The Secret (The Evolution of Sin 2)

“I have business in LA for the week.”

“Awkward timing, can’t you reschedule or send someone else?”

“Why would I? This is perfect timing. I fully expect Daniel to come back to his senses after a week without me.”

“Lena…” Cosima murmured, shaking her head as she continued to look into her mug. “You said some terrible things about his character. His pride would take more than a week to recover, not to mention his emotions.”

Elena sniffed. “As always, you underestimate Daniel’s level-headedness. I apologized to him and when I get back, I’ll show him how sorry I am.”

When Cosima didn’t responded, Elena’s mouth rolled into a pout. “You don’t think he’ll forgive me, truly?”

Cosima lifted her head on her hunched shoulders and looked at me for a long second before turning to our sister. “I really don’t know. I don’t even know if this break up is about forgiveness. You may hate me for saying this but, really Lena, are you passionately in love with him?”

She opened her mouth to protest but Cosima held up a hand and qualified, “I mean the kind of love that sucks all the air out of your lungs so that the only hope of getting your breath back is by kissing the man who owns it.”

“Of course,” Elena said, too quickly.

I wondered for a wild minute, if what Cosima implied was true? Could Elena really not be in love with Sin?

It wouldn’t eviscerate my wrongdoings but it would go a hell of a long way to making my selfish self feel better.

“We’ve been through a lot together and in a few months, this crazy period of our lives will be just another thing we overcame. I won’t lose him. We are perfect for each other.”

Maybe that was the problem. Elena and Sinclair were so perfectly suited on paper that there was no room for improvisation, for growth or movement.

“How did you leave things with him?” Cosima asked.

“He’s staying at a hotel and he says he is moving out.” Her lower lip trembled and she bit it viciously to stop it. Then, in a softer voice, “I’ve never lived alone before.”

The three of us shared a moment of silence, all staring into the distance absorbed by our own reflections.

“I have to get going,” Elena said, standing abruptly.

Cosima nodded, standing too in order to embrace her. I watched Elena seep into her arms and I wondered at my younger sister’s ability to coax the best and most beautiful qualities from everyone. I wondered for the millionth time how she and Elena could have such a better, healthier relationship.

“I’ll cab with you to the airport, si?” she murmured to Elena, who closed her eyes and nuzzled closer.

My heart squeezed painfully with the keen awareness of betrayal. At this point, did it matter that I had turned Sinclair down when I had already done so much to orchestrate Elena’s heartbreak?

My phone lit up from where I’d place it on the coffee table, Sinclair name flashing like a neon sign. I grabbed it hastily, aware of Cosima’s eyes on me, and read the text message.

The Frenchman: Meet me at Devereaux’s restaurant in one hour.

I looked up at Elena, small and doll-like in Cosima’s arms, and felt the ugliness of my sin saturate my soul.

I texted him back immediately; okay.

He was at the same table Cage and I had occupied a few weeks ago when we had run into Elena and him on a date. It was cyclical and so totally Sinclair to have chosen it. He stood to greet me with a kiss on the cheek but remained silent as the waiter held out my chair and I settled in. His quietude left me jittery and intoxicated on the emotional fumes I kept bottled up inside me. I couldn’t even begin to guess at why he had invited me for lunch, especially because he had been too angry, so atypically expressive last night.

“I didn’t handle that well,” he began, and I wondered for millionth time how he could do that, switch from human to robot in under a second. “The affair and the secret of it but, specifically, last night when I tried to express my feelings for you.”

“Oh?”

His eyes narrowed slightly at my composure. Inside, I was as nonplussed by it as he was.

“The first time I wanted to tell you, we were in Mexico and you weren’t even awake. I had just netted that enormous fish and I flew up to the second deck to rub your nose in it because you make me feel like a boy and boys do that kind of thing to girls they like. But you were asleep, sprawled out on your stomach with all that coppery hair spilled around you.” He shook his head, shearing himself from the memory. “I was ready to heed your siren song, jump off the side of the boat and into the promise of your arms. But I didn’t know if you felt the same and, maybe even more importantly, I take my obligations seriously and I wasn’t ready to entertain the idea of leaving Elena.”

He cleared his throat and brought a glass of ice water to his lips. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swiftly drank half the glass and I tried not to be endeared by his nervousness.