The Secret (The Evolution Of Sin Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

his searching gaze. He wanted to know what was wrong and it went against his nature not to question me further. The only reason he was letting me go at all was because he believed Cosima would press me for answers.
    I said goodbye to the rest of the party, claiming jet lag as the cause for my early departure, and left with my sister. We were quiet in the cab and Cosima’s uncharacteristic silence made my distress all the more acute. Apart of me wanted her to hit me so hard with questions that I cracked open and spilled all my secrets. It would feel so good to come clean, confess about the mess my life had become, but I knew that it would be selfish to indulge myself. Elena was our sister and expecting Cosima to keep my secret was asking her to pick sides.
    Besides, I was more than a little afraid she wouldn’t be on mine.
    She watched me as we entered the tall, elegant building near Central Park West. I took in the sweeping lobby with caramel colored marble floors and the older man with brilliant white hair manning the desk. It was a soothing, sophisticated place that didn’t seem to suit my sister but I realized that the last time I had really spent any quality time with her was back in Italy at our small house on a wild plot of salty land in Napoli. She was a model now and a successful one at that.
    We traveled up to the eighth floor and I knew she had made a deliberate choice to live on this level, as it was her lucky number. For some reason, I held my breath while she opened the large door at the end of a short hall. I was worried that her apartment would be much like the building, aesthetically pleasing but impersonal, glossed over with glamour instead of warm with personality. The idea that I might not know my sister like I had always assumed made my skin prickle.
    I let out a sigh of relief as soon as I stepped inside. Large black bookcases stuffed with novels sectioned off a small office behind the living room where twin chocolate brown leather chairs and a mahogany sofa bracketed a large fireplace. The walls were painted a deep warm red and the dark wood floors extended all the way back into the kitchen where I could see glass fronted cabinets and a dedicated shelf overflowing with herbs. It was so true to the Cosima I knew, brilliant and warm and secretly introverted, that the sight of it instantly settled my stomach.
    “You like it.” She grinned at me and slipped off her ridiculously tall heels, putting them in the mirrored closet beside the door.
    “I love it,” I agreed.
    “I bought it three months ago and I’ve been slowly trying to make it my own,” she admitted. “I had to flirt shamelessly with the building committee in order to paint the walls – they were beige.” She made a face, prompting me to laugh. “But I think it’s coming along nicely.”
    She took my purse and jacket from me, hanging it up amid the myriad of designer items in the closet before taking my large suitcase in hand.
    “Hades is around here somewhere,” she said over her shoulder as she led me through the apartment to the hallway where my bedroom would be. “He can be little hostile with strangers.”
    Hades was her black cat, a feline with more attitude, even, than his mistress.
    “Oh, Cosi,” I gasped when I saw the room that would be my own. Blues and lavenders dominated the scene, inspired by the massive painting over the white wrought iron bed. It was one of my own pieces, one that I had sent to her after my first gallery showing. Tears brimmed over my lashes, my emotions unable to take another hit, no matter how slight.
    “I decorated with you in mind. I know you want to find your own place but I want you to feel at home here and if you want to stay, well,” she shrugged, “that would be fine too.”
    I laughed weakly and hugged her. “ Sei carinissima .”
    “I’m not sweet at all. I just love you.”
    There was no just about it so I squished her harder.
    “And when you are ready to tell me what happened