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It hit Sadie square in her soul.

The moment the door closed, a torrent of tears poured from her eyes. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. Despite the lies, the hurt, the betrayal, the stealing and life of crime, that was the worst part of all this.

Deep down, she knew Joanwasthat good person.

CHAPTER17

Joan pulled the fleece blanket tighter under her chin. She never really needed one unless she was sick. Or curled up on the couch in a pathetic ball of heartache, wanting to disappear under the comforting material.

A bright ray of late morning sunshine beamed across her face. She moaned in misery. Mark squeezed her feet, then rubbed her legs. He was still wearing his club clothes: a dark, skintight T-shirt and pants. His styled blond hair had morphed into bedhead.

Joan moaned again, then managed to say, “Thank you for coming over.”

“I’ve got you, sis.”

Thanks to cosmic twin intuition, Mark had shown up last night less than an hour after Joan collapsed on her bed, crying and having the tears evaporate, and then crying more because she couldn’t even cry properly.

All because she was Spark, the deceitful Villain who’d tried to start a future with a good, honest person with stolen funds and lies.

“Besides.” Mark jiggled her thigh. “You’ve nursed me through a lot of bad times.”

“And you’re really annoying when you’re super whiny.”

“And you’re irritatingly grumpy.” He rested his arm across the back of the couch. “Which I will overlook today.”

Joan’s heart ached in a way that hadn’t happened since their parents kicked them out. Maybe it had never hurt like this. She felt like complete and total shit.

“I should’ve told her,” she said for the eighty-third time.

“Yes, but hindsight and all that.”

She groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.

“No, no.” Mark tugged it down. “We’re not doing that. If you’d told her, it would’ve ended sooner. She wouldn’t have handled the news much better if she’d found out a different way.”

“I hate that I lied to her. She’s so sweet and thoughtful and trusting, and assholes have taken advantage of her. Now I’m just another asshole because she really trusted me.”

She plucked at the fleece blanket and continued, “I should’ve known she would never go for Spark, even if I said I was giving it up. She had no reason to believe me, anyway.”

Mark slurped the rest of his iced coffee. “Do you want one?” he asked, dancing the plastic cup in front of her.

“No.”

“Ice cream?”

“No.”

“A big vat of wine you can lie in face-first and drink away your sorrows?”

“Maybe.” She shut her eyes, then opened them, because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Sadie sitting on her couch, scared and in pain and not wanting Joan anywhere near her.

Mark stood, saying, “Well, I’m gonna get another one. This is good. You finally cracked the cold brew coffee recipe.”

“Sadie made it,” Joan grumbled miserably.

“Oh. Shit.” He considered the cup. “She does make damn good coffee.”

Joan tossed the blanket over her head.