Page 80 of Vows in Sin

I’ll be back with Alessi.

Finally.

I’ll have peace.

I wish I could have told him…

White goes to black.

Then, Reign’s arms are around me.

Strong. Steady. Warm.

My body is shaking, and my clothes are soaked.

Now I’m here. In Reign’s arms. And everything hurts.

He’s speaking, but the words are muffled—blurred by the thunder in my ears and the weight of what I’ve buried for too long. I’m blinking, trying to see him.

All I see is her.

The words pour from me like a dam breaking. “I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there.”

“She’s fine. You got to her in plenty of time, Seraphina.”

But he doesn’t understand. Not yet. But he will.

“My little sister drowned.”

Beneath me, Reign freezes.

28

Reign

She stirs, just barely, and then her hand curls into my shirt like a child clinging to safety.

“I’ve got you,” I murmur, even though I know she can’t hear me. Not yet.

Then, she does.

Her lashes flutter. Her body tenses. “My sister,” she whispers, voice cracked and raw. “Alessi. I called her Sissy. She was only a toddler.”

I listen as I hold her.

“My mom took her to the pool. The two of them. I don’t know why I wasn’t there. Maybe I had a cold. Maybe she needed a break from both of us.” Her voice is trembling. Breaking. “It was a holiday. Lifeguards were off. Crowded pool. But she still went. She brought gin in a water bottle and passed out in a chair.”

Jesus.

“Mrs. Walters used to babysit. But Mom leaned on her too hard. Asked too much. After Sissy died, she stopped. I became the one in charge. I was the one who watched her. Always.”

I push a curl back from her eyes.

“I don’t remember Mom coming home. I don’t remember going to a hospital or anything like that. I only remember Mrs. Walters coming to get me that night, taking me to her musty apartment, telling me I’ll be sleeping on her couch that night.”

“The next day, when mom told me, she only told me…Sissy…was gone. She wouldn’t tell me how it happened. Later at the funeral, I heard the story from Mrs. Walters.” Her voice hardens with pain. “‘Your drunkard mother killed that little girl,’ was the last thing she said to me.”

I grit my teeth, fury curling in my chest.