Chapter 6: Siblings Sleeping Together? That's Just Depraved

Lily made rice for dinner.

After she and Toby had eaten, he pressed his face to the window, staring up at the sky with quiet longing. "Mom, are your fireworks going off tonight?"

Lily was a fireworks designer, running her own studio one technically registered under the Pierce family name.

Three months ago, her team had won the bid to design the display for the city's central square. Months of testing, endless late nights, and they'd finally landed on the piece they were proudest of: A Starry River for You.

Tonight was its debut. New Year's Eve.

She crossed the room and crouched in front of him. "Do you want to go watch it in the square?"

Toby nodded so hard his whole body bounced.

Right then, her phone buzzed. Husband flashed across the screen.

Her expression cooled slightly before she picked up.

Once Nathan confirmed she could hear him, his voice turned soft. "Lily, I'm coming to get you and Toby so we can watch the fireworks together. Give me half an hour. It's freezing out, so bundle up."

She had zero interest in going herself.

But Toby was watching her with wide, hopeful eyes.

She pressed her lips together. "Okay."

The call ended.

She zipped Toby into a thick down jacket and wrapped him in the cashmere scarf she'd knitted for him herself, until he looked like a round little marshmallow. She pulled on her own white coat.

The second they were ready, Toby couldn't wait another second. "I'll go watch for Uncle Nathan by the door!"

Lily checked the clock five minutes left grabbed her bag, took his hand, and followed him out.

Snow kept falling.

Toby crouched by the entrance, packing together a snowball while they waited.

The minutes ticked by.

Eventually he started shivering, pressing close against her side, voice thick with cold. "Why isn't Uncle here yet?"

She checked her phone. Nathan was already thirty minutes late.

She murmured something comforting to Toby, pulled her phone out with fingers already numb and red, and called Nathan.

No answer.

A dozen seconds later, he called back. "Lily, I'm sorry something came up and I can't get away. I can't come pick you two up. The snow's really coming down out there, and I don't want you and Toby freezing waiting on me. Just head back inside and rest."

She opened her mouth, ready to ask why he hadn't said so before letting them stand out in the cold and snow for half an hour.

Before she could get a word out, Melissa's sugary laugh floated through the receiver, clear as day. "Brother, want a bite of my candied hawthorn? Hehe!"

Nathan ended the call fast.

Lily sucked in a breath of freezing air and coughed hard, twice, the cold burning down her throat.

Toby noticed her mood shift immediately. He wrapped both arms around her leg and looked up. "Mommy, I don't want to see the fireworks anymore. Let's just go home and sleep."

She scooped him up, pulled out her phone, and called a car. "Mommy's got you."

She paid extra for a faster pickup.

Twenty minutes later, she and Toby stood in the middle of the packed, glittering central square, New Year's Eve in full swing around them.

She carried him up to a higher vantage point at the edge of the crowd, just barely finding solid footing

when her eyes landed on Nathan and Melissa in the crowd below.

She felt nothing.

No shock. No fury. Just a strange, settled calm.

Of course. This was exactly how it should look. One of them cheating, the other knowingly stepping into the role of the other woman of course they'd end up here, dressed up like an ordinary couple, playing the part in public like it was nothing.

She lifted her phone without a word.

The giant countdown clock overhead began to tick down.

The whole square roared as one.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The first firework screamed into the black sky and detonated with a deafening crack.

Gold light poured down in a thousand glittering threads, lighting up half the sky and lighting up her phone screen, too.

On it: dozens of couples across the square, kissing, laughing, wishing each other a happy new year. Right in the center of the frame Nathan and Melissa.

She lowered the phone.

Once the opening display finished, her own piece began. A Starry River for You.

Ribbons of colored light spiraled upward in slow arcs, peaked, then unfurled and wove together into a shimmering, slowly blooming galaxy across the sky.

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

Lily smiled a real one, from somewhere deep in her chest.

Her work. Loved by all these strangers.

That alone was worth something.

When the show ended, the crowd began flooding toward the exits, hunting for cabs to the next celebration. Lily's own ride was still thirty-six people back in the queue.

She cancelled it.

Took Toby's hand instead, and went looking for Nathan.

"What a coincidence," she said, arriving at his side.

"Lily" Nathan dropped Melissa's hand fast, forcing a smile. "Why did you bring Toby out in this cold?"

He stepped closer, took one of her hands between both of his, rubbing warmth into it, breathing on her fingers.

She watched him do it, gaze drifting between him and Melissa. "The two of you came to ring in the new year together?"

Nathan's expression froze for a beat before he reached out and pinched her cheek fondly. "It's freezing, I didn't want you standing out here catching cold. I hated that you'd miss your own fireworks going off, so I asked Melissa to film the whole thing for you she's good with a camera. I'll edit out anyone who doesn't need to be in it and send it over tomorrow."

Lily's mouth curved, one small dimple appearing. "Is that the whole story?"

Melissa jumped in. "Sister, I think you've got the wrong idea"

Lily turned to her, perfectly calm. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to stay quiet when nobody's asked you anything?"

Melissa's face flushed red.

"Oh, right," Lily added, feigning sudden realization. "I forgot. Your parents don't even want you around. Guess there was nobody left to teach you that."

"Enough." Nathan's patience finally snapped. "Are you seriously accusing me of something right now? Lily, you know exactly how I treat you. Melissa is like a little sister to me it's not strange for a brother to take his sister out to watch fireworks, camera or no camera."

"The company goes public tomorrow. I am running on fumes, physically and mentally, and I still have to stop everything to manage your jealousy over nothing. Could you try, for once, to see this from my side?"

"Your stepfather is waiting on my investment. Your brother needs me to cover his rent every month just to stay alive. Toby's cochlear implant surgery is coming up. Lily if I didn't love you, why would I keep carrying all of that? It genuinely hurts me that you'd doubt me like this."

This was the angriest Lily had ever seen him.

A thought surfaced, unbidden: misjudge him, and he turns soft and wounded. Get too close to the truth, and he explodes. People were always most dangerous when they felt most exposed.

She stepped toward him.

Reached up and brushed a few snowflakes off the shoulder of his coat, gentle, almost tender.

Her voice came out soft. Hollow. "How could I ever doubt you, Nate? You said yourself she's like your own sister. If anything ever happened between the two of you, that would make you siblings sleeping together, wouldn't it? We live in a civilized society. Only animals do that."

Nathan's mouth twitched violently.

Lily's lips curved into the faintest smile. "It's getting late. Let's head home. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow, Nate.”