Page 16 of Rags to Royals

“They? They who?”

“Her and Ruby.”

I scowl. “Her stage name was Ruby.”

“Hersister’sname is Ruby. And Scarlett was pretending to be Ruby when you met. They’re identical twins.”

I let that sink in. “Why was she pretending to be her sister?”

“Ruby is the dancer. Scarlett was filling in for her that night.”

I shove a hand through my hair. I’d met Scarlett at a strip club. We’d been there because I’d tagged along when Henry had to accompany a guy he was working for as private security.

The idea that she’d been filling in for someone actually makes sense. I hadn’t seen her actually strip. She’d seemed uncomfortable. She’d seemed like she didn’t fit. I would have guessed it was her first time ever on a stage, to be honest. And something in me had prompted me to come to her rescue. I’d paid for private sessions for the rest of the night with her, whisked her off the stage, and taken her out for burgers.

Before taking her to the Windsor Court hotel and giving her an extravagant, sexy, amazing weekend. Thank you very fucking much.

Okay, I had seen her strip. Just not in the club.

“Okay,” I say. “So she was filling in for her sister when we met. Then she and her sister, Ruby, moved out of state on Monday.”

He pauses. “And Mariah. Scarlett’s daughter.”

I feel my brows pull tighter. “The daughter is Ruby’s.”

He shakes his head. “No. She’s Scarlett’s.”

“Scarlett told me…” I blow out a breath. Henry knows better than I do.Fuck.“She’s a mom?”

“Yeah. Mariah’s fifteen. Dad’s never been in the picture.”

I process that. So…that’s good. There’s no ex hanging around. I mean, it’s good from my perspective anyway. He’s not the reason she doesn’t want to see me.

My sister is a single mom to an almost-thirteen-year-old and Saoirse’s dad has never been in the picture. That’s all fine. Mostly. Except that all this time I’ve been under the impressionthat Scarlett is an amazing aunt who loves her niece as fiercely as I love mine. It was something I thought we had in common.

“Why didn’t she tell me?” I ask.

“She was pretending to be Ruby that weekend,” Henry says. He lifts a shoulder. “I can’t tell you all the reasonswhy, Cian. That’s her story to tell. But I can tell you what she told me. She was dancing in Ruby’s place that Friday night when you met her. It was Ruby’s last night of work.” He blows out a breath and runs a hand through his hair. “It’s confusing, I know. Ruby’s the dancer. She had to show up that night or she wouldn’t be able to collect her last paycheck. Scarlett filled in for her because Ruby hurt her ankle. Then Scarlett met you and…kept playing at being Ruby.”

“But she gave me her real name,” I say.

“Well…she was putting on a show the entire weekend.”

Fuck.

Fuck.

“Keep going,” I say tightly. “Tell me everything.”

“The plan was for them to move the next day. Saturday,” Henry says. “They had the U-Haul all packed up. They actually put that off for a couple of days because of you.”

I let that sink in. Well…that’s something. That fucking seems like someone who enjoyed herself.

“That explains why we couldn’t find them. It explains why she didn’t think she’d see me again. But now that she knows she can, why doesn’t she want to?” I ask.

Henry shifts, putting both feet on the floor and leaning forward. “They moved to Ohio to start a new life. They moved back to their hometown. Ohio is very far from Louisiana. She didn’t want to have any ties. They were starting fresh.”

Okay, I guess that makes sense. Butfuck, I’ve held on to her for nineteen goddamned months and she was able to just walk away? Not even wonder about me? She’s not even slightlycurious now that she has a way of seeing me again? Talking to me once more?

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