The Secret (The Evolution of Sin 2)

His shoulders were nearly at his ears with tension and I watched as he tugged his hands through his hair so that it stuck up at funny angles. “Tate wants to produce my film.”

“And that’s a problem because?”

He didn’t answer me immediately; instead, he leaned against the fridge and stared out the window into the darkening cityscape.

“Rumor is, she’s sleeping with Jace Galantine.”

I winced because even I knew who Jace Galantine was, award-winning actor, modelizer and all-round stud. He graced the cover of so many magazines, gossip rags and movie posters that I hardly went a day without seeing his gorgeous face plastered to something.

“I’m sorry, Seb,” I murmured, placing a hand on his tensed arm. “I mean, she is married too so how much more can this hurt?”

I knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it left my lips.

He swung his vibrant gaze to me and glared. “Well, I guess I know where you stand on infidelity.”

I bit my lip and focused on not looking over at the silent Sinclair currently assembling the meal from Dean & Deluca’s onto serving plates.

“I’m sorry,” Elena said as she came into the kitchen with Mama’s arm tucked through her own. “I wouldn’t have invited Savannah if I knew you two were fighting.”

“What?” Sebastian snapped, rounding on her like a provoked bear.

I placed a gently restraining hand on him again and spoke softly, “Why would you invite Savannah Richardson?”

“She is a good friend, no?” Mama asked. “She used to come for the dinners always and now, we never see her.”

I peered up at Sebastian. His face was deeply etched with pained anger and I suddenly understood the need for Sinclair’s perfectly composed mask; how horrible it must be for Sebastian to have his emotions so clearly displayed for others to see.

Elena noted it with triumph, a sly smile corrupting her pretty mouth. “Should I call and ask her not to come, Sebastian? Her husband is away on business so she would be banished to a Thanksgiving dinner for one…”

I squeezed his bicep and watched him swallow hard before saying, “You’ve already asked her. We wouldn’t want to be rude by uninviting her now.”

Elena nodded curtly but her lips twitched down and I wondered, not for the first time, how she could be so callous towards her own family.

“Why doesn’t everyone sit down?” Sinclair suggested. “The food is hot, the wine is breathing and the last of our party should arrive soon.”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang and Sebastian shrugged off my hand to go answer it. I followed behind him, eager to escape the messy atmosphere left over like an oil spill in the kitchen.

“Cosima,” I cried out, when I saw her step through the door and into Seb’s enthusiastic embrace.

Despite my cry, the twins hugged silently for a long minute, dissolving into each other more and more with each second as the tension they had both been holding dissipated. There was that deep understanding of another person that I so badly craved. It didn’t need to be romantic but the closest I had ever come to elementally knowing some one like that was with Sinclair and as I thought of him, a yawning abyss of loneliness blossomed in my heart.

I noticed someone emerge from the other room in my periphery and turned slightly, surprised to see Elena standing mute in the other doorway. Her expression was soft, almost soggy with longing and I knew it reflected the same emotions in my own face. I didn’t feel a kinship with her over our mutual exclusion though, mostly because I had spent years trying to encourage the same closeness between us and only been met with failure.

/>

“Mia famiglia,” Cosima cried, as she stepped away from Sebastian and grinned at the rest of us. “It wouldn’t be quite the party without me, would it?”

She stepped forward to embrace me next and spoke softly, for my ears only. “And I had to rescue my sister from spending another night here, hmm?”

I tried not to stiffen at her insinuation but she only laughed and squeezed my frozen shoulders reassuringly before moving on to kiss the next family member.

Within minutes, everyone was listening raptly to the story she told about a frazzled mother’s young children asking to braid her hair into corn rows on the flight, and the previous uneasiness in the apartment was banished by laughter.

Dinner proceeded without a hitch and I don’t know who was most surprised by it. Savannah Richardson arrived demurely, Sebastian was able to keep his calm and react neutrally, even excellently, to her presence by becoming the life of the party. After an initial comment about the food not being as excellent as her own, Mama settled into her matriarchal spotlight with good grace and bantered hilariously with Cage and Santiago who both seemed to delight in flirting outrageously with her.

Even Elena was quiet, smiling instead of contributing, even though I knew Cage’s outrageous arrogance and bawdy humor grated on her nerves. She sat beside Sinclair and at one point, reached over to take his hand but otherwise, the two didn’t talk. It didn’t give me much hope because Sinclair barely looked my way and instead, spent most of the evening talking to Cosima. I felt a curious kind of jealousy when she made him laugh.

We had already presented the pie and tiramisu when the first bomb dropped.