Dangerous for You by Anna Antonia Page A

ballet.”
    “I can hear you, Mama.”
    We giggled softly together, conspirators.
    I almost groaned aloud in disappointment when the intermission came. Turning to Gabriel, I gushed, “I’m so glad I came tonight! I’ve never seen anything this exciting!”
    Before he could answer the door opened. We looked over in curiosity. Gabriel’s arm tensed beneath my fingers and Marie immediately rose to her feet. My mouth parted in surprise.
    I was looking at Gabriel’s twin.
     

EIGHT
     
    Everything unraveled quickly once I met Lucas Gordon. Much later I’d wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t gone to the ballet that night. Would I have been able to keep Gabriel a little longer?
    Or was our end already written from the beginning, long before we were born?
     
    Wednesday
    “Hello, family.” The older man’s drawl sounded like honey. Like Gabriel.
    “Lucas! What you doing here?” Marie asked flustered, discomposed in a way I’d never heard her be. Instinct told me to keep silent. So I did.
    “That was rather rude, Marie. You wound me and in front of a guest no less. Whatever will she think of us?”
    Although he smiled I could see it didn’t quite reach his eyes. At all. Instantly, I realized this man was an enemy to me. My euphoria from the last hour evaporated, destroyed as if it never was.
    This suffocating sensation was what I understood, what I’d been used to since I was forced to go to school with people who automatically thought I was trash because I wasn’t like them.
    Aloofness became my cloak, fitting me so well as if I hadn’t cast it off in the last weeks. Except it felt different because I was on edge, unsure of what I should do for the first time. Maybe more so because I could sense Gabriel’s discomfort with each fine tremor pulsing beneath my hand.
    I suddenly remembered our long-ago first night and how I’d seen Gabriel’s family portraits on the wall. I remembered remarking on how physically alike Gabriel and his father were.
    “ You’re like his younger twin.”
    “ He already has a twin.”
    I now knew who this man was. Gabriel’s uncle.
    How difficult was it for Gabriel to look into the same face as the man who’d beaten him and his mother for years? Judging by the tenseness of his arm beneath my hand—very difficult.
    “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lovely date, son?” Another smile came and left Lucas’s lips as if it couldn’t stand to be there for long.
    Glancing at my lover’s face, I nearly gasped aloud when I saw the mask drop down. It was like high school all over again. He became hollow. A smiling caricature of the man I’d loved forever.
    Gabriel gained to his feet, pulling me up with him gracefully. “This is Emma, Uncle.”
    Was it my imagination that he added a slight emphasis on the word ‘uncle?’ While I was trying to gauge the currents ebbing around us, Lucas glided forward, stopping until he reached Marie’s side. Panic flew across her face chased by something else I couldn’t decipher.
    “Emma, I’ve heard all about you. How fortunate for me to finally meet you.” He extended his hand towards me. I took it while keeping my gaze pinned on his. Lucas’s intense stare sharpened, as if daring me to look away.
    So of course I didn’t. Staring people down was something I was really good at.
    Who’s going to give in first? Not me.
    Marie cleared her throat delicately. “Lucas, I’m surprised you came tonight. Ballet usually bores you.”
    He broke away. The lines of his face softened, uncaring about our private battle for the moments he spoke to Marie. “Only in the wrong company.”
    Gabriel froze. Infinite moments trickled by. I wondered if he saw the same thing I did.
    Of course he did.
    Lucas didn’t just view Marie as his brother’s widow. She was more. Much more. And judging from Marie’s subtle reactions to Lucas, the way she seemed to consciously keep her feet anchored even while her body leaned towards him