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It wasn’t over. Not then.
Not now.
Mom pulls away from Maya to stroke her face. “You girls have grown so much. You look absolutely radiant.”
“Of course.” Maya flips her hair and then smooches Mom’s cheek. “We take after the best.”
“Where did you get the sweet talk from, I wonder?” Mom gives Dad a knowing look.
He grins and winks. “Proud of it, princess.”
Maya physically swoons. “You guys are goals! Come on, I want a selfie.”
“You can’t post my face on social media, Maya. You know that’s a hard rule,” Dad says.
She releases a dejected sigh. “Okay, fine. I’ll just keep it to myself. Come on.”
Dad starts to push me toward her, but I shake my head. He throws me a look, but then he gets in the shot for a selfie with Maya.
After she takes it, she pouts. “Are you going to stay mad at me for long?”
I cross my arms and look at the elegant, modern interior of our entrance area. This used to be a lake cottage, but Dad renovated it into this extravagant mansion at the edge of the lake.
Elegant pillars lift the three-story house and provide high ceilings and a symmetrical architectural structure. Tall French windows offer a direct view of the lake and illuminate the space with natural sunlight.
The luxurious mansion is crafted from premium rocks and enjoys an elevated, charming position in the middle of nowhere. Large balconies provide a front-row seat to mesmerizing sunrises and sunsets. Before we left for college, it was our family ritual to watch them together.
Nikolai, Maya, and I often played outside by the garden and swam along the shores of the lake, then splashed each other until we were giggling and out of breath. My twin and I usually conspired against Nikolai, but he often won. And whenever he didn’t, it was only because he felt sorry for us and let us beat him.
He’s often been our knight, but yesterday, he definitely didn’t act like one.
I understand his animosity toward Landon, and I get his need for revenge, but the fact that he shut me out so cruelly still hurts.
I texted Landon on my way to the plane.
Mia:I’m going back to New York to visit Mom and Dad. Maybe this is a good opportunity to put some distance between us.
Landon:Nonsense. The word distance doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. It’s for cowards who don’t know what the fuck they want. I know exactly what I want. The question is, do you?
I didn’t reply to that text.
I couldn’t.
My mind has been a mess since the whole encounter with the Heathens.
“What’s going on?” Mom studies me and my sister closely.
“It’s nothing.” Maya throws her hands in the air. “She’s just being unreasonable.”
I glare at her and she glares back.
She wasn’t supposed to come home with me for this long weekend that coincides with a bank holiday, but she likes to think that we’re twins attached at the hip.
“It’s not nothing,” Dad retaliates. “You weren’t speaking on the ride here, which is unusual, to say the least.”
“Well, Mia is being unnecessarily dramatic.” My sister releases a long breath.
I narrow my eyes on her, but I refuse to reply when she doesn’t even want to admit what she did wrong.
