Chapter 47 A Plan and a Listener
“….Yes, Ma’am Leitana,” Maya whispered, then slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. Her eyes sparkled like she’d just been handed a secret treasure. “We finally get to use your real name instead of that fake one.”
Clara folded her arms, smug. “See? Told you lot. ‘Avery’ never suited her. Too cold. But Leitana…” She caught herself and dipped her head. “I mean, Ma’am Leitana. Now that fits.”
Leitana laughed, soft and warm, the island lilt dancing through the kitchen. “Mi no mind if y’all drop di ‘ma’am.’ Leitana soun’ sweeter comin’ from friends.”
Joy reached over and playfully smacked the back of Clara’s head. “Oh, now you the detective? We all knew somethin’ was off with the Missus. She never felt like the real Avery. But the real one, she's so col…” Joy’s mouth snapped shut the second she remembered Leitana was standing right there. Heat flooded her cheeks. “I, uh… sorry, Ma’am Leitana, I didn’t mean…”
The kitchen went dead quiet. Every maid suddenly discovered a scholar of the floor tiles.
Leitana just smiled, small and gentle, and shook her head. “It okay. Everybody know mi sister different from me. No need fi hide it.”
Clara exhaled in relief. “We just… we love you, Miss Leitana. That’s all.”
Maya bounced on her toes, grinning. “Leitana sound like sunshine. Avery sound like winter.”
Soft laughter rippled through the room, loosening the knot in Leitana’s chest.
Rosa swept in with a tray: a steaming bowl of thick cocoa and a plate of coconut cookies still warm from the oven, sugar glistening.
“For Miss Avery,” Rosa said, then glanced at Leitana. “You still takin’ it up yourself?”
Leitana nodded, throat suddenly tight. “Yes, please.”
Rosa gave quiet directions (west wing, last door on the left), then pressed the tray into Leitana’s trembling hands. “Careful, baby, it's hot.”
Leitana thanked them all in a rush and slipped out before the nerves swallowed her whole.
Each step down the long hallway felt heavier than the last. The tray rattled softly with her heartbeat. She couldn’t stop seeing Avery’s face in that doorway (shock, hurt, and something darker she couldn’t name). Couldn’t unhear the wet slap of Ravial’s hips driving into her while her twin sister watched.
She reached the door. Knocked once. Twice.
“Go away. I’m not hungry,” came Avery’s voice, flat and exhausted.
Leitana swallowed, pushed the door open anyway, and stepped inside.
Avery stood at the window, arms wrapped around herself like armor, back rigid. She spun at the sound, lips already forming a sharp command, but the fight died the instant she saw who it was.
Same face. Different souls.
Leitana crossed the room slowly, set the tray down, and tried a smile that wobbled at the edges.
“Mi bring cocoa an’ fresh coconut cookie,” she said softly. “Rosa jus’ pull dem from di oven. Still warm… good with di chocolate.”
Silence stretched, thick and painful.
Leitana stared at her bare feet, twisting her fingers together. “Mi sorry,” she whispered. “Fi what yuh see in di bedroom. Mi never want yuh see dat. Mi shame, Avery. Real shame. Mi never mean fi hurt yuh more.”
Tears slipped free, hot on her cheeks.
“Mi know mi tek yuh place,” she went on, voice cracking. “Mi know mi nuh s’pose to be here. Mi know yuh di real wife. Mi sorry… mi so, so sorry…”
She couldn’t look up. Just stood there, small and shaking, waiting for the hatred she was sure she’d earned.
Avery stared at her twin for a long, breathless minute.
She searched that innocent, fteckled face and tried to match it to the woman she’d seen spread open and moaning under Ravial like an animal in heat. For one ugly heartbeat upstairs, Avery had been certain the door was left open on purpose, certain Leitana had planned it, wanted her to walk in, wanted to stake her claim.
But now… now she saw the truth.
The horror on Leitana’s face on that bed when she saw her hadn’t been acting.
The way she’d scrambled for the sheet, the panic in her eyes; none of it was fake.
Ravial had known.
That dark, psychopathic smile he’d flashed Avery before growling “Get out” told her everything.
Leitana had been the pawn, not the player.
Pity, sharp and unexpected, twisted in Avery’s chest; pity for this soft, sweet girl caught in the claws of a monster who thought nothing of using Leitana’s body to prove to Avery that it was the only one he wanted, the only one he would ever be inside.
Avery drew a slow breath and finally spoke.
“It’s all right, Leitana.”
Leitana’s head snapped up. Tears hung on her lashes like diamonds.
“Yuh… yuh call mi Leitana,” she whispered, wonder trembling in every syllable, as if hearing her real name from her twin’s lips made her feel truly seen for the first time in years.
Avery’s own eyes stung. She managed the tiniest, tired smile.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I did.”
Avery’s throat tightened until it ached.
For one dangerous heartbeat, she understood exactly why Ravial Ashbourne wanted to own that innocence.
It was bright, unguarded, impossible to fake.
Even she felt the pull, like standing too close to open flame and realizing one careless breath could snuff it out forever.
Leitana took a hesitant step, then another, until she was close enough that Avery could smell warm coconut on her skin and, beneath it, the darker notes of sex, sweat, Ravial.
“Mi never want yu to see dat,” Leitana whispered again, voice splintering. “Mi never want hurt yu. Every night mi pray yu come home safe. Mi never want take nothin’ from yu… not him, not yu place, nothin’.”
Avery believed her.
Every trembling word.
The guilt on Leitana’s face was too raw, too naked to be anything but real.
Slowly, Avery lifted her hand and brushed a tear from her twin’s cheek with the pad of her thumb.
Leitana leaned into the touch like a starved plant turning toward the sun.
Avery let her hand fall.
Behind them, the door stood slightly ajar, a thin blade of hallway light cutting across the carpet.
Neither sister noticed the tall shadow that paused just outside.
Silent.
Listening.
Avery drew a steadying breath.
“Then we fix this,” she said, voice low and calm. “Together.”
Hope flared in Leitana’s wet eyes, fragile and blinding.
Avery offered a small smile that never reached her own.
“Starting tonight.”
She didn’t see the shadow’s lips curve, small, sharp, satisfied, before it dissolved back into the corridor.
But both women felt it all the same.
The temperature in th
e room dropped a single, sudden degree, raising goosebumps along their arms like a warning whispered against bare skin.