Chapter 2

The butler hadn't expected that question.

It was Vivian's birthday. Julian had gone to the trouble of bidding on the Heart of the Ocean for her, then hurried home so late that the party was almost over. Surely he ought to be explaining himself to her. Why was he asking about Elise?

He kept his confusion to himself.

“Miss Elise hasn't been out for the past few days, sir. I believe she's still in her room.”

Julian nodded. He lowered his eyes, trying to contain what he could scarcely believe had happened.

In the car, on his way out of the auction, he had come back to life.

He remembered what followed the financial crisis: the money gone, the family ruined, and himself without enough cash for a room in an ordinary hotel. Someone who had once been worth a fortune, reduced to having nowhere to sleep.

Elise had saved them.

She had already been seventeen when they brought her home. He was reserved by nature and absorbed in his work. There had been no shared childhood to draw on, no affection built up over the years. He hadn't hated her. He had simply never been close to her.

Bankruptcy had stripped away the pride he used to live by. He had gone from a man who couldn't bear to lower his head to one who knocked on every door he could, asking for business. Without Elise supporting him, he wasn't sure he would have come through it whole.

Sister was too small a word for what she had been to him. He owed her everything.

Every day afterward, he had regretted the years when he could have treated her well and hadn't.

And now those years were his again. Elise had only recently returned to the Whitmores.

He looked down, holding his excitement in check. Had someone heard all that regret? Was he actually being given a chance to put things right?

Vivian was still staring at him.

Ellie? Since when did he call Elise that? He had always used her full name. This was the first time Vivian had heard that affectionate little nickname from him.

She pushed aside the uncomfortable feeling.

“Why are you looking for Elise? She's probably in her room, like usual. She's not used to parties like this.” Her smile softened. “I'm sure she meant well. Maybe she was worried she'd spoil my birthday.”

Once, he would have heard nothing wrong with that.

Now he could hear exactly what Vivian was suggesting: Elise wasn't fit to be brought out in company.

When the family had gone bankrupt, Vivian had vanished. They had worried about her. They had even searched for her, only to learn later that she and her boyfriend had run off at the first sign of trouble. She had changed her number so they couldn't reach her, terrified the family debts might catch up with her too.

The sister he had cherished for seventeen years had abandoned them as soon as they became a liability.

“Did you invite her?”

His voice was so cold that Vivian went still.

Since Elise had arrived, the two girls had barely spoken. What would they talk about? Whatever Elise's bloodline, she had grown up poor. Vivian had spent her entire life being looked after. She couldn't imagine them having anything in common.

It had never occurred to her to invite Elise to her birthday party.

Julian found his answer in her face.

Vivian had helped make Elise's first days in this house miserable. Everyone took their cue from those above them. If Vivian couldn't be bothered to invite her own sister to a party in their home, the staff would know how little she valued her. Why would they take Elise seriously?

He shut his eyes for a moment. There was so much he ought to have seen.

When he looked at Vivian again, his expression made her smile falter.

“If you didn't invite her, why would you expect her to come?”

Was he blaming her? For not inviting Elise?

Julian's gaze passed over her and settled on the butler.

“Show the guests out.”

Then he turned toward the stairs.

Vivian stood where he had left her. Her party wasn't over yet. And what about the present he had promised? The Heart of the Ocean, all two and a half million dollars of it?

The butler didn't understand either, but an instruction was an instruction. He began arranging for the guests to leave.

Around Vivian, people were already lowering their voices.

“I thought none of the brothers liked Elise. That didn't look like it.”

“Did you hear how he spoke to Viv? I'd have cried right there.”

“Maybe we've got it all wrong. Everyone says they spoil Vivian, but what if Elise is the favorite?”

Curiosity, speculation, pity. Everywhere Vivian looked, someone was watching her. Keeping her pleasant expression in place was becoming impossible.

Why had Julian suddenly turned on her? He had bought the jewel for her. Everyone knew that. Perhaps he was trying to surprise her somehow.

She couldn't let him walk away while everyone stared.

“Julian!”

He was already on the stairs.

