Page 38 of Twins to Tame Him

He said nothing. Because, of course, Sebastian Skalas the charming playboy, never lied. He only just twisted the truth enough to make it palatable, for whoever he was serving it to. She had fallen in love with him with all this information at her fingertips, and yet now she felt a strange desolation. “You invited my family here and then, it felt like...why?”

“Alexandros had an extensive background check done on your friends and family recently. He was surprised when he found out who they were, who you were.”

“Wow, infringing on privacy much?” she said, wondering even now at how he didn’t ask why she hadn’t told him. Why she’d kept her infamous family a secret.

“I didn’t look, Laila, because it didn’t make a difference to me. He mentioned your father was a minor prince.”

“The title was mostly honorary at this stage. He had lands, but he sold off parcel by parcel to keep Mama happy. He was a good man but an idealist. He never had a job, and he buried himself in his research of his family’s art history, which was his true passion, invested the little we had unwisely because her demands were endless, and lost it all. Then when it became clear that she had left him behind, he shut himself in the flat I rented for months at a time and wasted away to nothing. I couldn’t...save him. And I couldn’t bear to go into that flat after. All his research, it’s all sitting there.”

“And you looked after him. And Guido and Paloma and your mother and Nadia.”

She shrugged, not even a little surprised at his conclusion. It was a little unnerving but also liberating how clearly he saw her.

She had done that most of her life, she realized now—looked after people. She looked after Baba, at the end, when he’d been heartbroken that he couldn’t keep up with her mother’s constant demands, and buried himself in his archives and in his research. She’d made him meals, made him coffee, reminded him of his medication for his heart trouble. Then she had looked after Guido and Paloma, who had been dependent on her for their livelihood. She looked after Mama every time she got sick and came home because she was an awful patient and, of course, Nadia couldn’t be trusted to even bring her a glass of water. She had looked after even Nadia when she would come home after another one of her spectacular breakups with men who were as shallow as she was, hoping that she and her sister would maybe form a new bond.

When Guido had told her what he’d gambled away, she’d taken care of that, too.

The only person who had ever looked after her was Sebastian, albeit with a goal in mind, but hadn’t his care for her come from some other place later?

If she agreed to marry him now—knowing he would devote himself to her and the boys, knowing that belonging to him meant she would never be alone again—would she be happy? Or would she forever wonder about what he truly felt for her? Would she forever trap herself in that toxic place again like she’d done with Mama and Nadia?

What did she reach for? The known, stable contentedness or risk it all for his love?

She rubbed a hand over her gritty-feeling eyes. “Why did you invite them?”

“We were at an impasse. Something happened the last time you were here,” he said, spreading his arms to span the cabin. “My goal to convince you to marry me seemed further away than where I’d started. I thought bringing your family here would be a good thing. I thought I could score another point off with you. I didn’t realize how awful they are to you.” He laughed but it carried no real humor. “Alexandros thought it was important to control the situation since they are in the public eye, too.”

She laughed then. But it was not bitter, and she was glad because she did not want to become like her mother, who lived in ideals that had nothing to do with reality, or her father, who had given his heart to an undeserving woman and died of it being broken. “I should’ve known it’s all a game to you.”

He shook his head, frustration coloring his words. “You seemed...sad the last couple of weeks, as if you were retreating inward, going somewhere I could not...follow.”

“You know why now, Sebastian,” she said, throwing the gauntlet back down again. But when he let it writhe in the space between them, she tried to gather her armor back. “I guess it did turn out to be the right thing for me. That confrontation has been coming a long time and I wouldn’t have done it, if not for the last three months, if not for knowing that I have you in my corner.”

“You were glorious, Laila. You did what you had to do.”

“I always wanted to be like them,” she said, only now realizing how much it hurt to give up on those you loved.

“You’re a million times more beautiful than either of them,” Sebastian said, as if he could see through her to that little girl she’d been.

“You know what?” she said, seeing herself clearly for the first time in a long time. Seeing herself through his gaze helped, too, because he’d always wanted her. That much had always been real between them. “I think I’ll believe you.”

“I also understand how much what I did to Guido hurt you.”

“After Baba passed away, he was the one who watched out for me. He...never abandoned me.”

“And you didn’t abandon yourself, ne?”

“No, I didn’t. Even when it was hard. You see all this, Sebastian, and yet you withdraw here and wonder why I would fall in love with you?”

“Laila—”

“What? That wasn’t part of the plan? Is it an inconvenient plot twist to the narrative you had mapped out in your head about how this would go?”

She looked like a fury he had once painted, rising out of the mountains, all stark, raw beauty and righteous anger with the gentlest spirit beneath if only one was brave enough and vulnerable enough to seek it. He had drawn it after Mama had left. He hadn’t known it then, but he had drawn what he wished she could have been for him and Alexandros.

And finally, here was the woman he’d imagined once, in blood and flesh, taunting him to come closer, boldly declaring her love.

Hair flying in all directions, eyelids swollen and amber eyes red-rimmed, that wide bow-shaped mouth pinched, her frame swathed in his T-shirt, crackling with temper, threatening ruin and yet, promising salvation if only he went to his knees and surrendered.

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