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The question came out of nowhere, hitting me like a physical blow. "What about me?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what I mean. You think I haven't noticed the changes in you? The secret phone calls, the modified schedule, the way you've been acting like a man with something to hide?"
I kept my expression carefully neutral, though my pulse had begun to race. "I don't know what you're implying."
"I'm not implying anything. I'm asking directly." She moved closer, studying my face with the intensity she'd inherited from our Mother. "Is there someone, Edward? Someone you're keeping secret for the same reasons James and I have been hiding?"
"That's irrelevant to this conversation."
"Is it? Because if you're going to lecture me about inappropriate relationships and professional boundaries, I'd like to know if you're speaking from experience."
The silence stretched between us, heavy with unspoken truths. I could see in her eyes that she already suspected; she was simply waiting for confirmation.
"My personal life isn't the issue here," I said finally.
"Isn't it? Or are you just better at hiding it than we are?"
"Daphne—"
"It's Lili, isn't it?"
The words hung in the air like an accusation. I felt my carefully constructed defenses crumble under the weight of her certainty.
"I don't—"
"Oh, Edward." Her expression shifted from confrontational to something approaching sympathy. "You're in love with her."
I wanted to deny it, to maintain the pretense that had served me for weeks. But looking at my sister's face, seeing the understanding there instead of judgment, I found I couldn't continue the lie.
"Yes," I said quietly. "I am."
The admission felt like stepping off a cliff. For weeks, I'd managed to compartmentalize my feelings for Lili, to maintain the fiction that I was in control of the situation. But speaking the truth aloud to Daphne made it real in a way that terrified me.
"And she feels the same way?"
"She would be the one to answer that."
"But you can't be together publicly because of the acquisition. Because of Mother. Because of all the same reasons James and I can't be open about our relationship."
"The situations are hardly comparable—"
"They're exactly comparable," she interrupted. "We're both in love with people our family would consider inappropriate. We're both risking our reputations and our futures for relationships that society says are impossible."
I studied her face, seeing something that looked almost like guilt. "That's why you encouraged us, isn't it? The London tour, insisting I show her around, pushing us together at every opportunity. You were hoping we'd fall for each other."
"I thought..." She hesitated, then continued more quietly. "I thought if you two found happiness together, it would prove that love could overcome social barriers. That maybe there was hope for James and me too."
"So you used us as test subjects for your own relationship theory."
"I gave you opportunities to discover what was already there," she said defensively. "I saw how you looked at her, Edward. How she responded to you. I didn't create those feelings—I just stopped you from overthinking them into oblivion."
"And then you warned me to be careful. At the auction, you seemed genuinely concerned about us getting involved."
Daphne's expression shifted, becoming more troubled. "Because by then I realized what I'd done. I'd pushed you toward someone wonderful without fully considering the consequences. When I saw how deep your feelings had become, when I realized Mother was already suspicious..." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I panicked. I wanted you to be happy, but I also didn't want to watch you get destroyed the way James and I would be if we were discovered."
"So you had second thoughts about your matchmaking?"
"I had realistic thoughts about what Mother would do to both of you if she found out. And I felt guilty for encouraging something that could hurt my best friend and my brother."