Chapter 150

Kaia

I heard the car before I saw it.

I had been standing at the front window since half past nine, pretending to drink a cup of coffee, while Liam pretended not to watch me pretend from the kitchen doorway. When the sound of an engine came up the lane, faint and then louder, I put the cup down on the sill so hard it slopped.

It was Tiernan’s car. The old green one, with Ravenwood mud up to the doors.

I had told Liam I would cry. I had been wrong. I didn’t cry when the car stopped, or when the door opened, or when my brother got out and stood in the lane with his hand still on the roof, looking up at the house as if he didn’t know whether he was allowed to come in.

He looked older. That was what did it. He looked older than he had at the reception a month ago. There were shadows under his eyes that went all the way down to his cheekbones.

I was out of the door before I knew I had moved. I was halfway down the path in my socks in the snow. A