Page 216 of Ruin Me With Lies

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Soraya

FOUR MONTHS LATER

THE SQUIRMING LITTLE BUNDLEin my arms grips my index finger with more strength than any brand-new human should have.She smells like powder, sweet pears, and innocence.Innocence that will vanish the moment she’s able to form a cognitive thought.

She’s a miracle baby.Caught my middle-aged parents by surprise.

Looking at her, I feel the urge to take her and run.Far away from here, away from the poison, the legacy, the inevitability.Save her from the childhood that mangled me.

See, this is why I don’t believe in God.What kind of omniscient deity gives a heartless, cold-souled woman like Jhay Byrd anotherdaughter?A god that doesn’t exist, that’s who.

How cruel.

“I’m so sorry, little sis,” I whisper, kissing her soft forehead.“You don’t deserve the life that’s coming for you.”

In response, she kicks her chubby legs and makes tiny baby sounds, so happy to be alive.

“Wha—” A night lamp clicks on, warm light spilling across the room.“What are you—Soraya.How the hell did you get in here?”

Slowly, I lift my gaze.

Mom, who’s been dead to the world for the fifty-plus minutes I’ve been sitting here, is now jolted upright in bed, eyes wide with panic.“Soraya,please, she’s just a baby.”

Of course.She thinks I’m a monster.A psychopath.Someone who’d hurt a newborn for revenge.

“She deserves a better mother,” I say.“One who knows how to protect her daughter.”

“I know,” she admits, then throws back the covers and starts to scramble out of bed.

“Staywhere the fuck you are,” I warn.

She halts, fists clenched in the sheets.

“Babe?”Dad stirs awake.“What’s going—Jesus!” He jackknifes upright.“Soraya…whatare you doing?”

“Heard I have a new sibling.Figured I’d come meet her.”

Mom, still in disbelief that her layers upon layers of security measures failed to keep me out, asks again, “Howdid you get in here?”

“Always asking the wrong questions, aren’t you, Mom?”

“Soraya—”

“What’s my sister’s name?”I cut in.

She hesitates.“Mirabella.”

Mirabella.Pretty name.Wait, that’s Stefano’s mother’s name.Why would she… “Why Mirabella?”

Mom regards me anxiously.Dad leans over to rub her shoulders, calmingly whispering something to her.

After a long moment, Mom sinks back against the headboard with a sigh, tension leaving her body.As though he had to convince her I’m not some evil monster here to off my own sister.

“I know you think I made Stefano leave you out of spite,” she says, “but you’re wrong.It had to happen, Soraya.You, of all people, know how he is about family.It’s his greatest strength… and his fatal flaw.Think about it.The only ones who can truly betray him are those closest to him.Blood.”

She adjusts the straps of her nightgown, voice soft but pointed.“Weare not that.And it’s something he should’ve been eased into.But your father doesn’t know him like we do.And…well, patience has never been his thing.