“Why not? No one knows about me and Caroline invited me here herself.”
I didn’t tell him it was my dream to be included into the heart of the Constantine family. That I’d played pretend as a child at imaginary tea parties with the whole family as my guests.
“That’s what concerns me,” he said, his tone implying I was still being stupid. “She’s…she’s not a good person. If she invited you here, it’s for a reason. I wondered before if it was just to have control over me, but I’m not that important. Uncle Beckett didn’t like it either.”
“Uncle Beckett?” I asked.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, the man with Aunt Caroline at the party? He was Lane’s best friend as an adult. His sister, Emelie, is my mother.”
I frowned as I struggled to map out the family tree and history. Okay, so Beckett was the man in the red scarf I’d seen at Aida’s funeral and he’d been best friends with my dad.
It was obvious he knew exactly who I was and how I was connected to the family.
My heart seized with horror.
“He was there,” I told Elias, reaching forward unconsciously to grip his hand. “He was at my mum’s funeral months ago. I never talked to him, but if he was there…”
“He knows,” Elias concluded flatly, but his hand grasped mine tightly back. “Shit, Bianca.”
“Maybe he didn’t tell Caroline?” I asked optimistically even though there was a lead weight in my stomach that suggested otherwise.
“Maybe,” Elias allowed. “They’re pretty close, though, especially now that Lane is gone. There were even some rumors…”
“Rumors?”
“That they’re together.”
“Fuck.” The curse escaped me on a sharp exhale as I dragged a hand through my tangled hair.
Questions raced through my mind on a continuous loop.
Why was Beckett at the funeral?
Could Caroline know that I was her dead husband’s daughter?
If so, why the hell had she taken me in?
“It just doesn’t seem possible that she would know,” Elias decided at the same time I did. “What would she have to gain from it? If anyone found out the truth, she would be ridiculed for unwittingly taking in Lane’s love child. Caroline wouldn’t stand for any risk to the family reputation. If she knew…well, let’s just say I’m afraid of the woman for a reason. No. I think it’s more likely you are one of her ‘charity cases’ to make herself look good.”
“Yippee,” I said half-heartedly, which drew a laugh from him.
“It’s better than the alternative.”
“True.”
“Still, this is dangerous, Bianca. I don’t think you get that. Caroline is absolutely not someone to fuck with. She’s ended people’s lives in worse ways than killing them, do you understand? She will eviscerate you if she finds out the truth.”
I bit my lip as I fought an inner battle. It was impossible to truly divorce myself from the lifelong dream of being a proper Constantine, especially when Caroline had been nothing but kind to me so far. But the naive girl that had first moved to Bishop’s Landing was dead, stabbed in the back by Tiernan Morelli. I knew better than to blindly trust anyone, even if my dad had once loved and respected her.
I couldn’t imagine Caroline would react well if people discovered the truth of my lineage, but I also couldn’t help hoping that if that happened, it would be far down the line after she might have fallen in love with me for who I was instead of the circumstances of my birth.
“You have dreams in your eyes,” Elias warned me. “Kill them now. I’m going to ask Mom and Dad if you can come stay with us for the rest of the year. You aren’t safe here.”
Warmth and tenderness bloomed in my heart for this beautiful boy who had taken me into his heart so effortless. This was the kind of love I’d always wanted. Uncomplicated and unconditional.
A little voice at the back of my head whispered that that was a lie.
The love I wanted was crooked and kinky, bent into the shape of a tall, dark, and scared man who wanted to fuck me and own me, not coddle and tend to me.
Even as I shut that line of thinking down, it spurred a new truth.
I wasn’t naive anymore.
I wasn’t enamoured with the wealth and glamor of this world.
I knew better.
So instead of cowering––from Tiernan, from Caroline––I would take the bull by the golden horns and make it my own.
Tiernan wanted something from me, that much I knew. To use me as the tool of Caroline’s humiliation, though I wasn’t sure why he harbored such animosity toward her.
And Caroline wanted something too.
Maybe it was just to better her image, a benevolent benefactor for the poor, little orphan girl.
Maybe it was more nefarious.
But I resolved right then, standing in the cold, dark night on the balcony of the Constantine Compound with the world seemingly laid at my feet, that I would find answers. My entire life had been filled with mystery and skeletons rattling around in closets. I was determined to bring them into the light once and for all, regardless of the consequences.
“I’m staying,” I told Elias, clutching both his cold hands in mine and raising them between us as I stepped closer. “They invited me, Elias. I want to know why.”
“You want to die?” he countered brutishly.
“Don’t be so dramatic. Besides, staying here is the best shot I have of getting Brando back from Tiernan.”
“Why don’t you just resolve whatever the hell happened between you and go home?” he protested. “I know he’s a Morelli, but you seemed…happy with him.”
Home and happiness.
Yeah, for a brief moment, like a star falling through the sky, I’d felt both at Lion Court with Tiernan and his motley crew.
But like most wishes made on a shooting star, it hadn’t lasted.
“I’m done with other people dictating my life,” I told him, fury and resolve casing the words into bullets. “I’m almost eighteen years old and I’ve been through…a lot. I’m old enough and strong enough to take this on.”
“Take what on?! The Morellis and the fucking Constantines? People more powerful than you have tried and failed, Bianca. What in the world makes you think you’ll be the exception?” he demanded.
The smile that claimed my face was sly and triumphant, because for the first time in my life, I felt like I had the edge.
“Because everyone will underestimate me, they always have,” I reasoned. “Only this time, I’m only going to act the naïve ingenue. They expect a lamb, and maybe I was before, but now, I’m going to give them a lion. While they’re lulled into a false sense of security, I’ll discover the truth.”
Elias stared at me, eyes hard, almost inanimate, for a long moment. I flinched when he finally raised his hand to push away some of the hair on my right shoulder. He pressed his thumb into the skin of my neck, pushing into the bruise I’d forgotten Tiernan had left with his teeth and lips like a scarlet letter.
“Be careful,” he whispered. “Sometimes, the truth hurts more than the lies.”
“I’m tired of being clueless and taken advantage of when I don’t even know why I’m being used like a pawn.” I felt filled to the brim with conviction, with righteous purpose like Joan of Arc on the eve of battle. This was my fight, so why wasn’t I fighting? It was about time I figured things out for myself and no one, not even Elias, was going to stop me. “I’m doing this, Elias, and I’d like your help, if you’ll give it.”