“Do I look okay?” my wife asks as we pause in front of my grandmother’s home. We’ve all been summoned over, and I know she’s nervous about it. The last time we were summoned, we were told off for the wig stunts we’d been pulling, but this time it’s different. I know exactly why we’re here tonight.
My gaze roams over the stunning cream knee length dress she’s wearing, and I nod. “Classy but perfectly sexy, little fairy. I love this dress on you.” She smiles, but her eyes narrow when I open my mouth again. “But not as much as I’ll love it on our—” she presses her index finger to my lips and shoots me a warning look just as Zane and Celeste walk up to us.
I grin and bite her finger, earning myself a pretty little blush as she pulls her hand back. God, making her blush will never get old. Each time just gets more exhilarating.
“Lex! Raya!” Celeste says, hugging us both tightly. Zane follows her lead, pressing his nose against my wife’s hair for a bit longer than I’d like.
She smiles and nods at him as he pulls away, and I narrow my eyes as I grab her hand and pull her out of his reach. “You have your own wife,” I snap. “Leave mine alone.”
Zane looks irritatingly amused as he wraps his arm around Celeste, his eyes sparkling with delight as my hand wraps around Raya’s waist possessively. The two of them brush past us, leaving the door open behind them.
“Lex,” Raya says, seemingly lost in thought as she eyes the front door Zane left open for us behind him. “Do you think you could jump from here all the way into the house?”
I follow her line of sight and shrug. “No idea. Let’s find out, darling.”
I step back and make the jump, just about making it inside and nearly stumbling over, only to find all my brothers standing in the hallway, their phones out and the biggest grins on their dumb faces. They all burst out laughing at the same time, money exchanging hands quickly.
“For fuck’s sake,” I murmur, realizing what just happened.
“I’m sorry,” Raya says, clutching my suit jacket from behind me. “Zane has never asked me for a favor before and I didn’t know what to do.”
I wrap my arm around her and pull her into me, my lips brushing her temple. “You did nothing wrong, little fairy,” I murmur, before turning to glare at my brothers. “How dare you all use my sweet wife like that?”
Another round of cheers fills the room, all of my brothers instantly repeating the words my wife after me, mocking me the way I’ve mocked them for years. “Fuck, he didn’t even think before jumping,” Luca says, laughing.
“Wait,” Dion says, his eyes on Raya. “What does he call you, Raya?”
She looks up at me helplessly. “Little fairy,” I reply for her, my eyes never leaving hers.
“Ugh,” he says, sounding genuinely horrified, and I raise a brow as I glance at him, only to find him shooting Faye a look that makes her laugh. She reprimands him and tells him not to be petty, and in response he just pulls her closer, his expression peeved. What the fuck is that all about? Why would he be annoyed about what I call my wife?
“What did you tell me that time you flew Celeste and me to our island?” Zane asks. “You said you were never going to be… what?”
Whipped. I said I’d never be whipped. Damn it.
“Fuck off, all of you,” I murmur as I grab Raya’s hand and pull her past them. She laughs as she follows me into Grandma’s house, where Raven and Sierra are already munching on freshly made cookies. They both jump up at the sight of us, but it isn’t me they’re excited to see. I watch as my wife instantly joins in on their quest for cookies, conversation flowing endlessly between them. She fits in so well with my family, and it’s clear I’m not the only one that’s taken with her. I just hope we aren’t all wrong about her. If Raya ever betrayed me, it would destroy me. I’d never recover, and judging by how much my family has grown to love her, they wouldn’t either.
“Kids,” Grandma calls, startling me out of my thoughts. She gathers us around in her kitchen instead of the formal drawing room, throwing me off a little. But then again, this is Sierra’s favorite room in Grandma’s house.
The girls all exchange looks that are a mixture of curiosity and worry. All of them, except Val. She looks even more calm and collected than usual, but there’s something in her eyes that has a chill running down my spine. Anguish.
Grandma crosses her arms and smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’m certain you can all guess why I’ve gathered you here today.”
Raven bumps her shoulder against Sierra’s, who blushes fiercely, her expression something akin to excitement mingled with fear. All our eyes settle on my sister, the youngest of us, and the only one who isn’t married yet.
“Sierra, sweetheart,” Grandma says, her tone filled with the kind of indulgence only my sister can inspire. “Your engagement has been finalized.”
“Who is it?” she asks, her voice trembling. Unlike all of us, Sierra has never feared her arranged marriage. If anything, she’s looked forward to it for as long as I can remember. Thanks to the romance novels she loves so much, she has these grand illusions about love and marriage, in part fueled by how happy all our elder siblings ended up becoming in their marriages. Her expectations are so high that I’m scared she has set herself up for disappointment.
Grandma hesitates for a moment, almost like she’s bracing herself. She squares her shoulders and smiles. “You’ll be marrying Xavier Kingston.”
The absolute horror on Sierra’s face makes me chuckle, and all of my brothers follow suit. Each of us is treated to a warning glare from our wives that instantly shuts us up, and we exchange knowing looks. Sierra never saw it coming, but my brothers and I all did. Even when Dion, Xavier’s best friend, wasn’t in the country, Xavier continued to attend our poker nights. We all knew he wasn’t rocking up every single month because he enjoys spending time with us — he came to catch snippets of what Sierra was up to.
He’d convince himself he used the inside information to fuel their rivalry, when more often than not, he just cleared the path for her, opening up opportunities and eliminating competition, so the only one she ever had to compete with was him. Sierra has sabotaged him to the point of getting arrested multiple times, and every single time, he had her released and all charges dropped before any of us could even act. Xavier Kingston is madly in love with my sister, and I’m not sure he even realizes it.
“Combining his real estate empire with ours would result in us jointly becoming the biggest real estate firm the world has ever seen,” Grandma says when Sierra doesn’t immediately reply. “It’ll be the biggest merger we’ve ever done as a family.”
Sierra puts down the cookie she was holding — something I’ve never seen her do before. “Absolutely not,” she says, her eyes flashing with surprisingly genuine hatred. “I’m not marrying Xavier. Just disown me, Grandma. I’ll move out tomorrow. I can get my bags packed today.”
“You will,” Val says, her voice soft. “You’ll marry him.”
“Over my dead body,” Sierra snaps.
“Well,” Grandma says, sighing. “As it turns out, it may well be over mine.”
A chill runs down my spine as Grandma grabs a set of papers from the kitchen counter and slides them toward Sierra. “I know you’re not ready, sweetheart,” she says. “I’ve waited for as long as I could, because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my little girl. But Sierra, my time is up.”
My sister’s hands shake as she unfolds the documents, her face blanching. Her gaze cuts to grandma’s, and tears gather in her eyes. “Colon cancer?” she says, her voice breaking.
“I accompanied her to the doctor this morning,” Val murmurs. “She brought me with her because she didn’t think any of us would believe her otherwise. It’s true, Sierra.”
Grandma’s gaze moves around the room, a sweet smile on her face. The way she looks at us, like she’s trying to commit us all to memory, fucking guts me. “How long have you known?” I ask.
“About a year. I’m old, Lex. I’ve accepted that my time has come, and I don’t want to spend the few months I have left becoming even sicker and frailer from chemotherapy. It’s okay, truly.”
Except, it isn’t. Our grandmother is the only parent figure we have left. A plane crash took our parents, and a heart attack took away Grandpa. Now cancer will take Grandma from us.
“I know you think you hate him,” Grandma tells Sierra. “But he’ll love you like you deserve to be loved, Sierra. Xavier will protect you, and he’ll continue to be by your side when I’m no longer able to. I know you don’t want to marry him, but sweetheart… this is my last wish.”
