ready produced a handkerchief.
“Oh, Steffy. If you weren’t my only sister, I would have
shunned you long ago.” His droll tone had a teasing quality, and she knew he was trying to make her smile.
A short time later, she’d finally managed to collect herself.
They sat silently side by side, waiting for his plane to board.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m so sorry I put you in the mid-
dle of all my shit, as always.” She sighed.
“You know, I was thinking about all of this last night. Your
deception caused the fight between Phillip and Christopher, you
see that, right? Chris knew about the baby—you told him right away. He assumed Phillip knew as well. So when Phillip was
flippant about your feelings after that wretched video, it drove Christopher to violence.”
“Thanks a lot, bro. As if I don’t feel shitty enough.”
“Good. I hope you do feel shitty. You need to feel some-
thing, Steffy. You need to hear me for once.” He shook his head in exasperation. His expression turned somber, and he whirled to face her. Steph had little choice but to turn to face him out of respect.
“Do you want to know the last thing mom said to me?” His
eyes were moist, and Steph felt her pulse quicken. It had been
years since he’d tried to discuss their mother with her. Her mom had crossed her mind many times in the past year, and Steph was
nervous to hear what he had to say.
“No.” She admitted, suddenly very afraid.
“Take care of your sister for me.” He paused, as if unable to
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speak for a moment, and Steph covered her eyes with her hand,
feeling as if he’d kicked her in the stomach. She literally felt as if she’d taken a hit, and the wind had been knocked out of her. “All these years I’ve bent over backwards to do just that.”
“No. You ditched me to run off to seminary.” It was a des-
perate argument, and she knew it wasn’t fair as she spoke the
words.
He held up a hand to silence her. “But now you’re all grown
up. I love you, Stephanie. But it’s time to face your demons. And you have to do that all on your own.”
“Cedric…” Steph whispered, but they called for him to
board the plane, and he stood.
“Call me when you get back to Milan.” He instructed her
and left before she had a chance to reply.
On her way back from the airport, she remembered her
mother in vivid detail for the first time since her death. Her clas-sically beautiful baby face, so much like Steph’s, now that she’d reached womanhood. In truth, part of her thought about her mom
every time she looked in the mirror. Her scent as she read her
bedtime stories, her curly blonde hair always smelling like milk and honey. Her gentle demeanor that Cedric had obviously in-herited. Her mother had always cringed at Steph and Adam’s
constant bickering. Not long after Steph turned fourteen, she got herself kicked out of Catholic school. She’d been an angst-ridden teenager, and hormones made her already over-the-top temper
crescendo. As a result, she and her father’s screaming matches
were unrelenting and constant. This led her parents to bicker
with each other. After weeks of hushed arguments, Steph over-
heard her mother tell her father she was leaving. He begged her
not to go, but she insisted she had to because she couldn’t stand
“the ugliness of their household” any longer. Steph knew she’d
been the root cause of her abandoning them.
When they sat them down to tell them, Cedric begged his
mom to take him with her. Steph’s cheeks flushed as she re-
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membered the feeling of being betrayed—by both of them. Ra-
ther try to help smooth things over, Stephanie went wild. She’d
accused her mom of sleeping around and told her she hated her
and never wanted to speak to her again. A short time later, when Mom and Cedric were hit by the drunk driver, Steph felt like it
was God’s punishment. Months later, when Cedric left and
joined the seminary, it only seemed to confirm these fears. Deep down she’d always believed her parents’ impending divorce had
been one more shitty thing she was responsible for.
She was nearly back to the Maravilha, when her phone
rang. Her stomach sank. as she assumed it was Christopher, but
she was surprised to see Cheyenne’s number.
“Hello?” she said, expecting Cheyenne to apologize. In-
stead, she heard Yara’s grating, broken English.
“We had to leave you! Where are you? Meet us at Forte
Dos Remédios!” She hung up before Steph could reply. After a
quick trip back to the hotel for her cameras, Steph had Enrique
drop her off at the ruins of the fort. She was fiddling with her camera settings, and when she looked up, she nearly stumbled.
The view of the crumbling fort from above was a shutterbug’s
dream, and her camera was clicking away before she was con-
sciously aware of it. She wandered downward into the ruins, tak-
ing photos from every imaginable angle. An ancient canon loom-
ing over the breathtaking beach below made for an amazing shot.
She spotted David and Yara embracing by an aged brick fortifi-
cation, and she captured them against the azure mirror of the sea and sky. They appeared oblivious to her presence, and she
couldn’t wait to frame it for them as a wedding gift. She also
snapped a candid picture of Cheyenne swinging on a tree swing
with Liam clapping enthusiastically on her lap. It was the sweetest moment, and Steph couldn’t wait to develop it.
She took her time as she wandered in and out of various
portions of the fort. She thought about all the history that must have happened in that spot and shuddered at the enormity of it.
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She was about to leave through an ancient archway when she
saw Phillip leaning against it looking her direction. As she’d
done so many times in the past couple of years, she lifted her
camera and zoomed in on him. He was staring directly at her,
and she snapped a photo of him automatically. He moved pur-
posely toward her, and she stayed
