Page 65 of Twins for the Mafia Heir

“Em- Raleigh had to go back home for Christmas,” I tell Sidony. “She’s missed her brother and her people a lot over the last month, and she wanted to spend some time with them for the holidays. It was a last minute decision and she… she was very upset she didn’t get to say goodbye to you.”

I hate that last part, and not because it’s a lie, but because I know for certain that it is true. Whatever Emma’s lies, I don’t believe she could’ve feigned how much she brightened up around Sidony. Even during their first meeting, Emma’s priority was Sidony’s safety and happiness.

Sidony’s face falls, her grip on Lilac tightening. “Raleigh left us?”

I swallow, guilt twisting at my heart. She didn’t, not really. I sent her away. But I did it for everyone’s good, Emma’s included. She never should’ve been here to begin with. Her lies were products of her own captivity and determination to survive, and everyone’s feelings being confused by them was just a very unfortunate side-effect.

“She… didn’t want to,” I say, and am torn between relief that I’m not lying and the sickening memory of Emma’s tears.

“But… But will she be back in time for Christmas?” Sidony asks. Her eyes are starting to get too wide, and I pull her up into my lap, both to soothe her and to keep from having to look her in the face as I keep delivering bad news.

“No, little princess. She won’t be here for Christmas. She… she might be gone for a while.”

Why the fuck is this starting to feel like a mistake? Why do I feel like the bad guy, when Emma was a liar and possibly a manipulator, and Fantasia orchestrated all of this?

And why the fuck does my daughter have to be the victim of all our sins at the end of the day?

Sidony sniffles against my neck. “When will she come back?”

Never. She’s never coming back, and the best thing for all of us now is to forget she was ever here.

“I…” I feel Piers’s gaze harden on me, and glare back at him over Sidony’s head. “I don’t know, dove.Butshe did leave you some Christmas presents she picked out.”

Sidony perks up a little, pulling back to look me in the face. “Presents?”

I nod, combing her hair with my fingers. I feel sick with guilt, but it’s too late now. Emma is gone, and my family needs to move on. “You can open them tomorrow, all right?”

“Can I shake them?”

“No, dove, no shaking or weighing them. You’ll leave them alone until tomorrow, all right?”

Sidony nods, disappointed. But at least she doesn’t look completely bereft anymore. It will get harder to explain ‘Raleigh’s’ continued absence, but eventually, I hope she’ll forget her and move on.

I know I never will, but a delusional part of my mind hopes the same for me too.

Chapter 35

Emma

Paul’s hand on my shoulder feels like the only thing keeping me upright when I enter the meeting room first thing the next morning. My jet lag has the world around me seeming unstable, even though I slept for almost twelve hours when I finally collapsed into bed. Achilles’s emotionless face haunted every one of my nightmares, so whether or not I sleptwellis a different thing entirely.

Iris is already at the table with Thomas Warwick, along with Thomas’s wife Clara, Raleigh and her husband Derrick, and half the generals of the Warwick family.

You don’t belong here, Emma. You’re nobody compared to these people, and you always will be.

It’s an old instinct, but it’s one that has always served me well. If I remember that I’m nothing and no one, I’m always alert for what can go wrong and who is thinking about betraying me.

Today, however, I have to be more than what I’ve always told myself I am. I’m delivering an official report on my intel to Thomas and his generals, and while I do it, I need to make them believe everything I say. More importantly than that, I have to convince them that Achilles not only needs our help, but deserves it.

That’s just one of the things I decided to do during my long flight over the midnight sea.

Regardless of how our entangled lives were torn apart, I know Achilles and Sidony deserve a life of security, and that Fantasia as she is now will never be able to let that happen. Removing her from power has to be our priority, not only for the sake of our estate, but for Achilles’s as well.

I owe him that at least.

I’ve removed my wedding ring from my finger only to keep it in the pocket of my jeans. I won’t be discussing the marriage or my feelings for Achilles at this meeting, mostly because I can hardly think about them myself, but also because… well, it’s none of their business. My protective feelings for Sidony, a little girl who hardly knows me, and for Achilles, a man who wants nothing to do with me any longer, sound irrational even to me. I can’t imagine how they’ll be perceived by people who can’t possibly understand what the three of us went through together.

Paul guides me to the seat next to his on Iris’s right, then goes to the side bar for a cup of coffee for himself and a glass of water for me. Derrick and Raleigh are across from me, baby Roman in a bright orange onesie laid over Derrick’s shoulder. Raleigh makes a point to smile and wink at me. She must see how nervous I am, which… isn’t great.

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