Page 208 of Losing Faith

“Everyone else shared.” Sire watches her. “I think you can do better than that.”

“What do you want me to say, Sire?” Her eyes snap to him with so much rage.

“I want you to share about your day.” He remains calm.

I look back over at Lisette and she glances around the room before shaking her head.

“Nothing much,” she voices again, clearly refusing to admit to every person she loves that she was out getting high.

“Okay.” Sire leans back in his seat. “You know why we’re all here, Lis—”

“Because you love to make my life miserable?” She sits up in her seat before he can respond. “I can’t get over the fact that youorganizedaninterventionfor me. This is so fucking low.”

“I’m not doing this to hurt you and—”

“Yes, you are.”

Every other person seems to flinch as she raises her voice.

“All I wanted was one fucking week. Just one with no responsibilities and—”

“We don’t get that luxury. We don’t get to call a timeout on our addiction, Lis.”

“You’re impossible,” she mumbles before sitting back in her seat.

Sire opens his mouth, but she beats him to it.

“Fuck you.”

“Oh, fuck me? How about—”

Vidia takes his hand as his volume starts to rise and he takes in a deep breath. This isn’t supposed to be a fight. It isn’t supposed to be us blaming her or putting responsibility on her, and I can see Sire remembers that as he looks back over at his sister.

“None of us are here to hurt you, Lis.”

“I don’t care.”

“We care about you,” he continues.

“Idon’tcare.”

“You do.” I step in, but she keeps her angry eyes on her brother. “You may not care in this moment, but we know you care about us and you saying you don’t isn’t going to push us away. I’m sure you also care a great deal about Harmony… or maybe Isabelle.”

She looks over at me now and it’s as if she’s never been angry a day in her life. “I knowyouand the girls care about me, JJ.” She sinks into her seat as she hugs herself. “My siblings don’t.”

“That’s not true,” August starts now. He’s sitting next to her and moves to touch her, but quickly catches himself. “I care about you, Lis. Without you, who’s going to piss Sire off at every chance?” He leans over with a smile to catch her eyes with his, but she turns away.

“I love you, Lisette. A lot more than you know,” he almost whispers.

“You complete our family,” Sage continues. “When the universe trapped me with a boy for a twin they also gave me the sister I always wanted.” Sage quickly wipes her tears as she focuses on her.

“Lis—” Sire attempts to voice how much he loves her.

“I don’t care what you have to say, Sire.”

He only nods before leaning back in his seat. “Good thing I don’t care about what you care about.”

“Of course, you don’t. You planned an intervention and—”

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