We Both Broke Rule No.1

Get A Room

Three days passed since the wedding, and Lucian and I fell into something that wasn't quite a routine yet, but wasn't chaos either.

He left for the office early. I stayed home, pretending to look for a job I didn't need, while my laptop stayed open on tabs about hackers and shell companies.

We ate breakfast together most mornings. He teased me. I ignored him. It was almost bearable.

That morning, I heard the front door open while I was in the kitchen. I assumed it was Lucian, back early for something he forgot.

It wasn't.

"Betty?" I called out, wiping my hands on a towel.

"What are you doing here?"

She stood in the entryway wearing a dress too short for a casual visit, her hair curled the way she only did it for special occasions. She smiled at me, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"I came to check on you." She said it too sweetly.

"You're my sister, Hetty. I worry."

"You slapped me on my wedding day." I crossed my arms. "Now you worry?"

"That was different." She waved a hand like it meant nothing. "Where's Lucian?"

Something in my stomach turned cold, but I didn't bother.

"He's at work." I watched her face carefully. "Why?"

"No reason." She smiled again, wider this time. "I'll just wait for him then. Since you're not doing anything anyway."

She walked past me and sat on the couch like she owned it, crossing her legs, checking her reflection in her phone screen.

I didn't like it. I didn't like any of it, but I told myself I was imagining things. She was my step-sister. Its not like I care about anything that happens between them.

I went back to my laptop in the guest room, telling myself to focus on the shell company Anna mentioned, but my ears stayed tuned to every sound in the apartment.

An hour later, I heard the front door again. Lucian's voice, low and confused.

"Betty? What are you doing here?"

I froze at my laptop.

"I missed you." Her voice had dropped into something soft, something I'd never heard her use before. "I wanted to see you alone. Just once."

"Where's Hetty?" His voice was sharp now.

"She's not here. Probably out somewhere." She lied so easily it scared me. "It's just us."

I stood up slowly, my heart pounding, and moved toward the door of the guest room, just enough to hear without being seen.

"Betty, get out." Lucian's voice had gone cold. "This isn't funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny." Fabric rustled. I imagined her stepping closer to him. "I've loved you since we were kids, Lucian. You know that.

She doesn't even want this marriage. I do."

"I don't care what you want." His voice didn't waver at all. "You need to leave. Now."

"Just give me a chance. One night. She'll never know." Her voice cracked, desperate now. "Please, Lucian. I can make you happier than she ever could."

Something shifted, a hand against skin, maybe her hand against his chest, and my whole body went rigid.

"Get your hands off me." He said it low, almost a growl. "I said get out."

"Lucian, please."

"I'm not going to say it again." A pause, then his voice dropped even colder. "I don't want you. I never have. Get out of my house before I call security to drag you out myself."

Silence stretched for a moment. Then footsteps, fast, uneven, and the front door slammed hard enough to rattle the walls.

I stood there in the hallway, my hand pressed against the doorframe, my chest tight with something I didn't want to name.

Lucian appeared a second later, his jaw tense, his eyes finding mine immediately.

"How much did you hear?" He asked quietly.

"Enough." I said it flatly, though my heart was still racing.

He didn't say anything else. He just walked past me into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, his hand gripping the counter like it was the only thing keeping him upright.

I pulled out my phone before I could think better of it and called Betty.

She picked up on the second ring, her voice already defensive.

"What, Hetty."

"If you want to seduce my husband, get a room." My voice came out sharper than I expected. "Not in our matrimonial home. Not while I'm standing three feet away."

"He's not really your husband." Her voice cracked with something ugly. "You don't even want him."

"That's not the point, Betty." I gripped the phone tighter. "This is my home now. You don't get to walk in and try something like that under my roof. Ever."

"You're so selfish, Hetty. You've always been selfish." She was crying now, I could hear it. "You take everything and you don't even want it."

"Don't call here again unless it's an emergency." I said it evenly, even though my hands were shaking. "I mean it."

I hung up before she could respond.

When I turned around, Lucian was watching me from the kitchen doorway, his glass of water forgotten on the counter.

"You didn't have to do that." He said it quietly.

"Do what?" I crossed my arms, my voice defensive.

"Defend me." His eyes searched my face like he was trying to solve something. "You hate me, remember?"

"I don't hate you enough to let my own sister disrespect this marriage in my own house." I said it fast, before I could think too hard about what it meant. "That's different."

He didn't say anything for a moment. Something unreadable passed over his face, gone before I could name it.

"Thank you." He said it finally, his voice softer than I'd ever heard it. "For what it's worth."

"Don't get used to it." I turned and walked back toward the guest room before he could see whatever was happening on my own face.

I sat down at my laptop again, my hands still trembling slightly, and forced myself to focus on the screen in front of me.

The words blurred for a moment before settling. Anna had sent over a document earlier that morning, a list of names connected to the shell companies she'd traced. I hadn't had the chance to look at it before Betty showed up.

I opened it now.

Names filled the page, executives, lawyers, distant relatives of families I recognized from galas and charity dinners. None of them meant anything to me at first glance.

Then I saw it.

A name near the bottom, flagged in red by Anna with a small note beside it.

This one keeps showing up in places it shouldn't.

I leaned closer to the screen, my pulse picking up.

The name wasn't Lucian's. It wasn't Vivian's either, though her name appeared twice further up the list. This name belonged to someone I recognized from Lucian's inner circle, someone who'd been at the wedding, someone who'd shaken my hand and offered congratulations like he meant it.

I sat back slowly, my mind spinning through every interaction I'd had with that man since the day I met Lucian's family.

*He's closer than you think.*

James's words rang in my head again, louder this time, refusing to fade.

I grabbed my phone and typed out a message to

Anna, my fingers moving faster than my thoughts could keep up.

I need everything you have on this name.

Tonight.

I hit send before I could second guess it, my eyes still locked on the screen, on that single flagged name sitting there.

Behind me, I heard Lucian's footsteps stop just outside the guest room door.

"Hetty?" His voice carried through the wood, careful, almost hesitant. "Can I ask you something?"

I closed the laptop halfway, my heart still hammering from what I'd just seen.

"What?" I called back, trying to keep my voice steady.

There was a pause, long enough that I almost got up to open the door myself.

"Do you actually think I had something to do with what happened to your family?" His voice had gone quiet, quieter than I'd ever heard it. "Because James keeps saying things. And I need to know if you believe him."