My mother told me to give my bedroom to my older sister or leave the house entirely. So I packed quietly and walked away. But three days later, when the movers finished taking every single thing I had paid for over the years, my sister stood in the middle of the empty living room and asked the one question my mother had hidden from her for six years.
My mother didn’t even greet me when I walked through the front door.
I had just finished a brutal double shift at the diner. My shoes were sticky from spilled soda, my uniform smelled like burnt coffee and grease, and all I wanted was a shower and silence.
Instead, I found my sister sitting comfortably on the couch like she had never disappeared from our lives at all.
Vanessa always knew how to look polished no matter how chaotic her life became.
Her expensive handbag sat beside her on the cushion. Her nails were freshly done. Her hair looked effortless in the kind of way that probably cost money.
