The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 32 - July

Sora's early night was a largely sleepless one. Even after Ravi had thrown in the towel, Sora had remained awake to pore over Sam's notes on twisted machinations throttling Himura by the byline. All of the articles Sam cited indicated that the sources feeding copy to the press had inside knowledge. What wasn't clear was whether that knowledge was firsthand. Himura employed more individuals directly and indirectly than populated some sovereign nations. Picking a spy out of a number that enormous, not to mention far-flung, was akin to picking a needle out a haystack that had been scattered by a weed whacker. This is assuming we're dealing with one spy. We haven't begun to tackle a strategy for exposing multiple. The odds of Anthony employing only one mole were abysmal.

Sora ground her teeth in fatigued agitation when her office door opened to admit her middle sister Aiko the next morning. The Hana Amnesty parade continues. She shoved her dossier of offending material to the side, quite sure Aiko hadn't shown up to be the sounding board the youngest Gallegos sister needed.

"Unless you're here to take me to lunch and not talk about Ravi, we're not going to have much to say to each other."

"Hana and Yelena have said their piece, right?"

"Oh, they said their respective pieces and then some. Never let it be said the Gallegos woman lack lung capacity."

Aiko's mouth twitched. She seemed to like Sora best at her cattiest. At my most Hana.

"Something has to change. This can't go on," declared Aiko.

Sora strived for equanimity.

"Answer me this: Did you rake Hana over the coals like this when the subject was Anthony and I was half out of my mind afraid of losing him?"

Aiko exhaled sharply.

"Hana said she knew what she was doing. I took her word for it."

"And Hana's feelings are the ones that matter. Not me. Forget about Tommy and my marriage. Hana had decided she wanted something—to hell with anybody who got between her and her heart's desire." Sora hummed in lieu of laughing. "Her heart. Witty euphemism for our sister's man-eating libido."

"You stood by her when it was other people."

"You're right," Sora had to concede. "I have carried the Gallegos standard all my life long. Say I'm a liar and a hypocrite. Say I can dish it and not take it. Get it off your chest. I'm willing to listen to whatever you have to say to me."

"Sisters don't do this to each other."

Aiko's unconsciously wagging finger was peculiarly galling.

"This family does it to each other constantly. Why am I the exception? Why am I conniving when Hana's just misguided?"

"You're the upstanding one. You've always tried to do the right thing."

Once again, lobbed as a weapon against me.

"What makes this one thing so wrong?"

"Hana has loved Ravi her whole life."

"Hana has loved Ravi between detours and distractions, one of which was my husband. That was the man I expected to be loving and loved by at this point in my life. Anthony is far from perfect, but I was confident that he was at least just mine. Hana couldn't be satisfied with that. She had to have him, too."

"She didn't want to hurt you." Sora stared her sister down until Aiko began to shift on her feet. Aiko exhaled slowly. "Revenge is destructive, Sora. Getting back at her doesn't ease the hurt, it just prolongs it."