I doubted Conrad being on the receiving end of one was by chance. Their motorcycle club was involved. Word on the street said Mercy was the perpetrator, but I’d already debunked that theory before bailing him out of jail.
I dropped my head into my hands.
Everything needed to be done at once, and I was swaying back and forth on the verge of a breakdown.
My sister was never going to be the same. Could I have stopped this if I’d been more of a friend to her? I was the one who’d hounded her for her location, for what she was doing—I was the reason she’d needed to sneak around.
Fighting back tears, I pulled out my phone and dialled Mom first.
She answered on the first ring. “Have you found Talia?”
“Yes. She’s...” I had to swallow the lump in my throat before I could continue. “She’s at the Omega Haven Residence outside town.”
I didn’t want to repeat anything Dr. Jalisco had told us. It would break Mom’s heart to know what happened, especially when none of us could see Talia yet. We couldn’t check on heruntil her heat broke. Anyone but her chosen mates being in her space would be immensely distressful.
“The... Residence?” Mom confirmed quietly. “Why is she there, Lavinia?”
Choking out every piece of information the doctor had told me, I tried to tough it out. Tried to keep myself together instead of feeling every word like a knife to the gut.
Mom and I were both crying by the end. She was hiccuping soft sobs down the line, and I had silent tears streaming down my cheeks.
“I’m going to make sure she’s taken care of here,” I promised. “I’ll find Benjamin, find out why he did this to her. We can ask the man who dropped her off what he knows, once Emilia finds him. I’ll do that too?—”
“You’re not the only one in this family, darling.” Mom cut me off. She sniffled. “We won’t put every responsibility onto you. It’s not your job to do everything.”
“But I...” I trailed off, wiping tears off my cheeks with the sleeve of my suit jacket.
“I’ll send Mira to stay there with you. She’ll want to see Talia as soon as she’s out of heat. Your fathers can take care of Benjamin—god knows they’ll want that honour. Emilia will deep dive into finding any information she can. You only need to focus on making sure Talia is taken care of and we’re not causing too much of a disruption for the other omegas there.”
I sank deeper into the armchair, kicking off my heels and pulling my legs up to my chest. All those tasks she was taking off my plate... Did she not trust me?
I could do them all. It was my job in the family to do everything, tobeeverything for everyone. Failing now wasn’t an option.
“Lavinia.” I could almost feel Mom’s fingers stroking my hair as she said my name. “We shoulder the burden together.Everyone is going to fall apart a little while we help Talia through this, and you’re allowed to do it too.”
“I don’t fall apart,” I mumbled.
“Yes, I know. You should do it more often, or one day you’re going to shatter into a million pieces.”
She was wrong. I could keep going like this forever.
Maybe it wasn’t too much of a sin to accept help right now, though. For Talia’s sake.
“Fine. Send Mira. She can stay with Conrad so he has someone who isn’t a family bodyguard with him when he wakes up. Have her bring our doctor with her.”
“She’ll be there in an hour or less.”
“I have to call Emilia, so I’m going to go.”
“Darling, I could call?—”
“Love you, Mom.”
I hung up on her and pretended to myself that I hadn’t cut her off mid-sentence. There were no more offers of help I could accept. This family was my responsibility, as next in line to take over the family business. As the oldest sister and daughter.
Mom could claim we were a team all she wanted, but every team had a leader.
And that leader?
