Page 27 of Dancing With Redemption

“No, everything’s fine, really.” Roxie looked away, tucking a lock of the wig behind her ear as a way to distract them both. “How’s that?”

“Can’t tell a thing, honey,” June reassured her, before she got up off of Roxie’s bed and went to the door. “I’ll see you downstairs when you’re ready for me to meet your cousin. I’ll keep Lily busy with the new puzzle I got her.”

“Another gift?” Roxie blew air at the top of her head and rolled her eyes.

“Yes, but I still love you, bestie,” June called out, doing a prancing dance out of the doorway.

“And I still love you too, bestie,” Roxie called back with a smile.

This meeting might be making her tense, but June was doing her best to make her smile and relax. Lincoln was out taking care of some last-minute things before they all left later. She hadn’t spoken much with him since that night, she didn’t know what to say. There was a lot for her to deal with at the moment, and he was a complicated situation. Very complicated now that he knew about the new baby on the way.

He hadn’t pushed, he’d been as patient as a saint, but there were questions in his eyes. Questions she didn’t know the answers to because she’d had to question everything she believed about herself. There was a doubt in her ability to make decisions, to keep her and her daughter safe, that had really rattled her.

And on top of that, she could reclaim her old identity, at last. But did she really want to be the person she used to be? Did she want to be Chloe Abshire again when Roxie Sinclair was…well, before Celeste, she’d have said she was a badass, capable of taking care of herself. Now?

Not so much.

Chloe certainly wouldn’t have been able to handle being tortured like that. But, wasn’t she Chloe, deep down inside? As she walked down the stairs to wait in the living room for her guest, Roxie wondered if she was doing herself a disservice. She tended to think of herself before the night of the fire as weak, spoiled, and incredibly naïve. The woman she’d become, the persona of Roxie that she’d created, had been borne from her struggles to make ends meet after giving birth to a child she had no idea how to take care of as Chloe.

Roxie frowned deeper, wondering if she was the crazy one here. You can’t be two people, even if you changed your name. She was the girl who used to think she was in love with Liam. She was also the woman who knew she loved Lincoln.

That didn’t mean she was good enough for Lincoln though. What if she got another stupid idea in her head and put herself in danger again? Or worse, one of the children, once this baby was born? She couldn’t be trusted to make decisions beyond which wig to buy, she knew that much.

“Miss Roxie, your guest has arrived,” one of the staff said as she escorted a pretty, black-haired woman into the living room.

“Hi, I’m Marie,” the woman said with an accent that Roxie couldn’t quite define. She knew it must be the Cajun accent Marie grew up with, but it was unlike anything Roxie had ever heard. It wasn’t a northern accent, but it wasn’t quite southern either. What it was, Roxie decided, was charming, much like the young woman that came with the accent.

“Hi, I’m Roxie. Chloe.” Roxie waved her hands with a roll of her eyes.

“Which do you prefer?” The woman with dark brown eyes and clear skin asked. She was very pretty, Roxie noted, admiring her cousin’s dark good looks. And she was considerate too, how wonderful.

“I prefer Roxie, thanks. Would you like a drink?” Roxie asked and made a motion to a tray on the coffee table.

“Just water, please.” Marie came to sit beside Roxie on the white couch. Roxie knew the woman was nervous from the way she sat on the edge of the couch, despite the fact that she’d used a cane to walk in.

Roxie hadn’t noticed it at first, the white cane blended in with the woman’s white pants and white sweater perfectly. But now that the woman was seated the cane was hard to miss.

Roxie filled a glass with water and handed it to her new cousin. “This is a strange way to find out about each other, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. I mean, I knew there was someone who helped my mother pay the bills for a while, but then it stopped, and things got, well, kind of bad.” Marie’s eyes moved everywhere but to meet Roxie’s. “My mother was really good at pushing people away. She’d had a taste of fame and the good life, and she wasn’t a very pleasant woman, to put it nicely.”

“I’m sorry, but I do wish I’d known about you. I grew up thinking I had no family at all. Well, there’s some kind of aunt in Paris, but I’ve never met her either.” Roxie’s words trailed off. This was awkward, but she was determined to get her and the other woman through it with ease if she could. “You, um, your mother is dead now, right?”

“She is. She had Parkinson’s. I have it too, but I’m taking a new medicine. It’s working to keep me going, so far.” Marie smiled an easy smile. “Knowing I won’t be a target for assassination has helped too.”

“Yes, I suppose it would.” Roxie’s eyes went wide, but then she looked away. “That awful woman damaged so many lives.”

“She did. My poor Matteo, he grew up with a vicious cow as a mother figure. He still can’t say if he ever loved her. She was all he had though. She raised him to take over the family business.”

“He’s part of the, um, Mafia, isn’t he?” Roxie felt like that might be a stupid question, but she was curious.

“Yeah, technically, he’s not a part of the Alfonsi family, but they all accept him as the head of the family. They all love him and I guess it’s okay. Especially now that she’s gone.” Marie didn’t have to mention which woman she meant, Roxie knew. “But that also means that you’re free to live your life now, too.”

“It does, yeah,” Roxie agreed with a polite smile, not sure how much to ask or share with this woman. She seemed sweet, nice, too innocent to be in with the Mafia, but she’d just admitted it. “Wow, that must be totally different from your old life.”

“Not really. There’s still the family squabbles, family politics, all of that to deal with. Before my mother ran everyone off, we had a big family. It’s no different to navigating all of those minefields really,” Marie said, then sighed. “I’m sorry this is so awkward for us both.”

“No, we can blame our families for that. But I’m glad you wanted to meet me. That’s a good start.” Roxie tried to alleviate some of the worry on Marie’s face. The woman was obviously a worrier and Roxie wanted to ease that. Especially if she was ill. “Would you like to meet my daughter and her aunt?”