“Daddy, we’re going to make everyone late,” Monroe tried to soothe, putting on a smile I seemed to be the only one who noticed didn’t reach her eyes. “I promise we won’t go anywhere without each other. And Tavia will be with us. Along with all those guards Theo never lets her leave the house without.”
Dad scrubbed his hands over his face, and I could see him trying to come up with some excuse to make us stay behind while everyone else went out to the clubs. The guys were going one way, the girls the other, which was another reason he wasn’t liking the idea of my sister and me leaving the Vitucci mansion.
Maverick wasn’t going to be there to watch over us, and he was just as bad as Dad when it came to being overprotective. I was actually surprised he’d agreed to go with the guys, though, seeing as River was going to be with us girls and he didn’t like it when she was out of his sight for even a second.
Not that Dad knew that. Mom and River’s mom barely knew, mostly because they didn’t want to know. No one ever talked about it, so I doubted her dad and ours suspected anything.
Because if they did, Uncle Colt would never let River out of the house. Or my brother within ten feet of his only child.
River was only seventeen, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from joining in the fun tonight.
“Okay, sweet pea,” Dad said to Monroe. He pulled her in for a hug, kissing the top of her head, and I watched as she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his chest and inhaling deeply. Her shoulders shook ever so slightly before she released him, and for a moment, I wanted to grab her and demand she tell me everything right there in front of Dad.
> “Have fun,” Dad told her before he dropped a kiss on top of my head. But then he pointed a finger in my face again. “Watch your sister.”
I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. He acted like she was years younger than me rather than just two minutes. We were the same age, for fuck’s sake, yet he and everyone else treated her like she was an infant.
Not that I could really judge. I did the same thing a good bit of the time. There was just something about Monroe. Something delicate. Something…precious.
“See you tomorrow, Daddy,” Monroe told him as she took my hand and pulled me out the door.
All the other girls were already in the back of the limo waiting in front of the mansion. All the other girls except for Nova. She was too young to go with us, not that she cared. She was up in the room that was considered hers when she visited her mom’s family every summer, with the one person in the world I figured she couldn’t live without—Ryan.
As soon as my ass slid over the buttery soft leather of the limo seat, a guard shut the door and the driver pulled away from the mansion. Tavia’s soon-to-be sister-in-law handed us each a glass of champagne and made some lame toast.
I drained my glass then watched with my mouth gaping open as Monroe did the same after only a small hesitation. Fuck, she was going to get plastered if she wasn’t careful, and it was only one glass of weak, bubbly alcohol.
“Mon, take it easy,” River said, eyeing my sister with just as much concern as I was, her glass going untouched. “You haven’t even eaten.”
I took the full glass from River’s hand and drained it. “We need to get some food in you, ASAP. Tavia,” I called out, and she turned from talking to Theo’s cousins Zariah and Ciana. “This club we’re going to serve food? Monroe is going to be trashed in two minutes flat if she doesn’t eat soon.”
“No, but we can stop for something if you want,” Tavia assured me, her eyes going to Monroe with concern. “What would you like? I’ll even have the driver go through a fast-food line if that’s what you want.”
“I’m not hungry,” Monroe muttered, turning her head to gaze out the window. Her hand went to her chest, no doubt to play with that stupid medallion she never took off, only to then drop into her lap without touching it.
Because it wasn’t around her neck.
Holy shit. She wasn’t wearing it.
“Mon, what the hell is going on with you?” I hissed, leaning closer so no one else could hear.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Mila,” she said in a voice that shook. Catching her gaze, I realized she was close to tears, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“Did he do something? Did he…?” I didn’t even know what to ask. Her stalker was an enigma to me. I’d never met the guy, never even seen his face, yet he was my twin’s whole world.
Or he had been.
Now, I wasn’t so sure, but I knew he had to be why my sister wasn’t acting like herself. He had the power to make her light up a room whenever she was thinking about him. Yet now, there was only darkness when I looked at my beautiful-soul sister.
And I fucking hated it. Monroe should never be sad. Never cry or frown. She was too good, too everything I wasn’t. Which was what I loved about her the most. I never wanted to be her; I just wanted to be near her.
Always.
“We eating or not?” Zariah, the oldest of Scarlett and Ciro Donati’s daughters, asked with an arch of her red brows. “Because I could seriously go for some Taco Bell.”
“Same!” her younger sister squealed. “Please, please, please? Come on, Tavia. Say we can stop.”
“We are definitely stopping,” Tavia said with a grin. “I suddenly want one of everything on the menu.”