Page 110 of Thorns of Blood

I’d clipped her wings by forcing her to stay with me. What the fuck was I thinking? I let my heart and desire get the better of me. I let my heart go after what it wanted. Stupid fucking heart.

Goddammit, I needed to get away from this party before I went insane. Maybe I could drive to New York, park myself outside Killian Cullen’s manor, and stare at the house until I could sneak a peek of the woman I’d fallen for.

Pushing off the railing, I made my way inside where the party still raged.

Before I could make my way out of the door, my brothers cornered me. Cristiano was nursing a pint while Romeo held a glass of something that looked like cognac.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Romeo asked. “You’ve been ignoring all my texts.”

“And I have to talk to you,” Cristiano hissed. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for?—”

“Not now.”

“Yes, now,” Cristiano snapped, his anger directed to me. “I think I know why she left.” Now that captured my attention. I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. “Mother was Santiago Tijuana’s mistress while he was married to Liana.”

Nothing could have prepared me for that revelation.

FORTY

LIANA

Amara held both my hand and her mamma’s as we moved inside. We made it through the luxurious foyer, Amara tugging us toward the back of the house.

“We’re moving this little gathering to the living room,” Emory explained with a tight smile.

We entered the cozy room in dual tones of light and dark brown, classical music playing from somewhere, but all my attention was on the two familiar figures on the opposite side. My twin sister and her dark-haired, dark-eyed lover, Kingston Ashford, who was nursing an amber-colored drink.

My next step faltered, my foot freezing in midair.

Our eyes met, shadows of the past dancing around us. Lou let out a strangled, gutting gasp, and then she was running toward me.

In the next breath, she was hugging me to her chest, stroking my hair, and somehow the past eight years faded away.

“You’re here. I can’t—” Her voice cracked. “I’m so sorry.” She was crying into my hair while she kept repeating the words over and over again. “I’m so sorry.”

And I fell apart.

I slipped my hand out of Amara’s and hugged Louisa tightly. I cried ugly tears for maybe the first time ever. All the pain, suffering, and loss of the past eight years unraveled me, or maybe it was walking away from Giovanni, from my first glimpse of happiness, that was my undoing.

“I’m sorry too,” I gasped out, broken words full of despair. If only she knew my sins, my betrayal, she’d turn her back on me. “I’ve made so many mistakes. Did so many bad things.”

“No, Lia,” she growled. She pulled away, shaking me lightly. “You don’t apologize. Ever.” She cupped my face, and it was like peering into a mirror. “We were just girls. You survived.Wesurvived.”

I swallowed. “But you don’t know…” My eyes landed on the child hiding behind Kingston and it wasn’t hard to guess who it was. Their daughter. Another victim of the Marabella Agreements. “There’s so much you don’t know,” was all I could get out.

I was too cowardly to tell her the truth, and I had lost so much. I just wanted to hold on to this… Amara… Louisa… for a bit longer. Before everything was sure to turn to ash.

I got myself somewhat together and took a step back. “What are you doing here?”

“We were in New York, working up alliances, when Giovanni called us and said you might be coming to visit them.”

Of course he did, but that was the reason I loved him. He always did things to make me feel better.

“And we’ve been expecting you for a while now,” Emory chimed in.

I shot Emory a glance. “How so?”

“We’ve had eyes on you ever since you landed in Boston,” she explained, flicking an affectionate glance at Amara. “I suspected you might try to visit my—ourdaughter. Giovanni confirmed it.”