Chapter 231 Sisterhood

Chapter 231 Sisterhood
>>Riona
The silence in the room was heavy, like dust that had settled on every surface. Ava sat across from me, legs crossed, her hands resting in her lap as if she didn’t know what to do with them. I could see the battle behind her eyes—rage clashing against the part of her that still remembered how to love me.
The men had left a while ago, quietly stepping out and closing the door behind them. I was grateful for that. This wasn’t something I wanted an audience for.
She looked at me like she was seeing a ghost. Maybe, in some ways, she was.
“I saw it on the news,” Ava finally said, her voice brittle. “Your death. I—” Her lips parted, but the words caught in her throat.
“Yeah…” I sighed, “You must have felt some sort of relief then.” I let out my sarcastic words but at the same time I couldn’t look at her straight. I remember she didn’t have much of a reaction when Niall told Milo about me being alive in the hospital.
She might have even hated that I was still alive
“No,” She swallowed and I looked at her. “It was the first time I felt… quiet.” Her gaze was on her lap.
“What?” The word came out like a whisper
“Like the anger wasn’t pushing at my ribs anymore.” She said. I blinked at her in confusion. I wasn’t sure what she was saying but I didn’t say anything. I let her speak.
“For the first time, I thought maybe you weren’t the one who did it.” She raised her head to look straight at me and this time I didn’t look away. The room was quiet as we both stared at one another for a moment, “Maybe someone else had killed them. Framed you.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “And I hated myself for not thinking that sooner.”
My chest ached with something I couldn’t name. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, hands clasped. “Ava… there is no universe where I would ever hurt them. They were the first people who showed me what family felt like. What love looked like.”
I searched her face, hoping she could see it—see me.
“I didn’t kill them,” I whispered. “Why would I ever do something so cruel?” I looked into her eyes, “I lost everything that night, too.”
She blinked, and her eyes shimmered with tears that didn’t fall.
“I wanted to hate you,” she admitted. “And for a while, I did.”
“You-” I paused, “Do you still hate me?”
She paused, “When I heard you might be alive, I heard from Niall at the hospital, I felt strange… There was this relief in me that I didn’t want to acknowledge because the pain was so overpowering.” She bit her lower lip, “And even though I was relieved you were alive, I couldn’t immediately let go of the hate because who else could I blame?” Her voice cracked and I felt my heart break.
“I-” I didn’t know what to say to her, “I-” My eyes stung from unshed tears, “It wasn’t me,” That was all I could say.
I had no other words. So I said the same thing I had been saying all along.
Only that this time. She nodded at me, “I remembered the way you used to tuck me in when I had nightmares.” Her voice was soft.
“What?”
“All of the sudden I started thinking about our time together.” She looked down at her hands that she intertwined together, “How you made Mom’s awful meatloaf edible. How you’d scream at the TV during horror movies like you were going to jump in and fight the killer yourself.” A small, broken laugh escaped her.
“...” I wasn’t sure what to say to that.
She fiddled with her thumbs, “The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t make any sense.” She looked at me again, “There was no bad blood between any of us so why would you kill Mom and Dad?”
“I swear to you, Ava,” I said, voice thick. “I would’ve died for them”
She looked down at her hands. They trembled. Then she stood up slowly, crossed the space between us, and sat beside me. Her face down, her gaze on her lap where her hands were balled.
It startled me
“I don’t know everything,” she said softly. “But I do know I was taking my anger out on you. I just had to direct it somewhere.” I could feel the warmth of her body next to mine, “But,” She turned to look at me, “When I saw you here tonight, I felt all of my anger melt away.” Her eyes seemed to shine, “And all I wanted-” She whispered, “Was to talk to you. And I want to believe you.”
The moment her words sank in—I want to believe you—something inside me broke.
The breath I didn’t realize I was holding shuddered out of me, and before I could stop myself, I reached for her. My arms wrapped around Ava with a desperation that startled even me, like I was clinging to something fragile and irreplaceable. Because I was.
“Ava,” I choked out, burying my face into the curve of her neck. “I missed you so much.”
She stiffened at first, and I prepared myself for the rejection, for her to pull away. But instead, I felt her arms come around me, hesitant at first… then tighter. She pressed her forehead to my shoulder, and that’s when I felt her breath hitch.
And then she was crying.
Not loud sobs. Just quiet, trembling tears that soaked into my shirt, the kind that came from a place so deep it had no words. I held her tighter, my own tears slipping down my cheeks.
“I thought I lost you,” she whispered, voice cracking. “I hated you, and I still wanted you back. What does that make me?”
“It makes you my sister,” I whispered.
“You must hate me too,” She said, “For not believing you even for a second.”
“No,” I held her tighter, “I never stopped loving you. Not for a second.”


