Page 81 of Jester

But as I walk to the kitchen to find food for Jules and the girls, I’m filled with optimism. I’d been certain the Texas mission would go to hell, and I’d never be able to move past my guilt.

I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.

CELINE

Giselle doesn’t looklike I remember. Her face is rounder. Her belly is fuller. Her skin is tawnier. Living at the Sanctuary left her healthier. She’s both my sister and a stranger.

Like the others watching us, I keep waiting for Giselle to remember. We walk into her beautiful house, stopping in a living room where the bassinet is set up. I can’t believe all that’s happened since she escaped into the night.

“Why the name Anna?” I ask, wanting to understand how this version of my sister works.

Giselle shrugs. “We wanted an ‘A’ name because of Apex’s name. We planned to use Amelia, but then we met this little one.”

I look at the child in my sister’s arms. She’s adopted. I’m unclear how that happened. Luca was vague about certain things. I think she wanted to protect me.

Amelia keeps pointing at my face and then cuddling Giselle. I think she might notice our resemblance. That or she thinks I’m weird. I don’t know anything about children.

“Anna felt like a good name to go with her big sister’s.”

Amelia points to the baby and mumbles something. I think about when I was that age and Giselle entered my life. I can’t remember the mother we shared. I don’t think she raised us at all. I only recall nannies. I’m not sure I met my father until I was five.But I always had Giselle.

“Don’t be scared,” she says as she walks to the kitchen to check the food. “I was nervous when I got here, too. People were so nice, but I didn’t know what would happen next.”

“But whatwillhappen next?” I ask as I look back out to where Thorn stands with Apex.

The men study the sleeping baby, but I sense they’re talking about Giselle and me.

Amelia gets down when Giselle needs to check the oven. The redheaded girl walks around the kitchen island and returns to Giselle to be picked up. Once she checks her potatoes, my sister lifts the girl into her arms.

Giselle looks into my eyes and bites her lower lip. “Luca and Ghost said you could stay at their house for a few days. That seemed smart at first because I didn’t know you and I want to protect my baby girls,” Giselle explains before reaching for my hand. “But now that we’ve met, I want you to stay here with me.”

I study my sister, wanting her to remember me without remembering the pain we left behind.

“I will go wherever you want.”

Giselle steps closer until we’re less than a foot apart. Her gaze reveals a building panic.

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