Leo leads me past the bodyguards lined up in the foyer. The lights have been dimmed for the evening. My veins don’t have enough space for how excited I am. My face is hot before we get to the dining room door.
It’s hot before I hear the voices.
Because there is music coming from the dining room, filtering out into the hall, and voices. Someone laughs. It sounds like a party.
We turn the corner into the dining room.
I stop dead in the doorway.
Leo has decorated his dining room for me before. It’s a private space, but it’s not particularly small. He could have a table for twenty in here, if he wanted. Instead, he’s filled the room with the most beautiful party I’ve ever seen.
White and gold balloons are absolutely everywhere. The ceiling has been draped in gold and white, making it look both taller and more intimate somehow. Tiny lights run along the draping like stars. Those lights spill down behind a three-tiered cake in the corner. It’s wrapped in white fondant with gold-dust roses painted across. Nearby is a small stack of gifts, also in gold. And all this beauty, all this love, is just the backdrop for what else he’s done.
In the middle of it all, framed by gold and white, are his siblings. Daphne’s here, a glass of champagne in her hand, but she’s not talking to Eva. She’s talking to Elaine. Elaine, who laughs again. Eva stands nearby with Lucian, gesturing at him with her own glass of champagne. He has one hand up and is talking over her wearing a handsome, devilish half-smile that has to be intimidating in the real world. Not to Eva.
Every one of them is dressed for my party in black with gold accents. A gold headband glints in Daphne’s hair. A gold necklace shines around Elaine’s neck. Eva’s hair is held in its elegance by an arrangement of gold hairpins, sprays of flowers and leaves winking in the light.
“I couldn’t give you a Constantine birthday.”
I look up at Leo and find him watching me, and I know he’s been watching me since we arrived at this room. I can feel him waiting for my reaction. I can feel his hope, and underneath that, his worry that this isn’t enough.
“I wanted—” He clears his throat. “I would have made it a bigger party, but I couldn’t find a safe way. That was the most important thing. I trust the people here.”
“You invited your family.”
“I know. It’s not what you wanted, but—”
I reach up and cover his mouth with my hand. Tears gather at the corners of my eyes but I breathe through them. “You offered me your own family and I—” He takes my hand away and kisses my palm. “You’re a prince. And I want all of you. They’re a part of you. Even when it’s hard.” My chin starts to tremble but I stop it through sheer force of will. “I don’t need a bigger party. They count for thirty people. Maybe a hundred.”
He runs the pad of his thumb over my cheek. “Cry for me later, darling. Not now.”
I hold my breath for a count of three. “I’m not crying now. This is perfect.”
“Lucian, shut up, she’s here,” Daphne says, and I was right. There are only a handful of them, but they sound like a full ballroom when they shout happy birthday. Daphne comes to pull me into the room, and it doesn’t matter that it’s a small party. I’m surrounded by joy. Everyone gathers around to see my reaction to the cake. Eva puts champagne in my hand. “I was promised dinner,” Elaine says after she kisses my cheek. There’s a table set up at the other side of the room, and I already know it won’t be like the first dinner we had together. There’s no awkwardness now.
Because.
They were raised to attend parties. To be a credit to their family. But this isn’t a show. This is real.
“Presents first or dinner first?” asks Eva. The music is just loud enough for atmosphere, not so loud it drowns her out.
“Dinner,” I answer quickly, before anyone else can. They’re already doing so much for me. I don’t think I can stand here and open gifts without actually starting to cry.
“Then let me get the last guest.” Leo presses a kiss to my hair, and then he goes for the door.
Daphne takes my arm. “Do you like it? There are a lot of balloons, and that’s partially my fault.”
“I love it. It’s—” Of course I loved my birthdays with my family, with the box cake Petra would make and the gift Cash would bring me from the corner store. Of course I did. And I won’t say a word against them. “I’ve never had a party like this before.”
She grins, and then she looks past me. At that moment Leo arrives behind me and puts his hand on the small of my back. I turn toward his touch, and over his arm, I see who he went to retrieve.
Cash stands a few steps inside the door of the dining room in a suit like Lucian and Leo are wearing, his lips pressed together, hands in his pockets.
I step out of Leo’s arm and rush across the room to him, fast as I can go in my heels. Cash tenses as I get close. “Haley—”
“Hi.” I throw my arms around him, careful not to squeeze. It hasn’t been long enough for his ribs to heal. My heart fills. Bursts. I missed him. Cash hesitates another moment, and then he puts his arms around me and pulls me close. “You were almost late for dinner.”
“Yeah, there was a surprise dress code,” he teases. “They made me change into it before I came inside.” He takes a deep breath. “Are you pissed?”
“I’m hungry,” I tell him, stepping back to look at Cash. He looks good. Tired, but okay.
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant. We don’t have to talk about all that at the party.” I squeeze his hand. “I know you wouldn’t have done it if you had a choice. Will you sit next to me at dinner?”
Cash does sit next to me at dinner, with Leo on my other side, and Eva works a kind of magic over the table so there’s no lull in the conversation. Not a single awkward moment, though Cash stays quiet. They can’t quite draw him into the conversation, and he can’t quite open up to them. It’s no one’s fault. They’re all trying.
Afterward, they all stand close while Leo lights the candles on top of my cake. Daphne produces a camera from somewhere and takes a million photos of me blowing out the candles with Leo at my side. Cash is the first one to start singing the birthday song, but it turns out all the Morellis can sing. It’s the most beautiful, in-tune version I’ve ever heard.
After that, there’s dancing. I’m drunk on champagne, and Leo is a good dancer, and the only reason anyone stops is to talk in pairs or threes. Midway through the night, I meet Cash on the quieter side of the dining room. Leo and Daphne are talking by the gift table. Lucian, Elaine, and Eva stand nearby, the three of them close together.
“Hey, Hales,” says my brother.
“I didn’t think you’d want to come,” I say, a little too loud. Too much champagne, probably. Too much honesty. But it’s my birthday.
Cash looks away. “Of course I wanted to come. You’re my sister. But Leo…” He shakes his head. “I don’t like him. I don’t trust him. But if you do…” He pauses, gathering himself. “If you do, then that counts for something.”
For the hundredth time tonight, tears well up in my eyes. “Thank you.”