>>Riker
The city lights rolled past in smudges of gold and silver as I steered the car through the quiet streets. The night had deepened, but the roads still pulsed with the low thrum of life. Ava sat in the backseat, her face turned toward the window, eyes fixed on something far beyond the glass. She hadn’t said a word since we left.
I kept stealing glances at her through the rearview mirror.
Her reflection was soft in the dim glow—lashes casting delicate shadows against her cheeks, lips pressed into a thoughtful line. The faintest crease marked her brow, like she was still carrying everything that had happened tonight in the silence of her own mind.
I didn’t mean to keep looking. I shouldn’t have kept looking.
But I did.
‘Seriously?’ Nick’s voice snapped into my mind, sharp and dry as flint. The mind link was a whisper against my thoughts, but I could already feel the heat behind it. ‘You gonna keep staring at her like a creep, or you wanna focus on the damn road?’
I gritted my teeth, hands tightening around the wheel.
‘I’m driving just fine,’ I muttered back through the link, keeping my voice neutral, outwardly calm. Ava didn’t stir in the back. She probably hadn’t even noticed. Of course she wouldn’t, she was human.
Nick snorted. In my head. Of course.
‘Oh, please. You haven’t looked at the road for more than five seconds since she got in. You found your mate, didn’t you?’ he accused. ‘ She’s your mate, isn’t she? You lucky bastard.’
I didn’t answer.
Silence from me was as good as a confession, and he knew it.
‘Unbelievable,’ he hissed. “Riker ‘I don’t do feelings’ Kade goes and finds his mate, and now he can’t keep his eyes off her long enough to make a left turn.’
!!!
Shit!
I missed the turn!
‘You could have told me before!’ I said and he simply rolled his eyes.
I sighed and looked away from him. ‘It’s fine, we’ll take the next turn.’
‘Yea, sure. We’ll take it if you keep your eyes on the road.’ He was annoyed and I knew it wasn’t because of me. He was simply jealous that I had found my mate and he still hadn’t.
‘It’s not like that.’ I replied
‘Right,’ Nick said. ‘She’s just really interesting glass, huh? That what you’ve been staring at? The reflection?’
‘Shut up.’ Though I know he’s jealous, that doesn’t make his words any less annoying.
‘Make me.’
I swore under my breath and adjusted the mirror slightly, less for safety and more to stop myself from looking at her again. But even then, I could still feel her presence—quiet, distant, like the sound of rain in another room.
She didn’t speak
“I’m just making sure she gets home safe,” I added, mostly for myself.
But Nick heard it too.
“Yeah,” he said, and this time his voice was softer, more thoughtful. “That’s the part that worries me.”
I didn’t respond. I just kept driving.

>>Nick
If I had to listen to Riker breathe through his nose one more time while checking the mirror for the fifth time in a minute, I was going to lose it.
He wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. His eyes flicked up every other second—rearview mirror, Ava, road, Ava, mirror again. Like a moth to a flame. Or in this case, a wolf to his newly found mate.
God, spare me.
We pulled up to her house, headlights casting long shadows over the driveway and the modest white porch ahead. Riker barely let the car come to a full stop before he was out, moving with that irritating sense of purpose he always had when something—or someone—mattered.
“Oh, for f—” I muttered under my breath and slumped back in my seat, watching through the windshield as he opened her door like this was some royal carriage ride.
Riona wanted her sister to reach home safe since it had gotten late and the roads were empty at this part of the night so Demos sent both his best men to escort the little sister.
I rolled my eyes.
As if sending me with them was necessary.
Ava smiled up at him, brushing her hair behind her ear in that way women do when they’re definitely enjoying the attention.
And he—Mr. Emotionless, Mr. Don’t-Get-Attached—he offered her his hand like some damn fairytale prince. She took it, dainty fingers curling around his palm as he helped her out like she was made of porcelain.
I rolled my eyes so hard I gave myself a headache.
They didn’t even look at me as they walked toward the porch together. She was smiling, relaxed now. The mate-bond must be reacting to her too even though she’s human.
I rolled my eyes again.
They stopped on the porch steps. Riker said something I couldn’t hear, but Ava laughed—actually laughed. Like a full, heart-in-it laugh.
My hands curled around the steering wheel. “Are you kidding me?”
They kept talking. She tilted her head, smiling up at him, and he looked down at her like she was the only thing in the world that made sense. There was something in the way his body leaned slightly toward her—his stance easy, loose. I’d never seen him look so—comfortable.
And then she pulled out her phone.
“Oh no,” I said to no one, because I was alone in the damn car. “You are not exchanging numbers. Don’t do it. Don’t.”
But she did. She handed him her phone, and he typed something in, thumb moving confidently over the screen before giving it back. She looked at it, grinned, and said something else that made him laugh—him! Laughing like this wasn’t an active security mission. Like this was a damn date.
“Unbelievable,” I muttered, heat crawling up the back of my neck. “I come here to escort her home and suddenly I’m a third wheel in a romance novel.”
And then the door creaked open behind them.
My eyes snapped to it, suddenly alert. All thoughts of texting and flirting and touching hands evaporated.
Riker turned halfway, noticing it too.
The porch light flickered above them. The door didn’t open all the way—just a crack, like someone on the other side was watching.
And that’s when I saw Riker’s entire posture shift. His shoulders straightened. His hand subtly moved toward his side. His eyes sharpened.
My own heart picked up, and I sat forward in my seat, senses alert.
Ava hadn’t noticed yet—she was still looking at her phone, laughing at whatever comment Riker had just made.
But I wasn’t looking at them anymore.
I was looking at the shadow behind that door. Just tall enough. Still. Quiet.
Riker’s head tilted slightly, and then his eyes went wide.
Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.