by Amelia Wilde
“I know,” she answers. “Eva told me. She wouldn’t let me come over.” Daphne clears her throat. “She said he wouldn’t want me to see him like that. Which isn’t fair. He’s my brother, too. He keeps me at arm’s length and then he turns around and makes me live here for safety.”
“My brother helped Caroline kidnap me.”
“Jesus.” Daphne’s quiet for a long time. “Leo said you went out to meet him. He didn’t say—”
“He didn’t say that Cash called me and asked me to come. Caroline’s man beat him up first and made him do it. That’s why I went outside in the first place.” I breathe slow and deep. I’m not going to screw up this makeup. This party. “I don’t know what point I’m trying to make. Just that brothers are complicated sometimes.”
“So things are not easy with your family.”
“No. I talked to Eva about this when Leo was sick, and she said I would have to choose between them and Leo. After everything that’s happened, I’m worried we’ll never have any peace. I’m worried she might be right.”
“She won’t be.” Daphne sounds confident about this, at least. “Not if Leo has anything to say about it. He always gets his way.” She knows it’s not true. I know it’s not true. But it’s a step onto lighter ground, which is where we’re supposed to be for a birthday makeover. “My collector has been texting me.”
“You can open your eyes,” says the stylist, and when I do, I find a completely neutral, friendly expression. I would bet anything that she’s deliberately not paying attention to our conversation. It’s probably part of her contract.
“Have you texted back?”
“No.” Daphne bites her lip. “I don’t know what to say. Leo would be pissed if I told him where I am, so I haven’t said anything.” She groans as her stylist applies a rosy shimmer to her cheeks. “He’s not a bad guy. Leo should settle down.”
“I don’t think that’s in his DNA. How long are you going to hide him, though? Do you have a secret name for him in your phone?”
“Collector,” says Daphne. “Obviously.”
I laugh harder. The stylist quirks her lips and waits for me to stop. “My sister had a boyfriend when she was in high school. She didn’t want my dad to know who it was, so she saved him in her phone as a smiley face emoji. It was funny because her face made that same expression every time he texted her.”
Daphne grins, her dark eyes lit up. “Did they run away together? Get married?”
“No, they didn’t make it past senior year. She married someone that was Constantine approved. An investment banker.” Jeremy Rand seems nice enough, in a severe kind of way. He manages the finances for most of the Constantines. Except for my father, of course, who doesn’t have enough money to manage. He has strict ideas about what Petra should wear and say and do. “I miss her, but I feel like I don’t know her very well anymore.”
“Yeah,” says Daphne. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t know anyone at all.”
“You know me. What you see is pretty much what you get.”
Her smile crinkles her eyes. “No way. You look like a Constantine—you are a Constantine—but you’re kind. And you look quiet and soft, but when you’re with Leo, he listens to you.”
Something about her voice makes me reassure her. “He listens to you, too.”
She makes a face. “No, he doesn’t. He just tells me what to do. You have a stalker, Daphne. Move in with us, Daphne. Don’t get murdered, Daphne.”
“Well, the last one seems like good advice,” I say, unable to hold back a laugh.
“I’m a grown woman, but he treats me like I’m a child.”
“He cares about you. That’s why he’s so protective.”
“Overprotective,” Daphne says. “I mean, the whole idea is offensive. Someone likes my paintings, so they must be a crazy stalker?”
“I’m sorry,” I say, not because I think Leo is wrong about this collector. More because I can see the hurt in Daphne’s eyes. It’s painful not to be taken seriously by your family.
“Whatever,” she says. “Enough about Leo.”
“Enough about him,” I agree. “He’s not interesting in the least. Besides, I want to hear more about this collector. There’s something in your voice when you talk about him.”
“He likes my paintings. That’s all.”
“Maybe,” I say, my tone noncommittal. “Maybe he only cares about your paintings, but what about you? Do you only care about him as a customer?”
Her cheeks turn pink. “I don’t know. How are you supposed to know?”
The jumble of feelings I have for Leo rises—the love and the hate, the frustration and the fear. He’s everything good and hopeful in a dark world, but he would hate to hear me say that. “I think if you don’t know how you feel about him, he’s already more than a customer.”
Chapter Eighteen
Haley
Daphne leaves me alone to get dressed. The stylist stays to help me. It’s a good thing, because it’s a fancy gown and I need her help to get it over my head without smudging my makeup. She does the zipper, fluffs the fabric, and turns me to face the mirror.
“Wow.” I can’t stop looking at myself. “You did a good job.”
“You were an easy client,” she says with a smile. “Beautiful from the start.”
