Page 64 of Vicious Heir

Angel couldn’t resist me in sweatpants. Being in a dress wouldn’t matter all that much to him. “When does the ceremony start?” I asked.

“In ten minutes.”

I turned, and Lili was standing in the doorway of the ready-room. She was wearing a bridesmaid’s dress, but she would be standing beside Omar as a groom’s woman. I hadn’t asked her to stand next to me, and she hadn’t offered.

Angel had asked why I didn’t talk to her after he explained that Lili wasn’t the one to rat her out, but there wasn’t a good way to explain it. I had forgiven Angel so easily for what he’d done to me, and yet, I held onto a resentment toward a woman who, essentially, did nothing wrong. She’d even tried to stop David from going to Angel to begin with.

“Can we talk?” Lili asked. “Just the two of us?”

I nearly said no, but then the tias were all hustling out of the room to give us some privacy. Tia Angela touched my arm. “Give her a chance,mija,” she begged, and I couldn’t deny the woman anything. She had to truly be magical…or I missed my mom just that much.

“Say what you need to say,” I said the moment the door shut.

Lili pulled in a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” She sniffled and tried to blink back tears. When they didn’t stop, she reached into her dress and pulled out an embroidered handkerchief and blotted at her face gently so that she didn’t smudge her makeup. “I’m sorry for everything.”

I couldn’t watch her cry. I glanced down at my perfectly manicured fingers; they were painted black with a delicate, lacy overlay of white. They matched my shoes and one of the silk flowers in my bouquet. “It wasn’t your fault, Lili,” I said, cutting into her blubbering. “Angel told me that David was the one who told him, and that you tried to stop him.”

“He…he did?”

I looked at her, nodding. “Yeah, he did.”

“So, why have you been so mad at me?” Lili demanded. There was a touch of anger in her voice now, and I felt myself bowing up to it instinctively. “I didn’t betray you.”

“But you did,” I said. “You dideverytime you stepped into that room with a tray of food and refused to help.”

“What did you expect me to do? Go against my brother?”

“Yes!” The word was nearly a shout, and it took us both a minute to breathe through the anger that was thick in the air. “You didn’t agree with him, right?”

Lili shook her head. “Of course I didn’t.”

“You knew what he was doing to me was wrong?”

There was a pause, and then: “Yes.”

“I forgave Angel because he admitted that what he’d done was wrong. He might not have changed it if he could go back — for all that it was wrong, he still thinks that he made a sound choice out of a genuine fear that I would leave — but you never admitted that you hurt me too.”

Lili reached for my hands before I could think to wrench them away and squeezed. “I hurt you with my complacency,” she said, “and I am so sorry. I let my own fear and my own ability to look away from bad things be my excuse for ignoring what was happening to you. I’m sorry. I’m sosorry.”

Damn her. Who could stay mad after that? I took my hands back, and when she let out a very real sob, I threw my arms around her neck and pulled her close. Her perfume was a spiced vanilla; it was lovely. “I’ve missed you,” I admitted.

Lili let out a wet laugh. “I’ve missed you too,” she said. “I am awful at making friends, you know that? I was hanging out with Omar most days.”

“How terrible for you,” I said. “I was stuck with Angel.”

She scoffed. “What a hardship, spending time with the love of your life.”

I released her. “I still missed the best sister-in-law that I’ve ever had.”

“So far, I’m your only sister-in-law,” she pointed out. “Omar would have to kidnap a woman if he ever hoped to get a wife.”

I laughed even though I shouldn’t — that was a nice way to describe her brother — and a weight came off my chest that I hadn’t noticed was there. I was still a little sore from the anger that had been festering in my gut, but I could get over it now. We could move on.

Lili glanced at the clock on the wall. “I should get going,” she said. “The ceremony is about to start.”

I nodded, but then grabbed her when she tried to turn around. “Tia Angela is my maid of honor, and I know you’re standing on your brother’s side…but do you maybe want to give me away?” I asked. “I went up the aisle alone during our rehearsal yesterday, and I can do it just fine…but it sucks not to have a parent to walk me up the aisle.”

“I would be honored,” Lili said, grinning so broadly that her matte lipstick began to crack.

---