Walking into the café, the first thing I saw was my sister sitting in the back, openly crying as she looked sightlessly out the window.
“Mon,” I called to her and started her way.
She jerked at the sound of her name then blinked in my direction. “Get something to drink. And something sweet to eat,” she instructed. “Then we can talk.”
Cursing under my breath, I walked to the counter and ordered a skinny hot chocolate minus the caffeinated mocha drizzle and two cinnamon-apple scones. By the time I got back to the table where Monroe was sitting, she wasn’t crying, but her eyes were still damp and her face was blotchy. We were not pretty criers, that was for sure, but seeing the evidence of all her tears hurt my heart.
Placing our plates on the table between us, I cupped both hands around my cup of chocolate and sat back. “Tell me why you’re crying, Mon.”
“I’m just as pregnant as you are, Mila,” she murmured with a shrug. “Haven’t you been emotional lately, too?”
Tearing off a small piece of the scone, I threw it at her face. She swatted at it before it could hit her, glaring at me. “Don’t be a brat. You’ve been avoiding me all week. Yes, I’m emotional more often than not, but I don’t sit around sobbing like you so obviously were doing when I got here. You can pull the blinders down over Mom and Dad, but I’m your twin, Monroe. Your other half.” Reaching over, I clasped her hands in both of mine. “I love you. Please, just tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”
“No one can help,” she whispered brokenly, fresh tears filling her eyes. “I messed up. I love him, Mil. I love him so damn much. And I know everyone thinks he’s a monster, but he isn’t anything like his father. I swear he isn’t. I tried to tell Lexa that, but she wouldn’t listen to me. I-I know she has more reason than anyone not to believe me, but he’s a good man.”
“Who?” I asked softly, while inside my head, my mind was going crazy, trying to think who the hell she was talking about.
“G…” She swallowed hard, her hand going to her neck. She wrapped her fingers around that damn medallion, and I realized it was the first time I’d noticed she was wearing it again since she’d returned from Italy. Had she been wearing it this whole time, and I hadn’t realized it? “G is Gian Fontana.”
“Ah fuck, Monroe,” I breathed, sitting back as the realization of who her stalker was hit me with the force of a wrecking ball. “Is he the father of your baby?” I touched my own belly. “It is just one, right? Not twins like me?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t had a scan yet. I-I only did a home pregnancy test a week ago and told Mom and Dad once I knew I was pregnant. I was waiting…”
“For what?” I whisper-shouted. “You could be carrying twins right now. I’m having issues with my blood pressure like crazy. Lyric is a mess, worrying about me every other minute of the day. What if you have issues like that, too? What if something else is going on? We’re identical, Monroe. Identical twins, especially females, are more likely to have twins of their own.”
“I’ll see the doctor as soon as I can,” she promised. “I just have to tell G first.”
“So, tell him already!” I yelled at her.
“I don’t know how!” she yelled back.
“What do you mean, you don’t know how?” I demanded, lowering my voice. “You don’t have his number?”
“I don’t have anything,” she admitted, tears spilling over her lashes. “I woke up in Italy one morning, and he was gone. No note, nothing. I waited for him to come back for days, and he… He never did. We’d had a huge argument the night before, and…” Her cheeks filled with pink, and she looked away. “And when I woke up the next morning, he was gone.”
“The sonofabitch just abandoned you?” I gritted out.
“No,” she denied, her head shaking adamantly. “He wouldn’t do that to me. I know him. He… He…” But her face began to crumble. “I thought he loved me like I love him,” she whispered.
I stood carefully so my blood pressure wouldn’t give me a problem, then sat down beside her. Pulling her head to my chest, I hugged her tightly, rubbing her back as she sobbed into my neck. “Fuck him,” I growled close to her ear. “You don’t need him anyway. We’ll help you through this, Mon. Don’t worry about anything.”
It took me a few minutes to get the tears to stop flowing, and then I fed us both the scones. Using a fork, I would feed her a bite and then take one for myself. She sat with her head on my chest, letting me baby her until the last crumb disappeared.
Our drinks were cold by the time we were done, so
I went and got us new drinks. Coffee was out, so I ordered us smoothies. Once I’d returned to our table, Monroe had gone quiet again, so I distracted her with all the details of the wedding I knew so far.
I’d never been the type of girl who dreamed about a wedding before. I honestly didn’t care what everything looked like and who attended. All I really worried about was not looking fat in my wedding dress, Dad walking me down the aisle, and Lyric waiting for me with the minister. Everything else was immaterial to me.
“Do you think I’m crazy for marrying a guy I don’t even really know?” I asked as we walked out to our vehicles a while later. “River said I was insane for agreeing to marry Lyric so soon.”
She gave me a strange look as she paused between the SUV and her Jetta. “Do you love him?”
“More than I ever thought it was possible to love someone,” I confessed. “It’s kind of scary loving someone this much. Letting him have all this power over my happiness and my heart.”
“Believe me, I know what you mean.” She bit her lip, then shook her head. “No, Mil. I don’t think you’re crazy at all. As long as you’re happy, who cares what other people think?”
I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I love you so much, Mon. You know that, right?”