Minutes pass as Lilith trembles, her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. Seeing her broken and human dissolves the last of my anger from the argument with Oliver.

We’ve never been close. She’s treated me like a rival from the start, but now we’re just two women sitting outside a door that won’t open, drowning in the same insurmountable grief.

Eventually, she lifts her eyes to mine, red-rimmed and swollen at the edges.

“I don’t know how to do this.” Her voice splinters as she lays a hand across the swell of her belly “Sebastian’s supposed to be here. You were supposed to raise her with him.”

I blink back tears. “It’s a girl?”

She nods, wiping at her face with trembling fingers, smearing the black streaks even more.

“I’m a disaster. I’ll make a terrible mother. I can’t do this without him.”

Empathy aches in my throat. “What about Vance?” I tiptoe the question out, testing the fragile ground of her complicated love life.

She gives a bitter laugh. “He won’t even look at me.”

“Because of the pregnancy?”

“Vance is…” The flutter of her wet lashes sends more moisture tracking down her cheeks.

“I hurt him too much. He’s prideful and possessive, not the kind of man you toy with and then ask to raise another man’s child.”

I recall the way they tore at each other on his birthday. He made me watch them that night, and yet I’d felt like an interloper, catching a glimpse of something volatile and private, a combustible coupling of two possessed souls.

“Have you asked him?”

“There’s no point.” She lets a beat pass. “We can’t marry. There’s no future for us.”

There’s so much I want to say. I could tell her she’s not as alone as she thinks she is.

Landon’s trying to redraw the lines, and if he, Liam, and the others succeed, the houses will finally be allowed to intermarry.

And then there’s the truth of all truths to break this delicate moment wide open…

She’s my half-sister.

But I don’t say any of it, leaving Landon to decide when it’s time to bring Lilith into the family secrets.

All I can do is reach for her hand, free of pride or judgment, my fingers lacing with hers as we both struggle through the pain.

“Talk to him,” I finally say. “Vance is completely in love with you. Don’t let another day go by without honoring that. You never know when fate might rip it away.”

“Why are you being kind to me?” She turns toward me, raccoon-eyed and vulnerable in a way I’ve never seen before. “I’ve been horrendous to you.”

“So was Sebastian in the beginning, but I saw him.” I pause, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “I see you, Lilith. Vance will, too.”

14