Page 54 of Twins for the Mafia Heir

“Perhaps it’s for the best that she died suddenly of a brain aneurysm before her plans ever came to fruition. And Marcus had his own plans, of course. He chose someone else to be his heir, a boy who wasn’t even of the Warwick blood, but an orphan adopted by distant cousins. Piers.”

I shudder, my stomach roiling. Fantasia was nothing but a pawn to her mother… and a useless girl to her father. For the first time, I feel true sympathy for her.

Then the name he said clicks in my mind. “Piers- the man who went missing? The one she accused you of not catching on purpose?”

Achilles’s eyes are barely slits in the mirror. “The very same. That was the straw that broke her back. Losing her birthright to a man adopted into the family, after being raised her entire life being convinced by Veronica that she deserved it more than anyone… Even I couldn’t save her from what that did to her.”

He can’t possibly blame himself for Fantasia’s insanity. It sounds like she was old enough by that point to make her own decisions, wrong or otherwise. Of course, he’s made himself responsible for her, and I doubt that will change even now.

We’re silent for a long time after that. I can’t find any words that are meaningful but also comforting. What I do know for sure is that this betrayal has made my own honesty impossible for right now. Achilles is bringing us all to safety, and if he starts to believe that I’m a threat too…

My stomach sinks into my toes.

I don’t want to know what that would look like.

“You were brilliant,” Achilles says suddenly. I look up, and find his eyes on mine in the rearview mirror. “Again, brilliant. I thought it was strange when we first met and you were so… informal. I expected a princess, but you’ve turned out to be a warrior instead.”

Oh god. I gave myself away completely during the raid, didn’t I? It’s not like I could pretend to be useless while our lives were in danger though. I don’t want to lie anymore, I’m so sick of it, but I have to explain this somehow. And I certainly can’t tell him I raised myself on the streets because my dad was a drunken mafia thug.

“I-Iris and Paul made sure I knew how to defend myself,” I say.

“They did a very thorough job.”

“Yes,” I agree. Can he tell that I’m sweating? “I’m very grateful to them.”

That, at least, isn’t a lie.

Luckily, Achilles falls into his own thoughts after that, and I retreat into mine. Sidony wakes after an hour, and we make a stop for a quick meal and a bathroom break before getting back on the road. I make up hand games to play with Sidony to keep her busy, but the drive starts to feel endless far too quickly.Achilles refuses to stop until we reach our final destination, so as the sun goes down over the English countryside, Sidony falls asleep in my lap once again, and I find myself nodding off too.

I don’t realize I’ve actually fallen asleep until I jerk awake. There’s orange streetlamp light coming in through the windows, and the car is rolling to a stop in gravel. I push myself up in my seat, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes, and see we’re parked outside a little cottage framed by overgrown hedges. The clock on the car’s dashboard tells me it’s well past three in the morning.

“We’re here,” Achilles says quietly. “You don’t have to wake Sidony. We’re going straight to bed once we get inside.” He opens my door for me and helps me pull Sidony out of the backseat and into his arms. I’m so groggy that I don’t want to be upright, but I trudge after him as he goes up the three steps to the bright red door of the house.

He knocks three times. Then two times. Three times again, then once. We wait in the chilly dark long enough that I’m sure whoever’s inside slept through his secret signal, but finally I hear locks clicking. The door cracks open, then swings wide, revealing a man around Achilles’s age with rust-red hair and shocking green eyes.

“Piers,” Achilles says. “Let us in, will you?”

Chapter 29

Achilles

Fantasia has accused me a thousand times over the past year of letting Piers Warwick escape the coup that would’ve taken his life, but I doubt even she knows just how right she was.

I’ve made my whole life, since the day my little sister was born, about keeping her safe and happy. And while helping her overthrow the London Warwicks and claim her stolen birthright from her father served that purpose… killing my best friend in cold blood did not.

Piers is shocked to see me, but steps quickly aside for Raleigh and me to bring a sleeping Sidony inside the house. He keeps his voice low, but I get the feeling he’d be yelling if he could.

“Achilles- what the hell are you doing here?! Who’s this-”

“Fantasia turned on me,” I say- and hearing those words spoken out loud makes the betrayal hit all over again. I collect myself enough to assure, “No one followed us.”

Piers opens his mouth, then runs a hard hand through his red hair and lets it fall slowly closed. I sense he’s holding back something snide. Or, worse, a searching question about Fantasia herself.

“What happened?” he chokes out at last.

I can’t answer that yet. I won’t do it in front of Raleigh, because something tells me if I do she’ll blame herself for all of this. But more than that, I can’t face it myself. Not after all the years I sacrificed for Fantasia and how much of my heart she held in her hand without even caring.

“Tomorrow,” I tell Piers, then glance at the clock. It’s nearly four a.m. “Tomorrow afternoon, maybe. We’re taking the den. How’s your mum?”

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