As the words leave Damien’s lips, there’s movement from the hallway, and I turn to find Sandy dressed in just the sweet pajama set that Damien chose for her at the mall. Her hair is a riot of messy chestnut curls, and her lips are pink and plump. My eyes are drawn to her like she’s magnetized, and all I’m constructed of is hastily swept together fragments of iron. By the time I register that Sandy is walking into the middle of a difficult conversation, Luna is already turned in her direction.
There’s a moment of awkward silence.
A moment where the memory of the last time I was with Sandy before Jake’s accident washes through my mind. There’s so much contentment in that memory that it sticks my throat together with longing. I would give everything I have and everything I will ever be to go back to that moment and change what happened next. If I could lie in that bed with my arms wrapped around my sweet girl and her arms wrapped around me, I would. I’d erase the last four years in a heartbeat to get back to that moment.
“Who’s this?” Luna asks, her nostrils flaring.
“I’m Sandy.”
My eyelids drop as though they can shut out everything in front of me, and none of it will be there when they open. Except, when I force them open, everyone is still there, and now they’re all looking at me.
“The Sandy?” Luna says with her head cocked to the side.
She never met Sandy back when we were dating, but she knew about her. She knew that I loved Sandy, and I was planning to ask her to marry me when I had enough saved to buy the kind of ring that she deserved to wear on her finger for life.
I nod, even though I don’t want to. Exposing this fragile thing between us to Luna’s anger and resentment is dangerous. I love my sister, but her tender little heart has become encased in steel since Jake died.
She’s become something abrasive and razor-sharp.
“What the fuck is she doing here?”
A quick glance at Sandy reveals the confusion on her face. She takes a step back as though putting some distance between her and the rest of the room will calm the atmosphere. It won’t.
“She’s staying for a while,” I say.
And as though the universe is conspiring to make things even more difficult, Arden chooses that moment to appear next to Sandy, sliding his hand over her belly and kissing her lazily on the cheek. All before he takes a look at what he’s walking into.
Luna’s lips part with shock at their intimacy, and when she turns to me, her eyes are wide. “She’s with him?”
The bodyguard to Luna’s right clears his throat. They’ve done a good job so far at remaining impassive behind their dark sunglasses. In their black suits, they can almost disappear into the background, but the conversation laced with tension must be getting to them.
“She is,” I say.
“Working her way around you all, is she?” Luna spits. “I can’t believe you put her before Jake…I can’t believe that’s what you sacrificed our brother for.”
The green of her eyes has turned the color of clouds before a storm. They’re fierce enough that I take another step back. I think it’s that small step that sends Damien rising to his feet and Greg striding into the room until he’s standing directly between Luna and me.
The bodyguards surge around her as though me and my boys are a threat to her safety. If anything, it’s the other way around.
“Luna. I respect you as Tyler’s sister, but you need to calm the fuck down and think about what you’re letting leave that pretty mouth,” Greg says.
“What the fuck has it got to do with you?” Luna hisses. “You’re not family. You’re just some ex-con who latched onto my brother when he was weak.”
“LUNA!” Damien bellows. “JUST STOP.”
“STOP?” She laughs as though his very suggestion is the most hilarious thing she’s ever heard. She laughs as though she’s manic, and all I want to do is pull my little sister into my arms and sing the lullaby that she used to love as a baby.
That sweet girl is still in there somewhere, buried amongst the ruins of our lives.
None of what happened is her fault, but she’s the one who’s most affected. “You want me to stop telling the truth? Life’s too short for that.” She takes a step forward, putting her close enough to Greg that he could kiss her if he leaned forward a couple of inches. “I’m done being the person who holds everything inside me until I feel crazy. I’m done pretending that everything is okay. I’ve got a mom who’s always on the brink of killing herself with alcohol or drugs or just fucking neglect. I’ve got a brother in the ground before he had a chance to live. I’ve got a father who’s been AWOL for longer than he’s ever been a part of my life. And now I find out that the brother who should have been responsible for sorting all of this shit out so that it didn’t happen is back with the woman he put ahead of his family. So excuse me if I don’t keep my mouth shut about that.”