Chapter 4
895 Words
Leonardo didn't say a word on the drive back, and he looked like he had sunk into some old memory.
"What did Leah say to you?" I broke into his silence because I couldn't help myself, and I wanted to see how he'd answer.
Leonardo came back to himself. "She's reapplying, and she wants me to help her fix her essays."
"Did you agree?"
"No."
Relief loosened something in my chest, and I couldn't explain where it came from.
'But isn't a brother supposed to help his sister with her paperwork?' I thought, and my own pettiness embarrassed me a little.
"So what happens with Leah?"
Leonardo went quiet for a beat. His expression said the whole thing had nothing to do with him, but in the end, he didn't say a word.
I found out soon enough anyway.
Leah sent her documents to Leonardo constantly and asked him to fix them. I lost count of how many times I watched him frown at his phone, set it face down on the table, and then pick it up again to read through every line.
Eventually, he made time for Leah's edits no matter what else he had going on, and he worked on them in the gaps between meetings on business trips.
"You could have Leah send the documents to me and I'll polish them for her. I graduated from Hiland University too."
One of our video calls had just ended, and he was still typing replies, so I couldn't keep the suggestion to myself.
"That's my girl." His tone softened for once, and he looked up and smiled at me. The words went straight into the voice message he had been holding down to record.
The moment he realized what he had sent, his face darkened, and he hit the unsend button.
What I saw was Leah's reply, clear on the screen: Thanks for the compliment, Leo.
Heat shot up into my head.
Leonardo rarely spoke to me in that tone, and every time he did, my heart floated for hours afterward. This time it went out like someone had poured cold water over the whole thing.
Leonardo typed one last line with no expression, then deleted Leah from his contacts. All he sent was: Get lost.
He was in a foul mood, and so was I.
I couldn't stand watching this kind of drama play out right next to me. On top of that, no matter how cold and hard Leonardo acted, I had caught something wrong the first time the two of them stood in the same room.
He treated Leah differently. Is it like? Or wariness? Too many things were knotted together in it for me to ever put the question to him.
Neither of us had our minds in that bedroom that night, but he held me tighter than he ever had.
"Do you have an ex?" I asked the question that I have never asked.
I had never asked him before.
His hand paused. I couldn't tell whether he was thinking it over or whether the question had bothered him, but he lowered his voice and leaned in close to my ear. "Only you."
His answer could have come out too gently, because I swallowed every question I had.
Leah texted me now and then with questions, calling me "Nicole, Nicole" and never once bringing up Leonardo. After enough weeks of that, I started to believe I had read too much into that afternoon.
Then the Atwells threw a dinner to celebrate her acceptance and to thank me for polishing her application essays, and that was the night I found out why she had wanted Leonardo as her date so badly.
After the banquet that day, several members finished their meal and went upstairs.
I didn't know any of those big names from the social scene, so I wanted to go upstairs to find Leonardo and tell him I was leaving first.
I kept my steps quiet. Leonardo's room sat right beside the landing, and his door hung half open with voices spilling out of it.
"You promised me, Leo." Leah's voice carried a stubbornness I had never heard from her. "You said if I got into college, you'd be with me."
I froze where I stood.
'What kind of family is this?' I thought.
Leonardo dropped his voice and spaced out every word like he was driving nails into wood. "Leah. You bought that promise with your life. It doesn't count."
"I've chased you for years, and you already..."
"Enough."
Something heavy hit the floor inside the room. Then Leonardo steered Leah out by the shoulders, and his face had gone dark in a way I had never seen on him.
The three of us froze right there in the hallway.
"Nicole..." Leah looked lost.
'How can she say my name without a shred of guilt?' I thought.
"Are you two actually related by blood?"
I kept a hand on the stair railing, and my voice didn't shake. What surprised me was that my mind had gone completely blank, and I was still this calm.
Leonardo said nothing. He only stared at me with his brow drawn tight, and nothing in his face told me what he was thinking.
"No." It was Leah who finally answered. Her eyes were bright, and she still looked so innocent.
Yet shameless.
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