: Chapter 26

My eyes follow Gia’s as she exits the venue, leaving everyone confused.

Mom in front of me scoffs as everyone begins to mutter amongst themselves. ‘Don’t panic,’ she voices. ‘She’ll be back. She’s just a little scared. It happened to me! I’ll go get her—’

I grip her arm as she tries to leave the aisle we sit in. ‘No, I’ll go.’

She looks at me. And I mean really looks at me. Her eyes say the words I know she wants to say.

I’m her mother, I’m the best person to go.

‘She needs my help,’ she says instead.

She’s doing well hiding the anger she’s feeling, but I know her. The moment she gets Gia alone, nothing Gia truly wants will be listened to.

Dad beside her stands up as well, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘You should let Raelynn take this one,’ he suggests. ‘She’s her sister.’

She ignores him. ‘I’m sure she wants her mother right now.’

Delusional. I lean in close so she can hear me very clearly. ‘The moment you’re alone with Gia, you’ll turn it into a screaming fit. Trust me, you are the last person she wants to see right now. So please, step out of our way.’

With lips pressed into a thin line, her eyebrows bounce up, and she pushes her chair back an inch so I can pass after a few more transactions.

Taking Milo’s hand in mine, I pull us along toward the exit Gia had run out of several minutes ago.

‘Where do you think she’s gone?’ Milo asks as he meets my pace at my side. We walk in sync through the hallway as I figure out an answer to that question.

‘Not sure.’ I pull out my phone from my purse to call her. No answer, of course. If I didn’t want to be found my phone sure as hell wouldn’t be turned on. ‘Can’t be far. She’s in a wedding dress and high heels. She hates heels.’

It doesn’t make sense, Gia was so excited about her wedding for months. She planned it all to the T, and her love, in my eyes, was unmatched.

But it makes me wonder if it was all for show. A show that only our mother was here to enjoy and clap for.

We’ve been looking for her throughout the entire building for nearly fifteen minutes.

Getting into her dressing room upstairs, the last place I haven’t looked, my heels click on the wooden floor below my feet.

‘Gia! Are you in here?’ I push open the bathroom door, empty.

‘Darling,’ Milo says behind me.

I spin to face him, and he points to Gia’s wedding heels. They’re laying in the corner of the room. I let out a sigh.

She swapped them for sneakers, most likely. Meaning she’s outside somewhere.

Sitting down in the pulled-out chair from the desk, I let out a long breath. ‘She could be anywhere.’

‘Perhaps we wait till she appears again? The only person who she might actually want to talk to is you, love.’

‘We don’t know that. I haven’t spoken to my sister—in a real conversation—in forever. After that dinner…’ My words fades. ‘After the dinner, I didn’t talk to any of them until she invited me here. I feel terrible, dropping my abuse on them and then just never speaking to them again. What if she hates me for making her feel guilty? There isn’t really anything she could’ve done to prevent it from happening. What if it’s my fault that she doesn’t want—’

‘Raelynn, my love.’ Milo walks over and drops to his knees in front of me while I sit.

He takes my hand, and I lift my other one to his beard, stroking his rough stubble.

‘It is no one’s fault, and certainly not yours. Telling them what happened to you was what you wanted to do. You are not at fault for a shit of a boy not having any self-control. Do you understand me?’

Moments go by, our eye contact strong before I nod softly. ‘I understand.’

He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses the back of it, then rises and kisses my lips while softly pinching the tip of my chin.

The entire day was spent looking for Gia, no one having any luck actually finding my sister. I worried the entire day, but something in me told me she wasn’t missing; she just didn’t want to be found right now, and that’s okay. Right?

After we left the revenue, Milo and I even drove around the city for a while asking if people had seen a woman in a wedding dress before we headed back home.

No one had seen her, or at least no one cared to say they did. It is New York City. After all, people tend to mind their business around here.

‘She’ll show up, Rae. Lay down, please,’ Milo pleads as he watches me pace his bedroom for the thousandth time.

‘She can’t just go MIA like that; I can’t lay down until I know she okay, Milo, I can’t.’ I wear a change of clothes instead of the wedding outfit I had on earlier, jeans and a blouse, yet I feel beaming hot to my skin.

‘Why is it so hot in here?’

Milo lets out a breathless laugh and slips off the bed to crank down the AC temperature.

‘There,’ he says, walking to stand at my back to wrap his hard arms around my waist. ‘Is that better? Or are there any other ways you’d like for me to cool you down?’ He plants a kiss on my neck.

My heart flutters and I smile for the first time today.

I spin in his hands and hang my arms around his neck. ‘Have you heard from your father yet or from Jenna?’

