She nodded. “And I want you to keep this between us. Strictly. Please.”
He squeezed her hand. “Yeah, of course. I’ll just need a strand of hair from each.”
“I’ll get it for you. Kyle, thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Julia. But you do need to walk me back to my room and give me my pain meds.”
“Of course,” she said as they rose.
He groaned again.
“Kyle, I’m really concerned about that. I think you overdid it with your walk.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “My pain meds are just worn off. I pushed it a little too long.”
“Well, let’s get you your next dose.” Julia wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked back to his room.
He kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed.
“Sierra must have finally woken up,” she said as she offered him two pain pills and a glass of water.
“Thanks,” he said. “Hopefully, she finished with the sibling bonding.”
“Mm, really? I think you enjoyed it.”
“I didn’t. I promise. She cheats at every game, she has the worst taste in movies, and she comes up with ridiculous ideas for destroying people.”
“Oh, yes, I overheard you two planning with Alex. You’re not going to destroy anyone. You’re going to stay in that bed and recover.”
Kyle lifted his hands in the air. “I’m recovering.”
“Stay put. I’m going to check on Sierra.”
“I’ll be here,” he promised.
She smiled before she strode from the room. The memory of the conversation she’d had with Lydia hit her as the wandered through the halls toward Sierra’s room. With every step, upset filled her. Julia’s heart twisted at Lydia’s venomous claim, a tumult of disbelief and anger swirling within her at the thought of such deceit. But she couldn’t unhear what she’d said.
She knocked at her stepdaughter’s door, but no one answered. “Sierra?”
Julia knocked again before she eased the door open. The empty room remained dark. “Sierra?”
With no answer, she slipped inside and hurried to the bathroom. She dug through the drawers in search of Sierra’s hairbrush. When she found it, she snagged a few strands from it, wrapping them in a tissue before she shoved it in her pocket.
She slipped from the room, wondering where everyone was while she made her way to the kitchen. As she grabbed two bags from the drawer, more of the conversation flooded back to her.I can barely stand to look at her.
The words incensed her. If Sierra wasn’t Grant’s, that was no one’s fault but Lydia’s. Her lips formed a frown while she shoved Sierra’s hair sample into one of the bags before she returned upstairs to retrieve Grant’s.
She secreted them away in a drawer in her office before she sank into the chair. The weight of everything that had happenedbore down on her, threatening to crush her. She sank her head into her hands as Lydia’s taunts echoed in her mind mixed with frightening images of the fire and the many other difficulties she’d thrust upon them over the last two years.
A hard resolve steadied her trembling hands as she considered her options. This war had gone on for far too long, and it had already cost them too much. She wasn’t willing to risk a higher price.
Rising from her seat, Julia’s jaw set in a steely resolve, her entire being hardened with a newfound determination to confront the chaos Lydia had wrought.
She strode from her office downstairs to the foyer. “Worthington?”
She tried again after a few seconds. “Worthington?”
With no response, she slipped from the house and hurried to the garage. She slid behind the wheel of her car and pulled from the garage under the cover of the dark night.
