her eyes filled with tears as she stepped toward him.

Almost twenty years had passed since he last saw Maya, but she looked the same. In fact, she hadn’t aged a day.

Then the ghosts vanished, the ringing stopped, and unadulterated joy buried his confusion. He stopped letting himself believe Maya was alive years ago, but he had no doubt she was standing across from him.

“Dante,” she breathed.

And then, before he could react, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him until she choked the air from him. Unable to respond at first, he stood there with his hands hanging limply at his sides as her tears wet his neck and shirt. Then, as the familiar feel of her sank in, he crushed her against him.

“How?” he croaked past the lump in his throat. “How is this possible?”

Maya didn’t respond as she sobbed and clung to him. Dante lowered his head to his sister’s, and his tears slid free.

Cassidy’s hand slid off Dante’s arm as she stepped back to give the siblings some privacy. She glanced toward the SUV to discover everyone watching from behind the tinted windows.

She considered retreating to let them have this moment alone, but she suspected Dante would need her before this was all over. His disbelief and joy spread across the bond uniting them, but she also sensed his rising anger.

Two young faces poked around the corner of the door. Their eyes widened as they watched their mom embracing another man. When they looked to her, she saw the questions in their eyes, but she was sure their questions were nothing compared to the thousands Dante must have.

Dante perched on the edge of the baby blue couch as Cassidy settled beside him, and Maya sat on the matching love seat across from them. A bay window with gauzy yellow curtains was at his back. Behind Maya was a paneled wood wall full of pictures he didn’t bother to examine. Beyond that was the doorway to the hall.

Thousands of questions ran through his mind, but he couldn’t settle on one. Maya was alive! Not only that, but she was alive and sitting across from him, looking precisely the same as the day she vanished. She was a vampire, but how and why and what happened were all needed to be answered.

Maya fiddled with her linen pants as she kept her focus on her hands and her foot tapped against the floor. The metal of the locket burned into his flesh as he watched her. It was all lies.

He’d become a vampire to ensure he would have enough time to find her and bury her with his parents. Yet, here she sat in her beautiful home with her expensive clothes and her children. She’d been happy to see him, but he wondered if she was just as unhappy that he’d interrupted her perfect little life. Her perfect little lie.

He’d spent years searching for her, and she’d been… what? Here the whole time? Traveling the world? What had she been doing since he last saw her?

“What happened?” Dante finally asked. “Why did you disappear?”

Maya picked at her pleated, white pants as she finally lifted her gaze to his. A small smile curved her mouth, and her eyes twinkled, but her foot tapped faster. She’d sent the kids off to their rooms, but before she could speak, Dante spotted their heads poking around the doorway from the hall. They looked to be about seven and eight with the boy slightly older. They reminded him a lot of the two of them at that age.

When their parents didn’t want them around, they’d often go upstairs only to creep down and listen to, or watch, whatever they weren’t supposed to hear and see. Maya should have known better, but he suspected his sister realized her children were there.

Her children, that meant they were his niece and nephew. He was an uncle, and he didn’t even know their names. He’d always pictured spoiling his nieces and nephews. He’d imagined bringing them toys, taking them to the zoo, and stuffing them so full of candy they would bounce off the walls when he dropped them at home. Maya would yell at him for bringing home a bunch of sugar fiends while he skipped out the door laughing.

And then those imaginations became part of his alternate reality, and he’d known they would never come true. But here they were, coming true in a spectacularly fucked-up fashion.

Chapter Fifty

“It’s a long story,” Maya said.

“I’ve spent my entire adult life looking for your body; I think I have time,” Dante said.

Maya winced at the harsh tone of his voice and bowed her head. Cassidy rested her hand on his knee.

“Let her talk,” she whispered into his mind.

Dante inhaled a deep breath as he worked to subdue his resentment. He’d been frantically searching for her, had giving up dreams and his mortality in the hopes of finding her, and here she was. She wasn’t dead; he had his sister back, or at least he might have her back. She’d stayed out of his life for twenty years, which meant she was fine with not being a part of it now.

A bolt of anguish tore through his anger and struck deep into his heart. His last twenty years centered around her, and he wasn’t a blip on her radar. If he didn’t want answers so badly, he would walk out, but he’d waited decades for the truth.

His fingers entwined with Cassidy’s on his knee, and he squeezed her hand. Feeling abandoned by one of the people he loved most, he needed Cassidy’s love and support more than ever.

“What happened?” he asked more gently.

Maya turned toward the doorway; when she spoke, she confirmed Dante’s suspicions she knew her children were there.

“Kids, go upstairs,” Maya commanded.

“Aw, Mom,” they both protested.

“Go!”

They grumbled something more, but their heads vanished, and the stairs creaked beneath their weight as they retreated. Maya’s head remained tilted toward the kids as a door closed

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