Page 36 of Twins to Tame Him

“And our clever little numbers freak Laila Jaafri. If I didn’t know your chances of succeeding were quite low and that you know next to nothing about seduction, I would’ve said you targeted him on purpose, Laila.” She added a tinkling laugh as if to take the sting out of the words, which had never really worked and didn’t now. “I mean, how else would you have met a man like him?”

Laila froze, no response rising to her lips. The hurried exit of Nikos and Zayn from the room with the ever-watchful Paloma at that exact moment meant everyone heard Nadia’s comment, and her incapability to offer a token protest made it land like truth usually did—with unassailable certainty.

Alexandros and Thea stiffened. Even Annika’s gaze widened as it found hers. She’d never told even her friend how she and Sebastian had met. For a weak, vulnerable moment, Laila found herself hoping Sebastian would come to her rescue.

“Oh, my God, you did target him,” Nadia said with genuine shock, then considered Laila with a calculating glint.

“Fine, I did. But not for the horrible reason I see in your eyes. Not for his wealth, or his power or his...good looks,” Laila bit out through gritted teeth, having had enough. Not for her sister’s or Mama’s sake or for her new family’s sake. For her own sake. “I did it to protect Guido. Because Sebastian was...”

“Guido?” Mama and Alexandros said at the same time. His gaze swung to Sebastian and something dawned in his eyes.

“What does this have to do with that useless old goat?” Mama demanded.

Laila’s gaze inexorably went to Sebastian’s, even as she automatically, like a thousand times before, said to her mother, “Guido is family to me. Mama.”

“You don’t have to cover up my sins, pethi mou,” Sebastian said, holding her gaze from across the room, his words smooth and yet, somehow to her ears, full of tension. “Or protect me from the world.”

He chuckled and it sounded so...so broken that Laila wanted to banish the entire world and go to him.

“I promised to protect you, not the other way around. Though, it is clear, I failed at that, too,” he said, casting a glance at her family.

But Laila was loath to speak of what he had done, loath to betray what belonged to them to the whole damned world. Suddenly, she was glad of his mask in front of her family, even with his own, and most of the world. Because the real Sebastian, he was hers. His sins and his wounds and his real laughter, they were all hers and she would not share him with anyone. “How we met is no one’s business,” she finally said,

“Did you get pregnant on purpose, too?” Nadia asked, as if she’d rehearsed her lines. “That’s quite the diabolical—”

“That’s enough, Nadia,” Laila said, disgust more than anger coming to her aid. How had she always let Nadia get away with this? Why had she tried to maintain a relationship that was all work on her part and insults on her sister’s?

“Behave yourself, Nadia,” Mama broke in, always a little late with her warning and little too indulgent of her eldest’s disgraceful behavior. “It is of no consequence how it happened. The boys belong to this family and that’s that.”

No one could miss the satisfaction in her voice at that statement. Before Laila could interrupt, her mother continued, “Imagine our shock when Laila told us where she and the boys were, and with whom,” Mama said to fill the awkward silence, waving her manicured hands about in that way of hers, looking elegant in a blush pink cream pantsuit that draped perfectly over her tall, statuesque figure. “Three years, she hid the identity of the father. Only that... Guido knew.”

Out of the periphery of her vision, Laila saw Sebastian’s head jerk up at that.

“You never asked me,” Laila said.

“Of course I did. Many, many times,” Mama said, making a liar out of Laila. “And honestly, I don’t understand why you were so adamant about doing it all by yourself when you could have had this from the beginning. It’s that middle-class mentality you inherited from your father.”

“If wanting to stand on my own two feet, and wanting to have control over my life is middle class, then so be it. And please, don’t bring Baba into this.”

Mama turned to face Sebastian, a shrewd glint in her eyes, as if Laila hadn’t even spoken. “I hope you’re making financial settlements for my grandsons, Mr. Skalas. They deserve a cut of all this.”

Laila’s gaze found the floor, wishing it would open up and swallow her whole.

“Of course, Mrs. Syed,” Sebastian replied as if it weren’t the crassest question he had ever had to face.

“And make arrangements to clear Laila’s debts, too, I hope? My daughter has quite the clever brain for numbers and patterns and models but none when it comes to finances. She has a mountain of debts because she insists on keeping her father’s old house with its massive archives instead of—”

“That’s enough, Mama,” Laila said, a lifetime’s worth of ache and anger bursting through. As much as Mama and Nadia had had very little actual time for Nikos and Zayn, she had tried. God, she had tried so hard to make them a part of her life because her sons deserved to know their grandmother and their aunt. But not at the cost of hearing them belittle their mother.

It had been stupid of her to think anything would change, after all these years. She was the one who had to change, the one who had to find the courage to let go of foolish hopes. Even if it hurt.

Her mother looked as if Laila had struck her.

“Don’t take that tone with me, Laila.”

“If it’s the only one you’ll hear, I have no choice.” She tilted her chin up and addressed them both. “You didn’t come to see the boys until they were three months old. You criticize everything I do as a parent. All my life, you’ve never spoken one loving word to me, and you drove Baba to his death with your constant demands and criticism. And now you stand there, revealing our family’s secrets, without even checking how I’m doing. You talk about Baba’s research of a lifetime as some dirty secret you can’t wait to throw into the garbage. I’m so done with you.” She pulled in a big breath even as her throat felt like it was full of thorns. “Sebastian has no duty toward clearing our family’s debts—most of which you and Nadia accrued by living far above your means. I’ll not take a single euro from him or his family and neither of you will you get your hands on anything unless you plan to...rob your own grandsons blind.”

“You have changed,” Nadia said softly, angry splotches on her impossibly high cheeks, as if she was discovering only now that Laila wasn’t kidding. Laila felt her gaze on her body like some kind of laser pointer searching for a weak spot. And right now, she felt like she was covered in holes and wounds she’d rather bare in front of a predator than her sister. “Maybe because you think you have all this?”

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