Page 26 of A Taste Of Darkness

I’d gotten careless.

I’d exposed my brother’s broad location.

Someone knows that he’s alive, hiding in Canada. They do not know the exact city, but I can imagine they’ll find it soon. If not, they will come after you.

You’re a huge part of the letters he sends me.

They have your name. Actually, they have had your name for a while now. Nobody thought you of all people would hide Luca.

I cannot enclose further information in a letter, so please, Miss Adams, when you see this, give me a call.

+39091880352

I will be waiting,

Adriana”

I could never let her read the letter. It was too late anyway. Adriana sent the letter two months ago.

God, just imagine if Sterlie had opened it. She would’ve found out that I was talking about her, obsessing over her when I had no right to even mention her name to anyone.

Sterlie hadn’t been my friend, she was merely the sister of my best friend. She was no one to me, and yet I talked to my half-sister as if Sterlie was to become my wife one day.

Adriana knew very well that I had never truly talked to Sterlie before. She even made fun of me for that very thing. And still, she told her.

Granted, if Sterlie opened the letter two months ago, she probably couldn’t have connected it to me. But now she could, and there was no way I’d let that happen. If Sterlie found out how long I’d been longing for her, she’d run away from me for good. And I’d never even had her.

“Sterlie?” I said, though we’d both been quiet for the past twenty minutes. I gathered she was mad that I refused to tell her what was inside the letter that was addressed to her. To some extent, I understood why it made her upset.

Her silence did give me some time to look around the entire apartment though, so while I hated the thought of her starting to seriously dislike my manners, it was helpful for once.

Besides, she and I could never happen anyway. My family was currently proving the case. For the past seven years, I’d been telling myself that I could never get close to this blonde ray of sunshine before me because the second I did, my family would somehow show up and ruin everything.

And they did.

Sterlie sat on her couch in the living room, Soup next to her. She didn’t even look at me. “What?”

“What if you went to Cologne?” I suggested. “It’s still crowded, still a popular place to visit. But it’s also a lot safer.”

Immediately, Sterlie shook her head. “I already booked my flight to Palermo ten minutes ago. I’m a grown woman, and I can decide where I want to go. I don’t need my sister’s blessing, and especially not yours. If I die because of you, that’s on you. You dragged me into some stuff without ever speaking to me before.” She chuckled ironically. “I always thought TV shows and books were exaggerating with this kind of stuff, but apparently not. One really can get dragged into other people’s messes without ever having been in the picture before.”

She’d been in the picture before I was in it. But she didn’t remember while I had to live with the nightmares for the past eleven years.

“When’s your flight?” I asked. She was right, I couldn’t keep her from going, but I sure could make sure she was safe while she was gone.

“Next Monday,” she told me. “I don’t want to stay here.” Her gaze wandered around her apartment. Fear glistened in her blue eyes.

I had to tell her the truth eventually, but not before I had more information. It was my family who was after me, I’d been aware of it for years. If only I knew who was giving the orders. Depending on who gave the orders, I had to approach the whole situation differently.

Who knew I was alive? Did they all know?

Did my father know?

If my father knew, there was no stopping them. If the orders came from my mother in secrecy, there was a possibility that I could get away again.

“There are no bugs in your apartment, I checked.” Besides, she was staying with me anyway. There was no way I’d let her be on her own for two whole days. “Sterlie, can I come with you on Monday?”

Stepping foot on any Italian ground again hadn’t been part of my plans for the rest of my life, especially not Palermo, but I knew my way around the city better than anyone else.

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