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I feel Willa re-enter the room, and hear the door close.

“Here,” she says.

I look up and she’s holding a glass of water.

“Thank you.”

The cold liquid sluices down my throat and almost quenches the fire of shame and guilt roaring in my veins. But it’s too strong. The ember is still there, waiting for a burst of emotion to light it again.

“I told Greta that Mom had suddenly shown up in Denver and wondered where we were.”

I look at her in confusion.

“I know, stupid lie. Toni had apparently just left the house like a bat out of hell, and, well, she saw what happened before.”

“What did she say?”

“She said it was probably a good idea, to drive safe, and she will see us on January 2.”

“To terminate our contract, probably.”

“Oh no. Before I made it to the stairs she clarified that. Business as usual.” Willa clears her throat. “Let’s get out of here.”

We are ready to go in ten minutes.

When we leave there is no one around to say goodbye to.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

AUDREY

I’m not sure what to expect when we return to the office on January 2, but I didn’t expect everything to be so normal. My world had shifted, seismically, but all anyone could talk about was their holidays, their families, their presents, vacations, food, desserts, and work.

That is, Greta was all about work.

“How do you think she’ll be today?” I asked Willa when we were on the way to Greta’s office for our morning meeting.

“All business. She won’t mention a word unless you do, and I suggest you don’t,” Willa said, and pushed through Greta’s office door.

On the other side of the door the quiet, introspective Willa of the last week was gone. My sister was back, full of life and making jokes, bringing her irrepressible energy into every room she walks into.

The car ride back to Denver from Aspen had been silent. I didn’t want to talk and Willa didn’t push. Maybe she didn’t want to talk, either. She was driving and our rule since we got our driver’s licenses when we were sixteen was the driver controls the radio. It had been set to the satellite radio holiday station for weeks. When Perry Como started singing about dreaming of a white Christmas, she turned the radio off completely, and we drove the remaining hours in complete silence.

I’m not an idiot. I know something happened between Willa and Greta that weekend, but they are doing a stellar job pretending otherwise.

At the office, a few weeks into the new year, Willa and Greta are back to their old selves: Willa pushing Greta’s boundaries and Greta valiantly holding the professional lines she’s drawn. Greta has an amazing poker face. Willa not so much, but that might be a twin thing. I’ve caught Greta gazing at her with a puzzled expression more than once. Willa, for her part, has returned to rolling her eyes behind Greta’s back. I don’t think she will ever renew the offer to distract Greta for me and Toni. Not that she’s needed to, because Toni hasn’t been back into the office since Christmas.

News swept the office that Toni moved up her trip to South America, and is going to be in the office occasionally and unpredictably. That was not nearly enough information for me. When Greta and I were finished with a meeting, I took a deep breath and asked about Toni for the first time in a month.

“Toni’s in South America?” I asked while putting my meeting notes and computer in my bag, hoping for nonchalance, but my voice went up an octave at the end of my innocent question, ruining my plans.

“Yes.” Greta didn’t take her attention from her computer. Most likely she was typing notes about our meeting that would land in my inbox in five minutes. I consider myself organized, diligent, and responsible, but Greta takes it all to the next level.

“Do you know when she will be back?”

Greta’s hands stilled, but remained on her keyboard. She looked at me. “Audrey, I appreciate the help you gave Toni early on, but she’s not part of your project, and I think it would be best for everyone concerned if you focus on the job you are contracted to do.”

I’ve been dressed down by employers before, with varying responses on my part from indignation to embarrassment and everything in between. I was properly chastised, and deservedly so, but what I saw when I looked closely at Greta Giordani was not the CEO of a company recently tapped by Fortune magazine as the Best Family-Run Business in the US, but a protective sister using all the self-control she possessed to not rip off the face of the woman who broke her little sister’s heart.