Page 85 of Twins for the Off-Limits Lawyer

I didn't look up from the legal brief I'd been pretending to read for the past hour, the same paragraph I'd started and restarted seventeen times. The words blurred together like watercolors in rain, meaningless symbols that couldn't distract from the hollow ache where my chest used to be.

Three weeks since Lili left. Three days since I'd confronted Mother and discovered the full scope of her manipulation. Seventy-two hours of understanding that I'd been used as a weapon against the woman I loved.

My hand trembled as I reached for the whiskey glass—empty again. The amber liquid disappeared faster each day, though it never managed to numb the specific agony of knowing Lili was somewhere in Texas, probably thinking I'd betrayed her for business gain.

"I'm busy, Daphne." My voice came out rougher than intended, scraped raw from three days of barely speaking to anyone.

"Busy wallowing in self-pity while your sister tries to piece together what's left of this family?" The door handle rattled with increasing violence. "Edward, I've spoken to James. I know what you made Mother do. About the ultimatum, about forcing her to make amends to Lili."

My hand stilled on the document. Of course she knew.

The confrontation with Mother had consequences that rippled through every relationship in our family, including the one between my sister and my best friend.

"If you know what happened," I said carefully, "then you understand why I can't see anyone right now."

"What I understand is that you've been punishing yourself for weeks as if you were the one who orchestrated Mother's schemes instead of the one who exposed them." Her voice softened slightly. "Edward, please. We need to talk about what comes next."

I set aside the useless brief and crossed to unlock the door. When I opened it, the change in my sister was startling.

Gone was the haunted, guilty woman who'd been skulking around the manor since our confrontation in the music room. This Daphne stood straight, her hair properly styled, wearing a crisp white blouse that spoke of someone who'd stopped hiding from herself. There was something in her eyes I hadn't seen since we were children—genuine peace.

"You look..." I paused, studying the transformation. "Like yourself again."

"Because I finally stopped living in fear," she said, pushing past me into the study. "James and I told Mother about our relationship yesterday. Officially. No more hiding, no more apologies."

She surveyed the evidence of my three-day retreat from civilization—empty whiskey glasses, abandoned meals, legaldocuments scattered across every surface like confetti from a particularly depressing celebration.

"Good Lord, Edward. When was the last time you ate something that wasn't liquid?"

"When was the last time you had a conversation that wasn't about analyzing our family's spectacular failures?"

"This morning, actually." She settled into Father's reading chair, the same spot where she'd broken down weeks ago when I'd discovered her affair with James. "After our conversation in the music room, after you forced me to admit my own hypocrisy about secret relationships, I realized something. I'd spent months judging you and Lili for the same kind of secrecy that James and I were practicing. The difference was that your secret got weaponized by Mother, while ours just... existed in limbo."

"And you decided to do something about it."

"I owed it to both of you to stop being a coward." Her smile carried a confidence I hadn't seen since we were children. "James and I are going public with our relationship, consequences be damned."

I sank back into my chair, suddenly exhausted. "That's either very brave or very stupid."

"Probably both." She leaned forward, her voice gentle but firm. "But we're tired of living in fear of Mother's disapproval. Tired of letting her control our happiness every fucking single day."

"And you think I should do the same? Just pack up and chase after Lili as if the past three weeks haven't happened?"

"I think you should stop punishing yourself for being Mother's victim instead of her accomplice." Daphne's voice carried the same gentle firmness she'd used when we were children and I'd blamed myself for Father's long absences. "Edward, you were Mother’s target just as much as Lili was. The difference is that Mother needed you to be innocent for her planto work. She needed your genuine feelings for Lili to be real, authentic, unguarded. That's what made you vulnerable to her manipulation."

"Which makes it worse, doesn't it?" I stood abruptly, pacing to the window. "I was so busy falling in love that I never questioned why Mother was being accommodating about an American house guest. Never wondered why she seemed interested in Lili's business. I was willfully blind because love felt too good to examine critically."

"You were human," Daphne said simply. "You trusted your Mother to act with basic decency. That's not naivety—that's hope. And Mother used your hope against both of you."

I stared out at the gardens where Lili had first charmed our groundskeeping staff with her easy laughter and genuine curiosity about English roses. "Do you remember what we used to say about that cottage in Cornwall?" I asked. "That we'd be ordinary people with ordinary problems, where the biggest crisis would be whether the roses needed pruning."

"And ordinary love stories," Daphne added quietly, joining me at the window. "Where boy meets girl, they fall in love, and the only obstacles are whether she likes him back and if he can afford a proper ring." She touched my arm gently. "We thought normal people had it easier because they didn't have family legacies to protect or reputations to maintain."

"Turns out the real difficulty wasn't the expectations," I said. "It was believing we deserved happiness despite them."

"Which is exactly why you need to go to Texas."

I turned to stare at her. "Daphne, it's not just about explanation or apology. It's about the fact that I've become exactly what Mother always said outsiders would see—a privileged man who thinks his intentions matter more than the damage he's caused." I moved away from the window, beginning to pace. "What if I get to Texas and discover that Lili has built alife without the chaos I represent? What if she's happier without me?"

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