Page 143 of Sweet Ruin

“Hi,” she says to Kane. “I’m Vivian. I’m the sister. The infamous one, supposedly.”

She crosses the room. She puts her hand on his sleeve, right at the forearm. Just like Alisa.

Kane looks at her for a long time without saying anything. Then his gaze drops to her hand. The disgust on his face makes me recoil from how violent it is. It’s like he just found a cockroach in his five-star meal.

He takes her wrist between his thumb and forefinger, lifts it off him, and lets go in midair.

He steps around her without a word and stands at my shoulder.

“Do you want her out?” he asks me.

I look past him and watch my sister’s face come apart.

I take the time to memorize it all, because this is a micro expression I’ve never seen before and I want to remember it right.

It’s hurt.

It’s confusion.

It’s the look on a person’s face when they flip a light switch they’ve flipped their whole life and nothing comes on.

She looks at her own hand. Then at the back of Kane’s head. Then at me, waiting for someone to explain.

No man has ever moved around her to get to me.

Nobody has ever asked what I want while she stands in the room waiting to be wanted more.

She has never been turned down in front of me.

I don’t think it ever crossed her mind that it was possible.

“No,” I tell Kane.

He looks down at me. “Are you sure?”

“No,” I say again. “I’ll do it myself.”

A slow, private smile touches his mouth. Then he steps away. He moves to the wall that isn’t glistening with fresh paint, leans against it, folds his arms over his chest, and watches on silently.

A supervising presence.

Like the world’s largest, hottest proctor.

Vivian gives him a final glance before turning to me. “Can we talk alone?”

“No.”

“Dee.”

“Delilah, please. I’m not a little kid anymore.”

She exhales sharply. “Fine. Whatever. I didn’t come here to fight.”

“No?”

“No. I came because this has gotten completely out of control.”

“You’ll have to narrow that down.”