Page 130 of Where Dark Hearts Devour
I run out of the room and down the stairs, colliding with Sera at the bottom. She throws her arms around me and buries her face in the crook of my neck.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispers.
“Caspita!You only saw each other yesterday.” Allegra walks by as if she owns the place already.
Sera holds my face inches from her own and shakes her head. “I know it’s only been one night, and I know you’re just down the street, but ...” She drops her gaze to the floor and then looks up through auburn lashes. “I feel as though you’re moving on, slipping away.”
My brows knit. “I’d already moved into this place when Savero, well ...” I’m not sure how to refer to my relationship with my discredited, dead ex-fiancé, but it doesn’t matter, because Sera places a finger over my lips.
“It feels different this time,” she says in a soft voice. “This time, you want to be here.”
I bite the side of my cheek. “Do I?”
“It’s obvious, Trilby. You’re smitten with each other.”
My chest fills with a combination of dread and warmth. “How do you know?”
She laughs quietly. “Ever since he invited us to join you at the bridal gown fitting, I’ve watched the way you are around each other. You’re like mirrors, bouncing light off each other.”
“What?” My whisper is breathless. “If it was obvious to you, then ...”
The lightness in her face fades. “It was obvious to me because I care so much about you. No one else seemed to notice, but they weren’t looking closely enough.”
“Savero knew,” I admit. “Or at least he suspected.”
Sera trails her fingers down my cheek, and sympathy floods her eyes. “That explains a lot.”
I force myself to smile as Bambi skips from room to room, assessing which TV to watch first. Then a thought occurs to me.
“Sera ... how did Cristiano move all my stuff in just a few hours?”
My sister can’t hide her smile. “Allegra.”
Cristiano has been speaking with my aunt?
“With the help of a few of his soldiers and some U-Haul trucks.”
I turn around to see my aunt poised with an arched brow.
“You’re not supposed to just ship my stuff out on a whim.” I frown.
“Oh, Trilby,” she says with a dark chuckle. “This was no whim.”
“When did he talk to you?”
“A few days ago,” she replies.
I’m about to say how that sounds like a whim to me, but she raises her brows.
“But I knew it was on the cards the second he showed up with half his brother’s chest in a box.”
I pin my lips together and dart my eyes to Sera, who turns green at the memory. I slip my arm through hers and guide her to the terrace. “Come on. I don’t have you for much longer—I want to hear all about your plans for the Hamptons.”
“Can I come back tomorrow with my bathing suit?” Bambi asks. The water ripples out from where her feet are dipping in the pool.
I help myself to more of the pink lemonade one of the servants placed on a table. “I can’t see why not.”
“I don’t suppose you can click your fingers and magic up an early dinner, can you?” Tess’s sunglasses glint at me from her pool lounger.
