He glanced up at the porch and then back to her, his green eyes clear but a little sad. “You were worth the risk to me.” He pulled the keys from the ignition. “I guess now it’s your turn to decide if I’m worth the same.”
With that, he unhooked his seatbelt and opened the door, leaving her staring after him, her heart sinking into her toes. He opened her car door to let her out, but he didn’t wait for her.
He strode up the walk, greeted Nina briefly, and then disappeared into the house. Nina glanced out toward the car, obviously looking for her, and Elle’s muscles froze in place. She didn’t want to deal with any of this right now, especially not her sister.
But Elle was supposed to be the mature one. The logical one. The tough one.
With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her purse and coffee, slipped her heels back on and got out of the car. She tried to walk up the path like she didn’t have a care in the world, but it was hard to look dignified when her feet were throbbing from the new shoes and her dress was so wrinkled it might as well have been made from tinfoil.
Elle felt her sister watching her. She gave Nina a prim nod. “Morning.”
“Hey.” Nina’s eyes were bloodshot, her nose red around the edges.
Elle told herself to keep walking, but some old big sister habit decided to show up at the wrong time and had her halting her step. She let out a tired breath. “Are you okay?”
Nina sniffled. “Would you care if I wasn’t?”
Elle frowned and set her coffee on the porch rail. “I don’t know. It depends, I guess.”
“At least you’re honest.” Nina took the shawl that was wrapped around her and swiped at her eyes. “I guess I wouldn’t give a shit about me either if you’d done to me what I did to you.”
Elle didn’t answer that. What was there to say? You’re right?
“I canceled the wedding.”
The words dropped like a heavy stone between them. Elle stared. “What? Why? Because he has a busted nose?”
Nina looked down at the fringed edges of the shawl, separating the strings with her fingers. “Well, that would’ve made for some interesting wedding photos.”
“Nina, you can’t cancel the whole—”
“I didn’t do it because of that.” She shook her head, still staring down at her fingers working the shawl, her expression distant. “I did it because last night I realized what this has been about all along.” She smirked, no humor in it. “This wasn’t about love or fate. I was part of a revenge mission. Henry wanted to marry me to get the final word with you.”
Elle sank into the other rocking chair, her mind whirling.
“I mean, I’m not dumb. Or at least not that dumb. I suspected that was part of it early on, when our relationship first started. He was so angry with you. The things he would say about you.”
Elle swallowed past the squeezing tightness in her throat. Henry had never shown that to her back then. He’d played the part of doting husband, the resentments manifesting in more quiet, insidious ways instead. If anyone had been dumb, it’d been Elle.
“But I thought that eventually…we fell in love for real. That it was meant to be. That’s why I gave up so much to have him, pushed down the guilt. I thought I’d be the one shunned from the family. I was willing to give it all up for him. I never thought they’d expect you to…accept it.” Nina rubbed the spot between her eyes. “But then you were so hateful afterward and it just confirmed all the things he’d told me about you, the side I didn’t see.”
Elle stared. “You slept with my husband. How did you expect me to react? Did you want me to throw you a party?”
“I know,” she said, her voice breaking, her tone desperate. “I know how horrible I was, okay? How wrong. I’m the worst sister in the world. But…” Tears pooled. “I loved him.”
“More than you loved me,” Elle said flatly, wholly unmoved by the tears.
Nina stared at her lap, tears falling onto her wringing hands. “I was blinded by it. Haven’t you ever been blinded by love? It’s like a goddamned drug. You make dangerous and stupid decisions. You’re willing to sacrifice everything.”
Elle’s stomach tightened and she glanced warily toward the house, picturing Lane tucked away in her old room.
“We’ve been happy,” Nina said, her voice catching on the last word like it’d gotten sticky in her throat. “I thought it was all meant to be. But when you showed up this weekend, he was so…unhinged by you and Lane. Why would he care who you brought to the wedding? Why would he go through the trouble of digging up your fiancé’s record?” She swiped at her nose. “And then after everything went down last night, all he could do was rant about you. You bringing a guy here has driven him crazy. The jealousy was so transparent it was laughable. It was like I wasn’t even there.”
Elle frowned and pulled a tissue out of her purse, handing it to Nina and not knowing what to say.
She took it and crumpled it in her fist. “I’m such an idiot. All this time, it’s just been about you. I’m a tool to get back at you. You must’ve thought I was such a joke.”
Elle released a breath, a bone-deep weariness settling in and dampening some of her anger. Betrayed or not, she had a hard time watching her little sister in pain. “I don’t think that’s really the case. Henry wouldn’t have stayed with you this long if there wasn’t something there between you. I haven’t been in the picture. Seeing me probably just triggered old resentments. He may genuinely love you, but he’s also a selfish, self-centered asshole who couldn’t stand seeing me happy with someone else. The two things can exist concurrently.”