Chapter 207

[ 1,109 words ]

Katia’s POV

I made it down the stairs without holding the railing.

It cost me considerably more effort than it should have, but I managed it, and I was going to count that as a win given the circumstances. The dress Julian had given me was good. The sandals were the right size. I did not know how he had known the right size, and I was not going to think about it right now.

I was going to walk through this house and get to the front door and go home.

That was the plan.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Delia.

I closed my eyes for half a second. Just half a second. Then I opened them and kept walking.

“Was it good?” Delia said. “Did you enjoy fucking with my husband, sis p>

I kept walking.

Her hand closed around my wrist.

I stopped.

I looked down at her hand on my wrist. Then I looked at her.

“If you touch me again with that flirty hand of yours,” I said, “I will make you wish you were never born p>

She flinched. She did not let go immediately, but she flinched, and I felt it.

“So you sleep with my husband and I am not supposed to say anything?” she said. Her voice had found the register it used when she was performing outrage for an audience that was not there. “What are our families going to say? About someone like you? A good-for-nothing sleeping with a Windsor p>

I looked at her.

“You are second-hand, Katia,” she said. “That is all you have ever been p>

I almost said it. I almost said, ’Your husband doesn’t seem to think so.’ I felt the words right there, ready.

I did not say them.

“Delia,” I said. “If your husband is not warming your bed, that is a conversation you need to have with him. Not with me.” I paused. “And there he is. You can ask him yourself p>

I turned and walked out.

Delia’s POV

I looked up.

Julian was coming down the stairs with Seraphina beside him. They were dressed. They looked—they looked good together, and I hated that I had to notice that, and I noticed it anyway because I was apparently someone who noticed things that hurt me and kept looking at them.

“So this is what you are going to do in this house?” I said. “Sleep with my sister and some cheap model p>

Seraphina looked at me. She did not say anything.

“And you,” I said. I looked at Seraphina directly. “You have the audacity to come to my house and sleep with my husband p>

Seraphina looked around the entrance hall slowly. Then she looked back at me.

“I am talking to you!” I said.

“I wasn’t certain,” Seraphina said pleasantly. “Given the volume. I am clearly standing right here, so there was no need to shout unless you were addressing someone else. And my name is Seraphina. Not you p>

I felt the heat rise in my face.

She looked at me with the expression of someone who had assessed a situation and found it manageable.

“I pity you,” she said. “You claim a man you have never seen naked in your life is yours. You window shop him every single day, and you never get to wear the clothes.” She tilted her head slightly. “And he is very good in bed, by the way. I get to enjoy that. You get to be the wifey.” She smiled. “What a shame p>

She turned and walked toward the door.

“Julian,” I said. My voice came out louder than I intended. “Are you going to let your cheap call girl speak to me that way p>

Julian looked at me.

The look was the cold one. The one that went through me rather than at me.

“It would do you good,” he said, “to learn your place in this house.” He came to the bottom of the stairs. He stood in front of me. “I told you I have a wife. I told you I would not touch you. I told you that you could do as you pleased with whomever you pleased.” He paused. “And I have been patient with all of it, Delia. But you are starting to annoy me because you are no longer playing by the rules I gave you.” He looked at her steadily. “That is why I told you it was time to go back to your father’s house. Because you are becoming useless p>

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

Then he walked out.

I stood in the entrance hall.

The front door closed.

I looked at the empty hallway. At the space where Julian and Seraphina had been standing. At the space where Katia had walked through.

Limping.

Katia had been limping.

I stood very still with that information.

Seraphina had said he was very good in bed — said it with the calm certainty of someone reporting a fact they had personal knowledge of. Julian had kissed my forehead and told me I was useless and walked out. And my sister had walked through this entrance hall this morning in a dress I did not recognize, moving like every step cost her something.

I thought about last night.

I had waited until two in the morning. I had sat in that armchair and listened and heard nothing and fallen asleep. I had woken up and come downstairs and asked what time she left, and Julian had looked at me with that look.

She had not left.

Katia had spent the night.

Seraphina had also spent the night.

I looked at the ceiling.

Julian Windsor had somehow managed to have both my sister and Seraphina in this house on the same night and had come downstairs this morning in gray sweatpants looking like a man who had slept exceptionally well and had told me I was useless and kissed my forehead.

Who the hell had Julian slept with last night?

I pressed both hands flat against the wall.

I needed Victor.

I needed to call Victor because Victor was the only person who would tell me the truth about anything in a way I could actually use. Victor, who had investigated Katia’s finances and come up against walls. Victor, who had been patient and strategic and had been building something with the information I gave him.

I walked back toward my wing.

I needed my phone.

I needed a plan.

And I needed to understand what exactly was happening in this house before anyone else decided I was useless and kissed my forehead and walked away.

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