‘He loves you. And if you explain why you lied, he may just understand and still love you.’
It was foolish, the spark of hope that danced inside her chest. Moreover, it was dangerous.
‘I didn’t lie, I just omitted one detail. And only because they still had no idea at that time what would happen, given the bite,’ she parroted out the excuse she’d been telling herself ever since that morning.
‘You lied,’ Maria stated flatly. ‘And you know it.’
Flávia began to deny, then thought better. She rubbed her hands over her eyes.
‘It’s more complicated than that.’
‘Only if you make it more complicated.’
‘No.’ She shook her head at her sister, her shoulders starting to slump as the fight left her. ‘You’re right. He talked to me about love, but when I got bitten he realised that he couldn’t be with me. He couldn’t put Brady through that if next time I wasn’t as lucky. If next time, the bite is fatal.’
‘Couldn’t put Brady through it, or himself?’ Maria wondered, more to herself than to Flávia.
Either way, Flávia’s pulse kicked up a notch. Had she wanted Maria to argue the point? Somehow?
‘Turns out Jake isn’t so different from Enrico.’
‘He’s completely different,’ her sister refuted instantly. ‘And I know you know that, too.’
‘How? How is it different, Maria?’ cried Flávia. ‘They both ultimately needed me to give up my snakes, my career, to be with them.’
‘Not your career, just the dangerous part. The same bit tha
t you yourself have talked about giving up ever since you found out about the baby. You need to call Jake, Livvy.’
‘Call him and say what?’ Flávia lifted her hand and dropped it against her thigh in despair. ‘That I’m pregnant, but whilst I seem to be okay, the doctors still have no idea how the bite might have affected the baby?’
‘It’s a start.’
‘Right,’ she snorted, but it was more like fear, regret and grief all merging into one harsh sound. ‘So, get Jake to drop everything and drag Brady halfway across the world for a baby that might not even survive.’
‘I think Jake would rather prefer that to being left in the dark, the way he is now,’ Maria pointed out, not unkindly.
‘I don’t think he would,’ Flávia countered defiantly, as if that could somehow quell her jangling nerves.
Frankly, she had no idea what Jake thought. She wasn’t sure she had ever really known. Though her sister didn’t need to know that.
‘I’m telling you, when it comes down to it, there are no differences between Jake and Enrico.’
‘There are lots of differences.’
‘Go on, then. Give me one of them.’
She hadn’t realised how desperately she wanted to make that distinction until she levelled the question at her sister.
‘I’ll give you two,’ Maria replied. ‘First, Enrico gave you an ultimatum a year after he’d already asked you to marry him. Mainly because you didn’t exactly rush to set a date, and deep down he knew that you weren’t as eager to marry him as he was to marry you.’
‘I loved him,’ Flávia lied.
‘No, you didn’t, and you know that. You’re just being obstinate now. You would never have gone to the lengths for him that you went to for Jake these past few months.’
‘I was looking out for Brady, his seven-year-old nephew,’ Flávia pointed out hotly as something swelled up inside her.
Something she couldn’t—or didn’t want to—yet identify.