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Reeling from the realization that his sister had been with their cousin, really been with hi with him this entire tioing on here"

Maddie glanced back at Dev and then exhaled heavily "I was coet it--not just Daniel and me, but also you, Lucian I knehat I could do, butbut it wouldn’t be easy, so I had to--"

"You had to stay away for ten years? Haveto you? Do you even know--" He cut himself off before he lost it "Then you co this illness?" His hands opened and closed at his sides "Jesus, this wasMaddie, this is messed up"

"Please, let me explain, and then you’ll understand Okay? Please?" his sister begged

There was no way Lucian was going to understand any of this, but he nodded, because he needed to try He had to see what had driven his sister to this He had to figure out how he could’ve never seen this co when his brothers

When his brothers had always been suspicious of Maddie’s return

"I didn’t want to leave all those years ago, but I had to I just wanted to be with Daniel, but I had to leave you"

"Because I wouldn’t have accepted what you and Daniel were doing?"

"Because you probably would’ve killed him if you found out," she said, and damn if that wasn’t the truth "But I had to because" She pressed her lips together as she stepped over Dev Walking across the roof, she kept the gun aimed at them until she reached the silver vase Dev filled with fresh flowers She stared down at it for a ht?"

A whole new horror filled Lucian

"But she found out about Daniel andprintouts of ether"

"Oh God, no," Julia whispered, wrapping her arms around Lucian’s waist

"We were up here when she told ether and that it rong I already knerong I’, she reached up, wiping under her eyes "She forbade me to see Daniel, told me that if I didn’t obey her, she would tell Daniel’s father and I justI don’t knohat happened We were yelling at each other, and I just wanted her--wanted her to stop and be quiet, but she wouldn’t and it just happened"

"No," Lucian said His heart was breaking "No, Maddie"

She lifted her gaze to the sky "I pushed her and sheMom just lost her balance It was an accident, Lucian I didn’tjust stopped inside of Lucian His mother hadn’t killed herself? It had been Maddie? This entire tihtened around his waist just as he swayed His feet--his world was unsteady, off-kilter

"I had to leave," she continued "So I went to Daniel I told him what happened, and he took o to II stayed there with hi to co to stay away, butbut we ran out of the money his father left him andwe needed money to survive So I had to come home I had toI had to secure our future"

Lucian was nu him up, he’d be on his knees

"I had a plan, because I knew the truth I knew the truth I was going to coive me a chance to find h her stuff?"

"That’s when the plans changed" She dragged her hand over her head "Daniel wasn’t supposed to be here at all--not then I needed tiet into her rooet to the papers"

"What papers?" Lucian de a key hooked to the journal Julia had found

"The proof," Julia said

What in the hell were they talking about?

Maddie nodded "The proof--the DNA tests that Mom had done ere just kids She knew--she told me, Lucian She told me the truth and asked that I not tell anyone, and I listened to her I kept that secret and in the end she still ruined everything!"