Page 115 of Claimed At First Sight

“Thank you, Renata. No, everything is in order. Goodbye.”

The concern that brought Mamma to my room is now joined by something else. Suspicion.

Mamma lowers her phone and studies me before crossing the room and settling onto the edge of my bed. The look she gives me is painfully familiar.

It’s the same one she used whenever one of us had been caught doing something we shouldn’t have. I feel about ten years old again.

“Is there something you’d like to tell me about your sister?”

My mouth goes dry.

“Um…”

Brilliant answer.

“According to Renata, Isabella left the estate the same day we did. Isa claimed she was feeling better and intended to join us in Chicago.” Mamma pauses. “She’s obviously not here. And judging by your face, I suspect you know what’s going on.”

I stare very hard at a decorative cushion beside her as the silence stretches.

I don’t want to betray Isa’s confidence. At the same time, lying to Mamma has never been one of my strengths.

“I’m waiting, Mialina.”

There’s my full name again. I bite the inside of my cheek.

“I suspect Isabella wasn’t really sick?”

“No, she was sick,” I reply automatically.

The second the words leave my mouth, I realize my mistake. One of Mamma’s eyebrows rises.

I groan. “That wasn’t the correct response, was it?”

“No.” Mamma folds her hands in her lap. “What did you give her?”

“Why do you assume I gave her anything?”

Now both eyebrows rise. I sigh.

“Fine. I may have helped her a little.”

“Mialina.”

“I made her a concoction that made her throw up.”

The look Mamma gives me suggests she’s somehow both disappointed and entirely unsurprised.

“Where is she?” she demands.

I hesitate for only a moment. “Las Vegas.”

Her brows draw together.

“Why is Isabella in Las Vegas? Start talking, Mialina.”

There isn’t any point in trying to soften it now.

“She’s eloping.”