Sebastian felt his throat tighten, not wanting to hurt her any more than he already had, but she had the right to know everything that had happened to her sister.

"She said Ivy had never told anyone she wasn’t Serena. After you were taken, she kept acting as you until the very end, and Miss Lara had most likely allowed her to be taken without question because she believed it was you she was giving away. They all believed Serena was bound to be evil, and that getting rid of her was for the best."

He watched her fold over, hugging her stomach and beginning to rock herself as she muttered, "Oh my god. Oh my god. It was my fault... we might be half-breeds but I couldn’t breathe underwater, Ivy couldn’t have either. She killed my sister..." She broke down into a heartbroken sob that made Sebastian reach across and scoop her out of her seat and into his arms, rocking her as he whispered against her hair.

"It was never your fault. If you want to blame anyone, blame Miss Lara, she was the one who heartlessly gave her away." He kissed the top of her head while her tears soaked into his pink kitten shirt.

She had sobbed without restraint, uncharacteristically, like a small child, her shoulders trembling, her stomach aching with it. She cried and blamed herself, and he consoled her until, at some point, she simply cried herself to sleep in his arms.

Now she had woken up in her own bed, and the very first thing that had come to her was the happiness of everything they had shared yesterday, before the news about her sister settled back over her like a weight, and her foolish smile faded and her eyes filled again.

Did that mean her sister was dead? Killed by that water creature? The same water creature that had tried to come between her and her husband by lying, claiming she was on their side, when it had taken her sister. Her sister, who she had never gotten the chance to ask for forgiveness before she was—

Viola shut her eyes tightly and refused to finish the thought. Even though she had suspected it for a long time, accepting it was something different entirely. She didn’t want to accept that the innocent girl who had given her everything was gone.

Viola had never held any particular feeling of her own toward sea creatures until now, only the inherited resentment passed down through the werewolf world. But now she had her own. A private, quiet, burning resentment that she felt no guilt about whatsoever.

This creature had tried to pull her under and drown her, and it had done the same to her sister. She had no reason to feel conflicted about hating a part of whatever unknown bloodline she had inherited, and she was beginning to feel that she needed answers. Why had this creature taken Ivy? And why did it now seem to want her too?

Viola couldn’t shake the grief gripping her stomach and her heart, and she sobbed quietly into her pillow in the late morning light, completely unmotivated to leave the bed, until her phone rang.

Sebastian was calling.

Her heart leapt in spite of herself. She picked up quickly, wiping her cheeks and doing her best to make her voice sound steady, but he felt her emotions before she even spoke.

"Have you been crying, sunshine?" His voice was soft and quiet.

She didn’t try to hide it. "I couldn’t help it. I can’t believe she’s gone... she protected me until the very last moment, Seb, and it’s breaking my heart that I couldn’t do anything for her." She pressed the blanket to her lips to muffle the sound of her crying.

"She might still be alive, mi amor. That is exactly why I want you to summon that creature you told me about. We can try to ask it, get some information from it. Since your parents come from both sides, maybe Ivy inherited something that could sustain her in the water. We can try to find out. Do you want that?"

Viola sat up quickly, not having considered that possibility at all, and wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Yes. I can try to call it out. Will you be there with me?"

"Every second of the way, my love. I will send you the location I mentioned, and you can meet me in the next two hours. It’s a secluded place in Silver where no one goes. We can try working on your abilities there too." He said, doing everything he could to give her something to hold onto, because he understood her pain, at least in part. He was a twin too.

He could only imagine what it would feel like to lose the other half of yourself, especially after having already been separated from them for so long. He had experienced his own version of it when his brother had promised never to forgive him, and that alone had been enough to nearly undo him.

"Are you still in bed?" Sebastian asked, his voice gentle.

"I just got up. I should get ready, and I think Zoe is still here, I can hear her moving around." Viola said, feeling remotely better than she had expected to now that there was even a small chance Ivy might not be gone.

"Have you eaten?" She asked, noticing the time read 11:46 am and realizing he had been awake and working since long before she opened her eyes.

"Not yet. I was waiting for my wife to wake up so we could eat together, but since I won’t be free for the next two hours, I think we should both eat now separately. I will too."

"Hmm." Viola hummed. "You had better actually eat something. I’ll see you in two hours then."

"I love you." Sebastian whispered, and she heard the soft certainty in it.

Her breath caught on her end of the line, and she felt herself smile before she could stop it. "I love you too." She replied, the words still so new on her tongue, still so foreign coming from him, and yet she liked them so much that she was grinning long after the call ended, feeling measurably lighter than she had when she first opened her eyes.

Viola took a slow, steadying breath and held onto the small but real possibility that Ivy was somewhere, alive. She began making her bed out of habit and picked up the big plushie Sebastian had gifted her to set it between her pillows when a knock came at the door, and she called Zoe in.

Zoe entered wearing a dazed expression and a look of pure, bewildered confusion. "Vee. I think I just woke up from a dream. Look, my Doc replied to me. He is asking me on a date. Tonight. Tonight is Saturday, Vee. Tell me I am not dreaming."

Viola took the phone from her and read the message.

*"Are you free Saturday night? Let’s go out together, tell me what you would like to do and we can do that."*

Viola read it twice, a small frown pulling at her brow. She couldn’t help the thought that crept in, if Gilbert truly was Laila’s fated mate the way Laila had been so certain of, he wouldn’t be asking Zoe out on a date.

Something about it didn’t sit right. But then she looked up at Zoe, whose eyes were already shimmering with tears of joy, who was already pressing her hands to her cheeks and fussing aloud about what she was going to wear, and Viola pressed her lips together and said nothing.

"I cannot believe this is actually happening, Vee. My dreams are coming true. I have liked this man since my teenage years and now he wants to take me out." Zoe said, wiping her tears of joy as the smile broke fully across her face. She pulled Viola into a tight hug. "It’s going to be the best day of my life."

Zoe had made her dream of becoming the top fashion designer come true, and the other thing she truly wanted was for her feelings for the doctor to be returned, and it seemed that too would happen sooner than she had expected. It already looked like she wasn’t destined to have a fated mate, and she might as well let her heart embrace real love.

"I am so excited."

Then, as though a switch had been flipped, she pulled back and narrowed her eyes at her friend with immediate suspicion.

"Speaking of going out, where did you disappear to all of yesterday? I woke up and the whole place was empty, and my brother’s scent was all over everything." She wiggled her brows. "Where exactly did you two go?"