Twins for the Mafia Heir (The Warwicks #3)

44. Emma

Chapter 44

Emma

T he next morning, Achilles and I wake from what we both swear will be our last night spent in Wesley Hall. As tired as we are, as much as we want to linger in our reunion, we wash up quickly and go downstairs. There are bodies and wrecked pieces of furniture all over the house. The elaborate wood paneling that Achilles once showed me during our tour months ago is ruined in several places. Where men died on the carpet, staff members are already trying to get their blood out of the fibers.

Achilles keeps his arm over my shoulder, and I wrap mine around his waist. Neither of us want to let the other go, and in the face of such a grim aftermath, that instinct is doubled. More than anything, I just want to burn this whole place down and let the ashes fly away, but it’s not my house to do that to.

“What now?” I ask Achilles.

He shakes his head exhaustedly. “We find Marcus’s will and get Piers down here to accept it. Then we go home- you, me, and Sidony.” His eyes lower to mine, his mouth quirking with a smile. “And our newest additions.” He pauses, his smile faltering. “That is what you want, right?”

I reach out the hand I have wrapped around his back, my left hand finding his. My fingertips brush over the rough surface of his wedding ring. I forgot to look for it last night, in all the fear and uncertainty, but he’s still wearing it.

“I never took it off,” Achilles says, clutching my left hand with his. “You didn’t either,” he says, not a question.

“I kept it with me always,” I tell him.

Achilles’s mouth works. He looks around the grim house, the death and the blood and the long cleanup. “This isn’t the goddamn place for this,” he says with irritation.

Despite everything, I laugh.

I might not have had a way to contact Piers from London, but Achilles pulls an old school pager out of a drawer in his old room and sends a message that I have to assume is received. Two hours later, we’re meeting Piers and Sidony on the lawn in front of Wesley Hall.

As soon as she sees me, Sidony runs to meet me, and I dash to her too. When I catch her in my arms, I pull her right off her feet and spin her until we’re squealing with laughter and dizzy as hell. When I lower her back down, we both end up on the grass, still hugging tight.

“Raleigh, I missed you so much!!” she cries.

“I missed you too, kid!” I beam. “I’ve thought about you every day since I left. Oh, but I need to tell you something. When I was here before, I was… working undercover. I had to use a special name so I wouldn’t be caught, and even though I didn’t want to, I had to tell everyone that was my name. I’m not undercover anymore though, so I can tell you my real name. It’s Emma.”

Sidony’s eyes are huge at the idea that I was undercover. “Emma… I like that name.”

“Thanks,” I say, kissing her nose. “I like it too.”

Behind us, Piers looks like he’s ready to stride right into the house, but Achilles stops him with a hand on his shoulder. They speak quietly, stiffly. Piers jerks back from Achilles, but then Achilles holds out a crisp white envelope, and Piers falls still.

It’s Marcus’s will, retrieved from none other than Fantasia’s bedside table.

Piers turns the envelope over and over in his hands, but he doesn’t open it. He’s still looking at the house.

No, I have a feeling he’s looking through it. Imagining he can see a specific person inside it.

We eat a simple lunch on the terrace, making sure to only move around the outside of the house so Sidony won’t have to see any evidence of the violence inside of it. Sidony sits on my lap, making it hard to eat, but I hardly mind. Piers still hasn’t opened the envelope containing his birthright, and he picks at his food.

I’ve never seen him look so pensive, or heard him be so silent.

“What are you going to do with her?” he suddenly asks Achilles, who’s inhaling his sandwich like he hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Which he probably hasn’t.

Achilles takes his time chewing and swallowing. His brown eyes are grave, but he doesn’t avoid his friend’s gaze.

“She will not be accepted by the Ashwood family, and you represent the Warwick family,” he says. As the speaker for the Ashwoods, I realize what he’s saying with a start.

After all the fighting he’s done and the years he’s spent protecting, serving, and raising his sister… Achilles is banishing Fantasia from his own family.

I don’t blame him for such a decision. God knows that if I’d had the power, I’d have thrown my father out of our house even as a child. But I know that for Achilles, this choice wasn’t easy, and I mourn the part of him he had to let go of to make it.

Piers’s jaw clenches, but he nods. “That’s… sensible.”

“Yes, it is,” Achilles says tightly. “What will you do?”

Piers holds his gaze for a long time, then looks up at the lonely shape of Wesley Hall. “I could do a lot with this place,” he says thoughtfully.

“Fantasia won’t let you,” Achilles warns, earning his friend’s glare. “She can’t be allowed to stay, not where she thinks she has even an ounce of power.”

“You want me to exile her,” Piers accuses.

“I want her to be free,” Achilles says instead, and my heart aches for him.

Piers is quiet for a long, long time, but he finally nods.

“Very well,” he agrees. “Exile.”