Se connecterJaz answered the video call sitting cross-legged on her childhood bedroom floor, exactly as she had every time we’d talked since we were fourteen. The moment I saw her, I smiled. Some things never changed, and watching her settle into that familiar position made me feel a little closer to the life I’d left behind.“You still haven’t outgrown sitting on the floor?” I asked, laughing. “Jaz, you’re a grown woman now. When are you going to start behaving like one?”She looked down at herself, then back at me with an exaggeratedly offended expression. “Excuse me? Since when did you become so mature? Is it the mansion? The money? Should I start calling you Madam Elena now?”“Please do. I expect the proper respect.”“Shameless girl.” She burst out laughing, and I joined her, the sound coming more easily than it had in days.“Okay, rich girl,” she said, grinning. “I saw the pictures Priya sent. Is that house real, or did you get kidnapped into a luxury furniture catalog?”“Some days, I genuin
Elena’s POVPriya made it exactly four steps past the front gate before she stopped walking entirely.“Okay, I need everyone to understand that I am deeply unsettled right now.”“Welcome to my life,” I muttered, steering her by the elbow before one of the men stationed along the drive could decide her sudden stop was suspicious.She’d arrived dressed in the sort of outfit she usually reserved for job interviews, which told me more about how nervous she was than anything she’d admitted over the phone. As we walked up the drive, she kept looking from one end of the grounds to the other, her mouth hanging open as she took it all in. Her eyes moved over the gardens, the house, and the men stationed around the property as though she were quietly gathering evidence for a case she hadn’t yet decided whether to build.“There are men with earpieces standing in the hedges, Elena. Actual hedges. Why does a wine importer need men in the hedges?”“I don’t have a good answer for that.”“That’s not
Adriano’s POVI’d told myself the same story so many times over the years that it had stopped feeling like a lie. That was what worried me. When you repeated something often enough, you could convince yourself you believed it, even when part of you knew better.“He was coming back from a meeting,” I said, choosing my words carefully. I was used to being deliberate about what I said and what I kept to myself. Years ago, I’d decided how much Elena needed to know about her father’s death, and I wasn’t ready to give her more than that tonight. “It was late, and he was alone, which he almost never was. There was an ambush on the road outside the city. Rival interests. Men who thought taking out someone close to me would weaken my position.”I held her gaze, even though I would have preferred to look away before saying what came next.“He didn’t survive it, Elena. I’m sorry. I wish there were an easier way to tell you that.”Her hands were shaking again. I’d noticed the same tremor througho
Elena’s POVNobody told me the sister would be even way worse than the brother.I found that out just four minutes into what was supposed to be a dinner, somewhere between the appetizer and the moment she set down her fork, looked at me directly in the eyes for the first time since she got here, and said directly to me, “So. Tell me how a girl ends up sleeping with her guardian even before she knows his name.”I nearly choked on my wine. Across the table, Adriano’s jaw tightened in a way that told me this was already going worse than he’d hoped and exactly as badly as he’d feared.“Camila.” Adriano shot at her, calmly.“What. I’m being direct. You’ve always said you appreciate directness. Don’t you?.” She turned her attention back to me, sharp and assessing, a woman clearly used to reading people for a living and doesn’t mind if she’s destroying the polite conversations that she should be having with them. “I’m not trying to embarrass you, young lady. Welcome to the family. This is fa
Adriano’s POVMy sister has exactly one volume when she’s angry, and it isn’t loud. Classic Camila Castellano.She was sitting with her legs crossed in my study when I came down from Elena’s wing, a glass of untouched wine on the desk in front of her. Her shoulders were perfectly still, but I knew that look. She’d been waiting long enough to rehearse every word she intended to say.“You brought a twenty-one-year-old into this house,” Camila said before I’d even closed the door behind me, “and you didn’t think to call me first.”“I don’t need your permission to honor an oath I made seven years ago.”“I’m not talking about the oath.” She picked up her wineglass and turned it slowly in her hand without drinking. She’d had that habit since she was sixteen and furious with our father. “I’m talking about the way you looked when you told me her name at dinner. That wasn’t guilt, Adriano. I know what guilt looks like on you. I’ve watched you carry it for seven years. That was something else.”
Priya picked up on the first ring, which meant she’d been waiting by her phone since the second I’d texted her the words: I need to tell you something insane.“Okay,” she said, skipping hello entirely. “Start talking. And don’t you dare leave anything out. I’ve been sitting here imagining the worst possible meaning of insane for twenty minutes.”I curled up on the window seat in my new bedroom, phone pressed to my ear, and stared out at the grounds spread dark and quiet below me. For a moment, I genuinely had no idea where to begin. There was no way this story would sound reasonable out loud.“You know my guardian,” I said finally. “The one I was dreading meeting.”“Yeah, the mystery rich uncle. What about him?”“He’s the guy from the rooftop, Priya.”The silence on the other end lasted so long that I thought the call had dropped. I pulled the phone away from my ear to check the screen before putting it back.“I’m sorry,” she said eventually, her voice flat with disbelief. “Can you re







