“What happened to her?” Kenzi bites the inside of her cheek nervously. “What really happened to Libby?”
“Matthias didn’t tell you?” I ask. I thought he would have told her what happened that day, but Kenzi shakes her head.
“He says it’s your story to tell.”
I tap my fingers against my coffee mug. Its warmth has faded out over the time of our conversation, but it still gives me comfort. I imagine it is Matthias’s warm hand wrapped in mine as I tell her how Libby was murdered by her own brother.
Because of me.
When I am done, she simply nods, sadness and pain sweeping through her eyes as she stands abruptly from the table. “I need to go.” That is all she says before she takes off from the dining room, her steps barely making a sound on the wooden floor.
I take another sip of my coffee that is now lukewarm and tastes like ash in my mouth.
That is a first.
“She’ll be back, lass,” my father assures me as he takes her empty seat. The maid is already busy cleaning up the dishes we finished with. “Just give her time to fully process everything.”
“I spent so long being angry and wanting revenge that I never bothered to think about what she went through.” A sob tears through me, my chest aching. “I can’t imagine it, and she did it all alone, thinking no one cared about her. She was—I failed her. I was supposed to look out for them, and I failed them. They shouldn’t have…” I hiccup. “I could have…”
My father takes the trembling coffee cup from my hands and sets it on the table. He pulls me into him, my head resting on his shoulder as he rubs my back in soothing circles.
“You couldn’t have prevented what happened any more than I could have stopped what happened to your mother,” he murmurs in my ear, the voice of reason in unmitigatedchaos. “We were manipulated and controlled by forces we never thought would be at work against us.”
“She never got to say goodbye,” I sob. “Kenzi never got to hear her voice again. Her laugh. We never even knew anything was wrong.”
He doesn’t say anything after that because he knows there are no words that can soothe my battered soul. I’ve taken hit after hit since being forced back from that little no-name town in Texas, and I just want it to end. For all of us.
Then it hits me.
Kendra is complicit in selling her daughter to the highest bidder. She knew all along what happens to her.
Pulling back from my father’s embrace, I wipe at my eyes and straighten my shoulders.
“Where is Kendra?”
His brow furrows at my question, but he doesn’t hesitate to tell me.
“She has been staying with Dante Romano, according to our sources.”
I curse under my breath.
“Why?”
“Christian may have been responsible for Libby’s death directly.” I stand up, pushing the chair back behind me, the legs scraping noisily on the floor. “But Kendra failed to protect her, just like she failed to protect Kenzi.”
“You think she’ll make a play for her?” he asks, following me out of the dining room.
I nod. “Christ. I’ll call Matthias. He is with Dante, meeting Augustu La Rosa.”
Nodding, I grab a pair of my old shoes by the elevator and press the button for the parking garage.
“What are you planning to do once we get there?” my father asks as we step into the elevator. It jolts before moving. “She has a considerable head start. Kendra might be dead already.”
“Who says I am going to stop her from killing Kendra?” I wink at him and walk off the elevator. “I am going to hold her down while she pulls her hair.”
“That sounds oddly specific.” He looks at me askance.
“Lara Mesgrove was a bitch.” I shrug nonchalantly. “She had it coming.”