Page 93 of A Lie so Dangerous and Fragile

“Don’t do that,” I said, but he did it again, giggling as he looked at me, as if amused by my expression.

“Kayden.” I frowned, and he giggled.

“No playing with food, buddy. Eat up,” Tristan said.

Kayden stopped playing with his food. He took a glance at Kayla and started eating his food slowly. It always took me a good amount of yelling before I could get him to listen to me, but all Tristan had to do was say one sentence.

“What would you like to eat?” Tristan asked, touching my hand.

My heart skipped at his touch, and I felt a shiver run down my skin, but I didn’t pull my hand away.

“I’ll just have coffee,” I said, meeting his eyes that stared at me with desperation.

“Are you happy here?” he suddenly asked.

I was taken aback by his question.

“Tristan,” I sighed, refusing to look at him.

“How do I fix it? How can I assure you that they’re safe here?” he continued, still holding on to my hand from across the table, playing with my pinkie.

I didn’t want him to let go. It felt familiar. It’d been so long since I’d felt like this, and a part of me craved it.

“It’s not that,” I said, looking up to meet his eyes.

“You slept on the floor the whole night,” he pointed out.

“I couldn’t sleep. I thought being very close to the twins would help,” I explained.

He didn’t look like he believed me.

“Hey.” I beamed, squeezing one of his fingers with mine. “I’m fine,” I told him but got no reaction from him.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but he decided against it and smiled instead. I was about to ask him to let the words out when I heard Nana’s and Mrs. Sanchester’s voices as they came down the stairs. I pulled my hand away from Tristan’s grasp and turned my gaze to the twins, who were babbling words at each other and giggling. I smiled at them, trying to avoid the urge to look at Tristan’s face to see his reaction. I could feel his burning gaze on me. I didn’t want his family to read too much into it.

Nana hugged me from behind and kissed my forehead. She went over to the twins and gave them a kiss.

“Can I have some of that?” Nana asked.

They were both quick to extend a piece of waffle to her.

Mrs. Sanchester gave me a kind smile from where she sat beside me. Wanda brought her some organic tea in a teacup. I stared at her, captivated by the way she carried herself with grace and how young she appeared, like she ate children for breakfast.

“How was your night, Chloe?” Mrs. Sanchester asked, resting her pale blue eyes on me.

“Great,” I replied, looking over at Tristan, who had his eyes pinned on me.

“Do you still have to work today? I want us to go shopping,” she said and took a sip from her tea as she stared at me.

“Yeah, I have a shift in the evening and—”

Tristan’s ringtone cut me off. My eyes collided with his as he reached for his phone in his pocket.

“It’s the hospital. Must be about Morris,” he said to me as if I had asked. He stood up and left to answer the phone as Kayden and Kayla got loud with their babbling.

“I don’t think I can today. I’m going to see my sister.”

“It’s fine,” she said, touching my arm with her manicured nails. “You know you don’t have to work so much,” she said, putting down the teacup on the saucer gracefully. Had she taken an etiquette class? “We can support you with the kids and school.”

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