Page 29 of Twins for the Mafia Heir

“Thank you, Raleigh,” I tell her, too quick and too stiff. This was not the point of the conversation, and I don’t want to linger now that we’re here. “I should wake Sidony now.”

“Do you… want me to come with you?” Raleigh asks.

It’s an instinct to tell her no, but I stop myself just in time. It’s true I don’t want to force her to be Sidony’s mother if she doesn’t want to be, but there’s another side to that desire. After three years, it’s damn near impossible for me to trust Sidony with anyone else.

“Very well,” I say.

Don’t make me regret this.

Raleigh follows me into Sidony’s room, and I’m relieved to see my daughter has apparently slept through the night. She’s hardly changed poses from four hours earlier, except for having knocked away a few of her plushies with her elbow. I rub her warm back with my hand until she begins to stir.

“Morning, glory,” I say softly, bending down to give her three kisses.

“Morning, daddy,” she mumbles, pushing herself up and rubbing at her eyes.

“I have someone here for you to-”

“Raleigh??” To my shock and relief, Sidony’s eyes light up as soon as she opens them and sees her visitor. “I asked Mrs. Barlow where you were all day yesterday and she said she didn’t know who you were!”

“Oh, well, I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself yet,” Raleigh explains easily. “I’m so glad to see you again, Sidony.”

My daughter blushes happily. “And me!” she says nonsensically.

“Do you remember when I told you Raleigh would be staying with us a while?” I ask.

Sidony squints. “I think so? Why?”

“Well, it was Auntie Tasia’s idea,” I say, truthfully enough. “See, Raleigh’s from America, but Auntie Tasia asked her to stay with us as an ally. A sort of go-between for our house and hers. So she’ll be living here with us.” I avoid telling her for how long, because I hate to make promises I can’t keep. “Will you help me show Raleigh the Hall, little princess?”

Sidony jumps to her feet in bed. She’s beaming more brightly than I’ve seen in months. “Oh yes, I will! Would you like that, Raleigh?”

Raleigh beams back at her, just as brilliantly. Something in my chest eases at the sight of it. “I absolutely would.”

We start in the front hall, naturally, since I’ve only ever brought Raleigh into the house through the kitchen. Wesley Hall is two stories, with a wing of rooms on either side of its long main hall. And, of course, the tower at the far end of the east wing, where more than one wife was banished over the course of this place’s history. Raleigh marvels at the ornate wood paneling on every wall and the pattern of the molding on the ceiling. Sidony hovers close to Raleigh’s side at all times. I try to rattle off as many historical facts about the origins of Jacobean architecture as I can think of, but my mind is far away from the tour.

I don’t like traveling away from Wesley Hall, but that’s for Sidony’s sake, not the house’s. In reality, I wouldn’t mind burning the entire place to the ground.

At least then the ghosts filling its rooms would finally be forced to move on.

I point out original paintings that must have cost Marcus Warwick tens of thousands of pounds, but what I’m really seeing is the blood that nearly splattered over it as I shot a man’s brains out. I try not to look too closely at a very faint spot on the priceless carpet as we pass it. That also used to be the blood of another man I killed. I’m surprised he didn’t leave a bigger stain.

Thank god Sidony was in her room when the worst of the coup happened. The most she saw of this carnage were the two men I shot in front of her seconds after they broke through her door. Even that has cost us both almost nightly terror. We both can’t stop wondering what would happen if I’d been just a moment later.

When we reach the dining room, I have to blink at the sight of the door leading out the side of the house. It’s the same door I shoved Piers out of when I decided I had to spare his life.

We could turn back to the main hall and explore the upstairs now, but I’m already feeling stifled.

Before we began our tour, I made sure Raleigh was dressed for colder weather. She’s almost completely hidden inside my thickest coat, and she’s using my socks as legwarmers over her jeans. Today, I’ll be upgrading her wardrobe. But for right now, I think Sidony will enjoy showing Raleigh the gardens, and I’ll enjoy the fresh air.

The fresh, verywindyair.

The historic gardens of Wesley Hall are far and away its best feature, and the only way I can convince Sidony to play outside. It’s a maze of carefully trimmed hedges and topiaries that opens up on a fountain spilling into a pond. The water feature is the view I’m searching for when I drink my espresso on the back terrace.

As soon as Sidony sees where we’re going, she snatches Raleigh’s hand, flicking her windswept hair out of her face. “Oh, Raleigh, you have to see the duck pond. I’ll show you the way!”

And before I can stop either of them, they hurtle off into the hedges. I follow at a more leisurely pace, absorbing the relief and shock I feel at seeing Sidony so… exuberant. She’s never attached herself so willingly to another person before. Perhaps it’s Raleigh’s energy, or the way she speaks to Sidony like she’s a fellow adult. I don’t know.

It feels like a miracle. If I believed in such things.

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