Page 6 of The Sweetest Obsession

I also don’t like the change that’s come over her one bit.

That’s not Ros.

The Ros I knew wouldn’t be able to look at a dead body without breaking down in tears.

Not hysterics.

She used to be the shyest thing, full of air and sun, innocent and withdrawn. The girl in front of me looks more like a stranger wearing Ros’ skin.

Her ma’s not gonna like this either—if Angela even knows.

Goddammit, does Ros know Angela’s back in the hospital?

I must be wearing some kind of sour look I can’t hide. Because Ros stumbles to a halt as she catches sight of me.

All the color drains from her face and her eyes widen as she stares up at me.

“O-ohhh,” she falters. “Hi, Grant!”

“Ros,” I grind out, reminding myself she’s not my little sister.

Not my kin, meaning I have no right to say anything, much less condemn her dating life.

Lucia thins her lips. “Do you think you two could compose yourselves well enough to speak with the police captain? Or are you late for another party?”

Aleksander smirks devilishly.

“Oh, come now, Mummy.” He fakes this cringe posh British accent that only makes me angrier. Rosalind giggles and looks away from me guiltily. “You should be nicer to your future daughter-in-law.”

Daughter-in-what-the-fuck?

I stiffen and stare.

“Daughter-in-law?” I echo before I can stop myself.

“Well now,” Montero tells his son, clearing his throat. “I suppose we can excuse a little young mischief as long as we keep it in the family.”

Rosalind bites her lip, smearing her lipstick more, and leans into Aleksander, holding up her left hand.

In the low sickly orange light, a large diamond embedded in gold flashes like a drawn dagger.

“He asked me last night,” she says with the same sheepish smile I used to see when she was a little girl, always begging the big kids for their approval and affection. “Of course, I said yes! Um, please don’t tell Ophie yet, Grant. She doesn’t know... and she might be kinda pissed.”

As she damn well should be.

Ophelia’s baby sister, getting tangled up withthisfamily?

I growl “fine” almost on auto-pilot before I realize what she just said.

“Wait. Hold up. Ophelia... Ophelia’s back in town?” I hold my breath, bracing for the gut punch.

Then it hits me dead-on.

That old familiar pain.

That wrenching loss, stronger than ever.

That sense oflonging,stretched across a decade without her like a man straining on a torture rack.

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