Page 48 of Deadly Secrets

I turned around to face Ander, who leaned against the doorframe with his hands inside his pockets. I didn’t hear him coming in.

“I was just curious. I wondered if you kept it the same,” I responded.

“I only changed a few things, like the TV and the bedding. Marvel theme sheets are not cool anymore when you start to bring girls over.”

I snorted a laugh.

“I did like them, and as far as I remember, I was the first one.”

“Not that kind of sleepover.”

I stood there in awkward silence for a moment, gathering all my strength to start the pending conversation between us.

“You know…I spoke with Jerry. Did you know my dad asked him to intercept any calls and letters from you while I was at boarding school?”

Ander didn’t respond, keeping the same expressionless face, so I continued, “I’m sorry, Ander. You will never know how sorry I am. You must have thought I didn’t care about you, but that’s far from the truth. When we kissed—” Before I could finish, Ander interrupted me.

“Don’t dwell in the past, Sienna. I try not to. What’s done is done, and we can’t change the past. And I don’t need your apologies. You could have called when you didn’t receive any of my letters. I promised you I’d write to you. But you didn’t try contacting me, and that was a choice you made.”

My blood boiled.

“But that’s not true!” I yelled while storming toward Ander. “I wrote to you too, and I came to see you as soon as I was back in Port Chester the next summer. I’ve already told you what happened when I went to your place.

“And what about my letters, Ander? Because I wrote to you too. You’re a hypocrite and a piece of shit.” Suddenly, Ander grabbed me and pulled me against his chest, his face just a few inches from mine.

“Watch your mouth, Sienna. You blame me, but you were the one who left and never came back. You weren’t there when my parents got divorced, and I needed you. You have no idea what I went through, and you weren’t there. I lov…” His gaze dropped to my mouth. “You didn’t try hard enough.”

Guilt took over my body, thinking about his parents’ divorce and how it could have affected him. I wasn’t there to comfort him as a friend, and I felt guilty for not trying harder.

Ander loosened his grip on my arm with an apology.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that, but you weren’t the only one who struggled. I missed you too, Ander. Every fucking day.”

I walked toward my room, tears burning at the back of my eyes. I knew the situation was fucked up, and the lack of communication between us was not making things easier. He was clearly affected by me coming back into his life, but he shouldn’t blame me for all the things that had happened because I’d also been kept in the dark. Now, he knew the truth. If he wanted to continue hating me because he needed to hold on to that anger, he could be my guest. I was done.

I took a shower to clean away all my built-up emotions and dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized dark gray sweater. Nobody had told me it was going to be a fancy dinner, so I didn’t expect anyone to comment on my sense of fashion.

I headed downstairs a few minutes before seven and strolled through the corridors until I stumbled upon the entrance to the dining room. Voices echoed from the inside, so I assumed everyone was probably already there. When I pushed the double doors, everyone stopped talking, and one particular pair of eyes landed on me. William.

“Good evening, Mr. Scott. Thank you for having me; your house looks just as beautiful as I remember.”

“Good evening, Miss Moore; it’s lovely to see you again after all these years.” His words were kind, but his facial expression made it evident that he wasn’t exactly excited about my presence.

“Let’s eat, shall we?” Claudia exclaimed with false excitement, her eyes darting between us.

The service delivered a wonderful dinner, I must say. It had been quite a while since I’d enjoyed homemade food around a table. Everyone jumped into casual conversation, Zayn and Noah talking about their work in college and how the year was unfolding at Stanford. They talked about a few of the parties they had attended, and Ander shared some anecdotes from our days in the lab with Professor Reed. It almost seemed like a normal family dinner, yet every now and then, I could feel a lingering tension in the air that kept me on guard throughout the entire evening.

“Sienna, I recently heard that you have been named the major shareholder at Cos Pharmaceuticals. Is that right? Aren’t you a bit young and inexperienced to lead the company?” William posed the question in a nonchalant manner, but I couldn’t help but detect a touch of disdain in his voice. I didn’t appreciate the hostility.

“Yes, that’s correct, William.” If he was going to address me on a first-name basis, I sure could play that game. “We still are in the process of appointing a new CEO, but hopefully, that means I can focus on my studies and leave someone with experience to take care of the business while I’m at Stanford.”

“It was an amazing journey to set up the company with your father. I have very fond memories of my time at Cos Pharma.”

“Why did you leave then?” I asked. It was a simple question, yet my tone was cold and distant. “Or was that not a choice you actually made?”

William’s expression darkened, and his hands clutched the cutlery as if he intended to melt them in his grasp.

“Your father and I disagreed on how things were dealt with in the last year before I left the company. We could not reach an agreement on how to move forward, so I left.”

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