Page 52 of The Sin

I chose this.

I chose Roman.

That’s what I’d decided over the course of this infernal day.

I would choose to love Roman and damn the rest. We weren’t perfect. We wouldn’t be easy. We were still the gray space, and maybe the colors of his life and the colors of my life would rip us apart.

There were no guarantees.

But meanwhile, I chose to love him. And maybe this world would one day take him from me, but no one and nothing would ever take this choice from me.

At the library, McKinnon announced us with pompous ceremony that was ridiculous considering the four people in the room. “Mr. and Mrs. West.”

Julian Edgar came forward, his charismatic charm on full display as he smiled a smile that crinkled into the corners of his eyes. “Roman. Georga. I’m so pleased you could join us tonight.”

He clapped Roman on the arm. “Bourbon?” And turned to me. “Wine? White or red.”

I considered shrugging and leaving him to pick, but I was feeling otherwise tonight. “Actually, I’ll take a bourbon, thank you.”

Surprise flattened his mouth for a brief moment. He recovered and the warmth that had deceived me so thoroughly in the past returned to his smile. “Of course, anything for you, my dear.”

“I’ll get it,” Daniel spoke up, rising from a recliner by the bay window.

His blond hair fell in a silky wedge across his brow as he cocked his head, his gaze lingering on me for a beat, asking something, I didn’t know what. But it was a look that softened my prickly edges.

I’d once thought I was destined to love this boy. My life would have been so different if he’d offered for me instead of Brenda. I couldn’t picture that life anymore. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting that life anymore. But he’dseenme at a time when I’d assumed I would never be seen. He’dheardme and he’d backed away to save me from the stifling, restrictive life of a councilman’s wife.

There’d always be softness inside me for Daniel.

I shrugged and smiled at him, and he took that, turning toward the sideboard to pour the drinks.

His mother, Miriam, drifted alongside a bookshelf lining the wall with a glass in her hand. She was a beautiful woman, delicate and ethereal, and seriously gone with the fairies. A stint in rehab would do that to the strongest woman.

She offered us a tepid smile of greeting that never reached her empty eyes. “Should we go through? Dinner should be on the table by now.”

“Of course, we can bring our drinks.” Julian looked at her with such loving warmth, it would’ve fooled the devil. Or I don’t know. Maybe it was genuine. Maybe he was two halves of the same man, the councilman who’d sent his wife into rehab, and the loving husband and father.

Brenda had been sitting on a corner couch all this time, nursing her glass of wine and studying me in a manner that wasn’t entirely pleasant. We’d had our ups and downs, more downs since she’d stabbed me in the back and accepted Daniel’s offer of marriage. That still rankled me. I couldn’t help it. Looking back on everything now, she was welcome to Daniel, and he didn’t seem unhappy with her.

But I wasn’t sure our friendship would ever return to what it had once been.

Brenda was too changed, too caught up in the privileges and luxuries of her new life since she’d married into Capra royalty.

And maybe I was too changed, as well, and we’d changed in totally opposite directions.

Julian hooked an arm into Miriam’s and led the way out. Daniel caught up to Roman and me, passing over our drinks.

Before I could move, he placed a restraining hand on my arm. “Georga.”

His eyes willed me to stay a minute, to talk, and suddenly it felt like a bright idea. I wanted to know if he was stillmyDaniel, or if he was too far gone, fully embedded in the system and the council. I didn’t think he was. But I wasn’t sure, and I needed to be sure.

I sent Roman a look with an almost imperceptible nod. He got the message and strode out the room, giving me some privacy with Daniel.

Brenda wasn’t as accommodating. She lingered near the door, watching us, waiting for Daniel.

“Go on ahead,” Daniel told her. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“Don’t be silly.” She blossomed a smile for him. “I can wait.”

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