I look like spun gold. He’s chosen a gold gown with layers of gossamer fabric that float and shimmer in the light. My hair is in soft curls, perfect and shining. My makeup is darker than the dress. More dramatic. I have to blink with purpose to keep from crying. I’ve always told myself it wasn’t important to have expensive clothes and nice makeup. And it isn’t. Not really. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want it. My cousins always looked so gorgeous at Constantine parties. They looked like something out of a dream. More than anything, I wanted the dream. I know now that it couldn’t have been real. People’s lives aren’t the way they look at parties.
One night would have been more than enough. And now Leo’s going to give it to me.
The stylist helps me into my shoes and sends me out.
Leo waits for me at the top of the stairs. He’s looking down as I approach, his head bowed almost as if he’s praying. He stands in a dark suit, black on black like always, except tonight he has a gold pocket square. I can tell, even from several feet away, that it’s made from a piece of my dress. Black and gold. His eyes brought to life. Everything about him is sharp and beautiful, like a breath of winter deep in the night. The sight of him wakes me up. Trips all my nerves. Pulls them to him. He has my heart tucked in his pocket with that flash of gold. So much beauty to hide so much pain.
My dress makes a soft sound, and he looks up. Sees me. His lips part, and his entire face—
It reminds me of when his painkillers kicked in in the hospital. A change came over him. Only this time he’s not slipping into unconsciousness, he’s throwing the door to himself open wide. Astonishment flares in his eyes, followed by want, and he shakes his head a little. Disbelief that I’m here. That I’m real.
I feel like a dream.
He stands tall as I come to him and takes my face gently in his hands. “Look at you,” he breathes. “You’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
It takes my breath away, and my voice, and all I can do is smile at him until he leans down and kisses me. He tastes like starlight and fire. I never want to stop, but eventually he laughs. “I won’t let you miss your own birthday party. Come on.”
There are no nerves like the frantic butterflies I get descending the staircase on his arm. For once in my life, I feel exactly right. Dreamlike. But Leo hasn’t said a word about the guest list, if there is a guest list. Having other people at the party besides Daphne is too much to hope for. I don’t let myself hope.
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.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t think Caroline is going to give up anytime soon.”
We both let several moments go by in silence. What Caroline’s doing is going to end up affecting both families in the room, one way or another. She’s already done enough damage. I don’t want her to ruin the fragile peace we’re building.
“I’m glad you’re here.” I look Cash in the eye. “Really glad. It means a lot to me, Cash.”
He nods, glancing down, and I’ve never seen him so hesitant. So out of his depth. He was the sibling who was best at the Constantine parties. Cash takes a deep breath and narrows his eyes conspiratorially. “Want to dance?”
“Only if you promise not to step on my feet.”
Cash takes one big step away and starts dancing. He’s slightly stiff. His ribs must be hurting him. It takes weeks for ribs to heal. “I never stepped on you,” he says. “But you did elbow me in the face once. Remember that?”
He reaches a hand out and spins me toward him, and we dance.
“That was an accident. I thought there was a bu
g.”
“I barely survived,” he says seriously. And then Leo is there, taking me in his arms.
I stay in this golden, glittering dream, hoping it never ends. The cake is so good I could cry. The presents, wrapped in thick gilt paper and glittering bows, contain expensive, luxurious gifts. I unwrap my first-ever Louis Vuitton clutch while Daphne leans over to see and my face turns hot, then hotter.
There’s everything I could have wanted for a birthday party, but even in my wildest dreams, I never could have conjured up Leo Morelli. He watches me with those dark eyes, the ones that scared me at the beginning. They seemed full of violence. Now I know it’s true. He promises a million sleepless nights, holding me, hurting me. This birthday is more than a special day. It’s a milestone, one where I’m no longer a little girl. I’m a woman now, and I’m not afraid.
Chapter Nineteen
Leo
Haley is pink and pleased after her party, and so exhausted she falls asleep the moment her head touches her pillow.
I, on the other hand, cannot sleep. The pain is too much. It’s set off by stress, and I can’t relax about it until after the meeting is over.
The next day comes too early all the same.
Cash wasn’t the only Constantine I made contact with in the run-up to the party. Haley’s brother was the more difficult call. He didn’t believe there was going to be a party at all. The only way to convince him to come was to offer him his own personal bodyguard. Fine. Done.
In the car on the way to the city in the morning, I wish the second call hadn’t been so easy. It was too fucking simple. Like it was meant to be.
I invited Cash to Haley’s party because I had to. If I’m going to make this work for her—if I’m going to make being with me work for her—then I’m going to have to solve all these problems with her family. Isolation from them would break her heart. So I arranged for Cash to attend. I just need her to see that she doesn’t have to choose.
