Page 58 of Sebastian's Secret

“Hey.” Sebastian’s voice beckoned her. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” She forced a half-smile as she retreated from the warmth of his palm. “I’m good.”

“I told you that I’d know if you weren’t telling me the truth, little girl.” Sebastian’s frown disclosed his feelings about the lie. “And that was your first strike.”

“My first strike?” Her heart skipped a beat at his cautionary tone, and even though anxiety knotted in her tummy about what awaited her at the house, she couldn’t help but push her luck with her new lover. “What happens when I get to three, sir?”

“Who says you have three?” He cocked an eyebrow, the gesture absurdly arousing to her orgasm-deprived brain.

“Okay, sir.” Her tone was breathless. “I apologize for lying to you. The truth is I’m a little apprehensive to be back, but I’ll be okay.” The real truth was this was how Rebecca always felt when she came home. The one place that should have been a sanctuary had been soured many years ago.

“I don’t like leaving you if you’re nervous.” His brow furrowed just as his phone whirred from his pocket. Fleetingly, their collective attention flitted to the new notification on the dash, letting Sebastian know that Balthazar had sent a new message.

“It looks like your brother is waiting.” She reached for his fingers and squeezed, trying hard to dismiss the memories of the way his palm had felt as they branded her backside. “I’ll be fine, Sebastian. Don’t worry about me.”

Clearly torn between his loyalty to his brother and his new-found feelings for her, the crease in Sebastian’s brow deepened.

“I mean it,” she insisted, lifting his digits to her lips and kissing them. “The sooner you go, the sooner we meet again later.”

“I suppose.” That seemed to shift something in his head, emotion clearing from his blue eyes as the fingers she kissed, caressed her chin in return. “Remember what I said,” he went on as he turned to face the steering wheel. “I’m here if you need me.”

***

She watched Sebastian drive away before racing up to the house with her heart in her mouth. It didn’t matter that she’d made this journey countless times before, or that she’d been forced to leave during arguments so many times that she could not recall how many. This time was different.

It’s Sebastian.

Her lips twisted as the thought ricocheted in her mind. It was Sebastian. He was the difference, and as she dashed past the grandiose main entrance and darted into the smaller staff door, the knowledge gave her strength.

It would be all right. She would be all right. All she had to do was make it to her room, charge her phone and pack a bag. Food could wait until later. Being back here had stripped her of her appetite anyway.

With a quick wave to Paulina, her family’s long-time cook, she expedited the plan, heading up the back staircase and rushing toward her room.

“Rebecca.”

Her heart almost stopped at the sound of her name, but turning, she knew she had dodged the real bullet. It was only her mother, wrapped in a coral-colored silk robe. “Mum?”

Heart hammering, she stared at her mother. Gloria was a slim mouse of a woman. The family photographs that lined the downstairs hallway proved that she had once been a beauty, but life with Jonas had eroded much of her charm, leaving only a skeleton of the person she might have been. It was as tragic as it was demoralizing.

“Where have you been?” Gloria took a step toward her daughter, her arms opening as though she wanted to embrace her but didn’t have the will. “Your father and I have been worried.”

“Daddy has not been worrying,” she answered through gritted teeth. “His messages tell me that much.”

“You know your father.” Gloria shrugged, excusing her husband’s toxic behavior the same way she had done so many times before. “He doesn’t tell us the way he really feels.”

Rebecca begged to differ, but she didn’t want to argue with her mother. Raised voices would only draw attention to her whereabouts, and anyway, she had no more hunger for discord. Rebecca would never understand her mother’s reasons for staying, for putting up with Jonas’ bullshit, and for exposing her and Oliver to so many years of it, but she was still her mother, and she always would be.

“No.” Rebecca’s voice was resigned.

Too many years and too much toxicity.

“You didn’t answer me before,” Gloria went on. “Where have you been?”

“I’m a grown woman, Mum.” Rebecca lifted her chin in defiance. “I don’t need to tell you.”

“I know.” A glimmer of recognition lit Gloria’s eyes. “But I’d like to know. I have been worried.”

“I’ve been with a friend.” Rebecca sensed her ice queen exterior thawing at the tremble in her mother’s voice. “There’s no need to worry.”