Page 63 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“Don’t you?”

“I’m not the only one.”

She purses her lips. “You’re the only one talking about it openly.”

“The book stuff? That’s fake. I’d never be able to kill someone in real life, no matter how much I hated them.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, now, come on,” I say, trying to lighten the sting of Harper thinking I could be capable of murder. “You know I couldn’t plan something like that on my own. I’d have to have you help me at a minimum.”

“You’d make me an accessory?”

“An Accessory to Murder. That’s a good title.”78

She smiles slightly.

“You don’t really think I’m capable of that, do you?”

She looks into my eyes, and it’s like looking at myself in a retouched photo. “No.”

I take her hand. It’s cold despite the heat. “Harper, please tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t—”

“No more of this ‘after’ bullshit. Please. Just tell me.”

She tugs her hand away and looks out the window. We’re rolling past a huge white marble building with a massive bronze man on horseback outside of it. The sky above it is a crisp blue, though the heat is shimmering. The wonders of Rome.

“I don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” Harper says.

“Join the club.”

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t minimize what I’m going through.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I just… I know you don’t get it, okay? But I don’t know who I am.”

“You’re an amazing, smart, awesome person.”

“I’m a thirty-two-year-old who works for her famous sister. Anyone could do this job.”

“That’s not true. And you’re a writer.”

She looks at me. Tears are brimming in her eyes. “Connor doesn’t think so.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I let him read my book.”

“What?”

“I know you said you’d read the new draft, but you were busy with your deadline, and… I wanted a fresh perspective.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long, but Connor? Seriously? He doesn’t know the first thing about writing.”

“You’re wrong, El. He did creative writing in college. And his notes were good. They were devastating but accurate. He was pointing out all the things everyone always does with my stuff. You know what they say. Competent execution, but ultimately not something anyone ever falls in love with.”

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