He shakes his head, his face dropping slightly like he was trying not to think about it all.

‘No, I haven’t. I’ve spoken to my mother on the phone, but that’s about it. I don’t know how long the last treatment will hold for my mother before she can’t afford another one. He’s just biding his time, is all.’

‘Have you gone to see her? Iris, I mean?’ I remember Genesis asking the same question the car the last time we were together.

He shakes his head. ‘No.’

I nod, hugging him tighter when I feel his hands begin to shake on my hips. ‘I have something for you.’

Pulling away, I walk towards the dresser across the room. I’m not sure why I waited so long to show him. Part of me forgot I held possession of it. Digging in one of the dressers to pull out a pair of jeans I wore the day Jenna came to me, my hand slides in the back pocket.

‘What is it?’ Milo questions curiously.

I engulf the engagement ring in my hand and drop the pants, facing Milo. His head tilts.

‘She gave it to me, just in case we ever need the money to move somewhere. To sell it. I think Iris needs the money more than anything right now, though.’

I open my hand and show him the ring. It’s a beautiful one, silver with diamonds that probably cost more than anything I could ever afford.

He stares at it, then at me, hesitating to take it like it might send some underlying meaning that he doesn’t want to send my way.

‘I know it has no connection between you two anymore. You can take it.’

‘There was never a connection, to begin with.’ He whispers. ‘Just a ring.’

I nod, and he takes it from me, uttering a thank you and slipping it in his pants pocket.

We’ll get passed this, these problems, and troubles. and we’ll do it together, we have to.

In my purse, sitting on the bed, the tune of my phone ringing causes the tense moment to break. Milo and I both glance at each other for a moment before I slip around him and reach for the bag to fish out my phone, seeing Gia calling me.

My eyes dart to Milo with a smile, and he gestures for me to answer it.

‘Hello?’ I say after swiping my finger across the screen.

‘RAELYNN!’ I jerk the phone away from the eardrum-popping scream. ‘Are you around anyone?’ Her voice filled with hysteria.

‘Besides Milo, no. Where are you, Gia? What happened?’ I slide off the bed and make my way to Milo. ‘There are dozens of people worried and looking for you. I mean, I almost called the cops.’

She sighs and clears her throat. Then snorts. ‘Oh, Raelynn…’ she starts to laugh. A rough and slurred laugh like she’s been smoking cigarettes since she was a baby. That, or she’s drunk…

My brows furrow in confusion, and I stand up to pace the room. ‘Are you… okay?’

‘I feel better than ever, Raelynn. I feel… free.’

I grab my purse and put her on speaker. What the hell is she on? ‘Where are you? I’m coming to pick you up.’

‘No, Raelynn, I never want to leave here! I met someone, and he’s amazing.’

My brows pull together. ‘Gia, you have a fiancé. You were getting married not even twelve hours ago. What do you mean you met someone?’

‘Oh, come on, Raelynn, you know I didn’t love him. Y-you know it was for Mom. It always is.’ I try to decipher her words as best as I can through the slurs, listening hard to understand. I press my lips together, realizing what she means.

It was a show for her, after all.

‘Where are you.’

‘If I tell you, promise to have fun with us? And Milo — b-because I know your British self is listening — Do you mind buying more drinks?’

Milo shakes his head while laughing silently. ‘Hell, I think Raelynn and I both need a few drinks after today.’

I narrow my eyes, and he raises his brows in innocence.

‘Perfect!’ Gia shouts. ‘Guys! My sisters are getting us drinks!’ The background is booming with music and several other voices mixed together, making them difficult to make out.

But as Gia gets closer to one of the guys, the one she mentioned she met, I assume, the phone picks up a second of his one deep-toned word.

‘Sweet,’ he says.

My brows pinch together.

Then Gia screams and shouts her address on the phone, to which Milo nods. ‘I know that bar. I go there myself sometimes with Logan.’

I don’t acknowledge his sentence. All that swarms my head is the familiarity of the voice that responded to Gia. It was no longer than a second before every other noise drowned him, but even then, it pricked the hairs on my arms up like a chill during winter.

I shake it off, not connecting the voice to anyone I know currently. I’m paranoid.

The sound of Milo’s keys rattles through the room.

Ending the call with Gia, I slip my phone in my purse and fiddle with my tongue piercing, sliding it against the back of my teeth. The doctor told me once that it causes teeth damage or whatever, but it calms my nerves. And right now, I need them to calm down.

For what reason, I’m not sure.

‘Everything alright?’ Milo asks, noticing my shift in mannerism as he opens the front door of his apartment.

I nod and answer with a smile, ‘Yeah. Everything’s fine.’

At least, I think so.