The Consequence (The Evolution of Sin 3)

“So, you had nothing to do with this?” I clarified, because I was pretty sure Sebastian needed to be reminded.

He had the wet black look of murder in his suddenly dark eyes.

“No, but I will find out what happened to her,” he vowed, more to Cosima than to anyone else. He leaned closer to her until their noses were almost touching. “And I promise to rip them apart with my teeth, tesoro.”

Chapter Twelve.

There was no way to prepare for something like this. Of course, there wasn’t a handbook that offered advice to adulterers on how to calmly confront the wronged party about their infidelity. How did a person condense their sinful actions, endless excuses and genuine apologies into one carefully constructed monologue? Even if you accomplished such a thing, there was no way in hell the person was just going to sit there and listen to you.

“This is impossible,” I murmured, my hands clutched around my cold cup of coffee.

Sinclair was cleaning up in the kitchenette after our quick breakfast of croissants, baguette and fresh plum jam. Or at least, Sinclair’s quick breakfast. As soon as I had touched a piece of toast to my mouth, I had run to the washroom to throw up. I was still feeling physically ill from the trauma of Cosima’s accident and now from the stress of confronting Elena, it was impossible to keep anything down.

There was a smudge of purple jelly left on the right side of Sin’s mouth that I fixated on as he competently moved around our suite at the St. Regis. I loved to watch the economy of his actions, the contained grace with which he carried his lean build. It didn’t disturb me anymore to know that I could spend hours watching him.

Who needed Netflix when you had a hot Frenchmen to stare at?

Normally, he was enough to distract me, but this morning I was going for coffee with Elena. To call it a coffee date was misleading and wrong, but I didn’t know how else to phrase it except to say that it was a date made to ruin her life and it didn’t have the same ring to it.

We had only been State side for three days, all of which were filled with extended hospital visits to a still-comatose Cosima. It felt wrong to tell the family about our relationship during a time like this but it felt like more of a betrayal to hide it from them during a time like this so I was meeting with her that morning.

“Elle, we have spoken about this. If you don’t want to be the one to tell her, I am more than prepared to do it myself.”

I blinked up at him where he leaned over the other side of the island, his gaze direct and strong. I had no doubt he was prepared to do the hard part for me, in fact, I was sure he would have preferred it.

I shook my head. “No. I’m her sister. We may not get along very well, but I owe it to our family bond to tell her about us to her face. I just don’t know how to go about it gently, you know?”

“I do know. I know that something like this, it cannot be done gently.”

I sighed into my nearly empty mug. It felt doubly wrong to break the news to her given what was going on with Cosima but it was for exactly that reason that I knew I had to do it sooner rather than later. If God forbid something worse happened to Cosima, Sinclair and I would need each other. Besides, we were ready to move forward together and keeping that a secret in the face of everything, seemed reprehensible.

“Giselle,” Sin said softly, rounding the marble counter so that he could take my cheek in his cool palm. “There is no candy coating this. You are in love with your sister’s ex-boyfriend. I do not think words exist in any language that will make that more palatable to Elena.”

God, I hated how true that was.

“We made the right decision, the only decision, but it doesn’t make it seem any less selfish,” I admitted.

His thumb brushed tenderly over my bottom lip before he dipped down to press a kiss there. When he tried to pull away, I abandoned my coffee cup to link my hands behind his neck and clasp him closer to me. He smiled against my mouth before kissing me more deeply, his tongue warm velvet against mine.

“The only thing worse than being so selfish, I’ve found, is not owning it,” he said after a minute, pressing his forehead to mine. “We may have acted immorally but we did it for a purpose, we did it for love, and there is no shame to be felt in that.”