“Of course.” Maya flips her hair and then smooches Mom’s cheek. “We take after the best.”
“Where did you get the sweet talk from, I wonder?” Mom gives Dad a knowing look.
He grins and winks. “Proud of it, princess.”
Maya physically swoons. “You guys are goals! Come on, I want a selfie.”
“You can’t post my face on social media, Maya. You know that’s a hard rule,” Dad says.
She releases a dejected sigh. “Okay, fine. I’ll just keep it to myself. Come on.”
Dad starts to push me toward her, but I shake my head. He throws me a look, but then he gets in the shot for a selfie with Maya.
After she takes it, she pouts. “Are you going to stay mad at me for long?”
I cross my arms and look at the elegant, modern interior of our entrance area. This used to be a lake cottage, but Dad renovated it into this extravagant mansion at the edge of the lake.
Elegant pillars lift the three-story house and provide high ceilings and a symmetrical architectural structure. Tall French windows offer a direct view of the lake and illuminate the space with natural sunlight.
The luxurious mansion is crafted from premium rocks and enjoys an elevated, charming position in the middle of nowhere. Large balconies provide a front-row seat to mesmerizing sunrises and sunsets. Before we left for college, it was our family ritual to watch them together.
Nikolai, Maya, and I often played outside by the garden and swam along the shores of the lake, then splashed each other until we were giggling and out of breath. My twin and I usually conspired against Nikolai, but he often won. And whenever he didn’t, it was only because he felt sorry for us and let us beat him.
He’s often been our knight, but yesterday, he definitely didn’t act like one.
I understand his animosity toward Landon, and I get his need for revenge, but the fact that he shut me out so cruelly still hurts.
I texted Landon on my way to the plane.
Mia: I’m going back to New York to visit Mom and Dad. Maybe this is a good opportunity to put some distance between us.
Landon: Nonsense. The word distance doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. It’s for cowards who don’t know what the fuck they want. I know exactly what I want. The question is, do you?
I didn’t reply to that text.
I couldn’t.
My mind has been a mess since the whole encounter with the Heathens.
“What’s going on?” Mom studies me and my sister closely.
“It’s nothing.” Maya throws her hands in the air. “She’s just being unreasonable.”
I glare at her and she glares back.
She wasn’t supposed to come home with me for this long weekend that coincides with a bank holiday, but she likes to think that we’re twins attached at the hip.
“It’s not nothing,” Dad retaliates. “You weren’t speaking on the ride here, which is unusual, to say the least.”
“Well, Mia is being unnecessarily dramatic.” My sister releases a long breath.
I narrow my eyes on her, but I refuse to reply when she doesn’t even want to admit what she did wrong.
“What’s this all about, girls?” Mom asks. “You know it’s a house rule to talk about our problems so we can resolve them.”
Maya sighs and lets her phone with some fashion design case drop to her side. “Well, Mia has a crush on this British guy who’s more notorious than Satan himself, but she wouldn’t listen to reason when everyone—Niko, Kill, Gaz, and I included—told her that he’s bad news. Like the worst of news, Mom. Imagine Kill on steroids. Yeah, it’s that dire. So Niko decided to take matters into his own hands and teach the prick a lesson, and rightfully so. Kill and Jeremy joined in because, well, remember the part where he could give Satan a run for his money? He actually caused shit with the two of them as well, including hurting Kill because he just wanted to date this guy’s sister. Mia is illogically mad because I didn’t tell her about their plan to teach him a lesson he desperately deserves.”
“Illogically mad?” I sign, my lips curled in what must look like either a snarl or a growl. “Niko told him either he leaves me or he breaks his wrist, Maya! Landon said no, so if I wasn’t there, an artist’s wrist would’ve been broken to pieces. Is that the lesson you wanted to see?”
“Yeah, well, maybe that would’ve taught him to stay in his own lane.”
“Maya!” Mom scolds, her voice rising a little.
“She’s being unreasonable, Mom!” Maya shouts back. “She’s been choosing this idiot Landon over me and Niko over and over again, not caring how the fuck we feel about it. Maybe it hurts. Maybe it makes us feel like we’ve been cast aside, but she doesn’t seem to care!”
I swallow, my heart beating fast and erratically. This is the first time in over a decade that Maya has been this mad at me.
Ever since the incident, she’s often treated me with kid gloves and overwhelmed me with overprotection. The current situation is far from that.
Dad grabs us each by the shoulder in a firm fatherly hold and softens his tone. “I think we need to sit down for this. How about coffee or tea?”
“Yeah. I have your favorite strawberry pudding.” Mom proceeds to the massive open-floor kitchen that’s every cook’s dream.
Dad pulls out my chair like the gentleman he is. Seriously, considering his very British accent, his style, and the way he carries himself, no one would suspect he’s actually the most lethal human weapon anyone could cross paths with.
Maya and I sit across from each other and we avoid one another’s gaze as Mom pours both of us coffee. Dad brings out the pudding from the fridge and places one serving in front of each of us, then he sits beside me.
Mom settles beside Maya and places her arms on the table. “Okay. Now that we’re more settled in, let’s talk in more detail. Is there a reason why you didn’t tell me you were in a relationship, Mia?”
“Because he’s a psycho who actually physically hurt Niko and Kill, that’s why,” my twin says. “She was ashamed of him, as she should be.”
“Maya,” Dad says in a warning tone. “The question wasn’t directed at you. Don’t speak on your sister’s behalf when she’s fully capable of that.”
Would it be too cheesy to jump Dad in a hug? Probably. I just can’t help feeling grateful for his important form of validation of my voice, as nonexistent as it is, especially after Niko ignored me not too long ago.
“Is that true, Mia?” Mom asks.
“Partially,” I sign. “I didn’t mean to start this relationship, and I certainly didn’t think it’d last this long. The facts are, Landon did hurt Nikolai and Kill, but they hurt him back, you know. It’s not like they sat there and played poor victims. Besides, I did break up with him when I thought he was going too far, but he made a promise not to hurt anyone and to offer a truce. He kept both and I couldn’t stay away anymore. He’s the only man I’ve ever felt comfortable and safe with. I know he’s different, but I’ve come to the realization that I’m different, too, and I’m finally fine with that.”
I stop before I blurt that I love him.
Then it hits me.
I actually do love Landon. The fact has become clear after the time we’ve spent together lately.
Is it love if I worry about him more than myself and feel a black hole forming in my chest the more I don’t see him?
I think it is.
Shit.
When the hell did this feeling start and why am I having the epiphany now?
“But he’s bad news!” Maya slams her hand on the table, causing the cups to shake and her coffee to spill over the side. “You can’t possibly be thinking about staying with a psycho like him.”
“His sister stayed with Kill just fine, so does that mean you think it’s okay since he’s our cousin but the other way around isn’t? What type of double standard is that?”
“She has a point,” Dad says as Maya’s face scrunches up.
“I still don’t like him and won’t approve of him,” she says.
“You know I love you and I would appreciate it if you’d accept my decision, but even if you don’t, that doesn’t mean I’ll break up with him due to your and Niko’s over-the-top protectiveness.”