna from Rhovier’s wrath, but didn’t that mean I already knew how vicious she could be? It’s as though I kept a pet viper in my dressing room and was shocked Sienna ran away to keep from being bitten.
I lean back into her embrace and look around at her kitchen. It’s beautiful. Pristine design, well-maintained. I’m glad she’s been kept in comfort for our time apart, but it infuriates me that someone else had to step in while I worked every night with the person who tore us apart.
“Wine?” I choke out, reaching for a dusty bottle.
“I don’t–”
I do. I focus on opening the bottle, which is much more difficult to do than usual, especially since my hands keep wanting to punch a hole in her pretty white wall. I set two glasses down on the counter and fill them both.
I don’t really think this is an occasion for a toast, so I just drink. I down half the glass in one go. It’s good wine. Mellow, full-bodied, not too dry. I wish she might have something with a bit more bite, but this will do for now.
Warmth travels down my throat to my stomach, and I finally have the nerve to ask her for the one question I’ve wanted the answer to since I saw Ezra’s beautiful eyes staring up at me for the first time in her music shop.
“I have been patient, and I have…I have given you enough time, I think, to tell me the truth. You asked for space, and I…gods, I gave you space, even when it felt like that space was between my chest and my heart. Like I was being ripped open.”
She takes a step back, and then another. The warmth of her body is rapidly replaced by the cold, but I let her go.
I don't turn around.
“Why,” I demand, voice just more than a breath. “Why didn’t you trust me?”
She doesn’t answer.
Finally, with the taste of wine on my tongue, I turn. She’s been crying. Her gray eyes are rimmed with red and swollen and her chin crumples a bit when she looks at me, like she might burst out crying again at any second.
She’s beautiful.
And I almost lost her forever. I almost lost—
“Why?” I set the wine glass down a bit too hard, wine slops onto the counter. “Sienna.”