“Haven't you forgotten something? It's my birthday. You promised me a present.”

He stopped. A few seconds passed before he spoke.

“Has Ellie had a birthday party?”

Vivian paused for a moment, then forced the words out through gritted teeth:

“She... isn't one for crowds, so she doesn't care for things like this.”

He looked directly at her.

“If she hasn't had one, why are you having one?”

Vivian understood what he meant. The daughter born into the family hadn't been given a party. What right did the adopted daughter have to one?

Her face lost its color.

She might be adopted, but her brothers had always loved her as their own sister. What had changed?

Julian went upstairs without another word.

“Viv? Are you okay?”

She turned. The whole room seemed to be looking at her, some guests studying her with new interest, her classmates wearing expressions of pity.

She forced back the tears.

“Something must have gone wrong at work. That's why he's acting like this.” She made herself sound calm. “I'm fine. Don't worry.”

Her friends crowded around her.

Even at a distance, Julian's anger had been enough to make them weak at the knees. Vivian had been standing right in front of him. Of course she was shaken.

“It's definitely work. People get like that when they're stressed. Don't take it personally.”

“He'll apologize in a few days. You'll see.”

Vivian was hurt, but they had a point. She and her brothers had argued before. They'd sulked at one another, then the brothers had given in, finding one way after another to make it up to her.

Julian must be angry about something else. Once he cooled down, he would apologize too.

She nodded, feeling a little better.

On the third floor, Julian walked slowly toward the small, easily overlooked room he remembered.

His footsteps sounded loud in the empty hall. His pulse had quickened. For once in his life, he was nervous.

Then he remembered something and stopped.

The butler halted beside him, lowered his head and examined the floor. Years in this household had taught him to recognize the signs. Julian had been furious downstairs, and it was rare for him to show such dislike for anyone.

What could Vivian have done? Had someone else taken over his body?

The butler had no intention of asking.

“The present.”

The crisp voice snapped him to attention. He held out the box containing the Heart of the Ocean.

Julian left it in his hands.

“The other one.”

The butler looked up, met his eyes and hurriedly switched boxes.

“Of course, sir. This one.”

He wiped his forehead. No, that look was familiar enough. This was certainly the same Julian Whitmore.

Julian took the second box, his expression easing.

When he had awakened in the car, the only gift with him had been Vivian's. He had given it to her in his previous life. Giving it to Elise now had felt wrong. Besides, two and a half million dollars hardly seemed enough for her.

He had gone back to the auction.

Someone there had told him about the evening's final lot: an exquisitely made bracelet set with blue diamonds. According to its auction provenance, Princess Diana had designed it herself before her death, and there was only one in the world.

He knew very little about jewelry. But at five point six million dollars, surely it would be something Ellie liked.

When Elise opened the door, she looked at him in bewilderment.

This was still the version of her brother who couldn't see past Vivian. The one she had known later had finally had his eyesight fixed, so to speak. She had liked that brother a good deal more.

“Julian?”

She brought her expression under control. She had lived with her brothers long enough in her previous life to know they weren't bad people. Some of their rich-boy habits had been hard to break, but their hearts had been in the right place.

That didn't mean she wanted to get tangled up with them all over again. With their abilities, they would find their feet eventually, even without her.

This time, she had one goal: get into the university she wanted.

Julian smiled. The severity left his face, and there was something almost anxious in its place.

“Ellie. I'm back from my trip.”

She blinked at him.

They had never been close. Most of the time, they were strangers sharing an address. He certainly hadn't come to her room to announce he was home before. That sort of attention belonged to Vivian.

“Oh.”

It sounded rather cold. She tried again.

“Did you need something?”

He understood. Elise had always been polite and distant with them in those early days. But he remembered the little home they had crowded into together, everything they had endured there. Meeting that careful politeness again hurt more than he had expected.

She had never tried to flatter them or win their favor. She had come into this house alone, and they should have been the ones to reach out. Instead, they had kept their distance.

Of course she treated him like a stranger.

He put aside his disappointment and smiled again.

“I brought you a present.”

Beside him, the butler stared.