Page 7 of Born To Be Bad

I continue, my anger growing. “We saw the blood … we found your dress drenched in your blood."

She juts her chin. “But there was no body, was there?”

I shake my head, frustrated. “I was twelve! We had the dress!”

“Father never checked for a body!”

“Ariana,” I reply, trying to keep my cool but failing dismally. “You know that in this business, not finding a body doesn't mean anything. We never found Henderson Senior’s body either. That's what we have cleaners for.”

If we all do our jobs, there are never bodies to be found.

Her eyes tear up. “But it was me. Your sister. Surely you would look?”

“Look where?” I demand, desperate for her to understand that we would have done absolutely anything to find her if we had believed her to be alive. “Can’t you see that De Luca manipulated you? He kidnapped you and told you that if we loved you, we’d come looking. But he staged your death so convincingly, and we were … insane with grief. Losing you was the worst thing that ever happened to us. So, no, we didn’t go looking. It would have been a sign of mental instability to look for a dead daughter. A dead sister.”

My mind flashes back to a nature documentary I had seen a long time ago where a vervet monkey carried around her dead baby like a ragdoll because she couldn’t accept that the baby had not survived.

I take a calming breath and dismiss the disturbing image. “I realize how much it would have hurt to wait for us to come find you at the De Lucas, and for it to never happen. But it wasn’t because we didn’t love you. On the contrary, we were all mad with mourning. Father has never been the same. He’s a flimsy shadow of the man we used to know.”

Ariana blinks at me. I can tell that she is turning this over in her brain.

“I have to ask you,” I say. “Why didn't you come looking for us? I mean, when you were a bit older—surely you would come back to us, if only just to express your hurt?”

Twenty-six years was a long time to stay away from your family, no matter the circumstances.

Ariana’s gaze turns cold once more. “Because the Ravenscrofts are the enemy.”

CHAPTER 6

A House Full of Ravens

IVY

“Stockholm syndrome,” I murmur.

The siblings look at me, both seemingly astonished that I’m in the room.

“Who are you?” Ariana asks. Her tone is surprised, but not unfriendly.

“She’s the woman who saved your life,” replies Alistair.

Ariana blinks at me. “The surgeon?”

“The other woman who saved your life,” her brother clarifies, with an unexpected smile. “Without Ivy’s quick thinking, you would have bled out. The bullet nicked your femoral artery, which, according to the doctor, is a surefire way to meet your maker. But Ivy staunched the bleeding for long enough to get you here.”

“Thank you,” she says. Her expression is sincere.

“Thank my yoga studio’s first aid training requirements,” I reply, trying to make light of it. “It’s the first and only time it’s come in handy.”

Now she’s really confused. “You’re a … yoga instructor?”

“In my past life,” I reply. “Not quite as fancy as a vascular surgeon.”

And not quite as fun as a billionaire’s pet.

“Can you come closer?” she asks. “Please?”

I bring my chair to the side of the bed so that I’m sitting opposite Alistair.

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