Page 152 of Forget Me Not

“Well, I don’t care. You can’t always have what you want, Sophie.”

“Why do you hate me so much?” she snaps, tears welling in her eyes. Guilt washes through me, but I refuse to let it hold any merit. She’s the one in the wrong. She’s the one that cheated with my husband. She’s my sister, for God’s sake.

“You really have to ask?”

“I didn’t sleep with Jack.”

“Okay, then what did you do because, either way, you guys fucking suck?”

“You aren’t perfect, Nova.”

“I know I’m not, but I would have never done that to you.”

“You’ve been doing it our whole life!”

The audacity.

“How?”

“With Dad.”

“He was my dad first. I just wanted my family back.”

“And I wanted a sister!” Her screech brings about a silence loud enough to drown out the racing of my heart.

She stares at me for a beat, both of us locked as if it’s a challenge before, finally, she collapses back into the chair.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbles, hastily wiping a tears slipping down her cheek. “God, you don’t get it, do you?”

For once, I have the good sense to keep silent and listen. She stares at me a beat, tears and anger in her eyes and my heart cracks just a hair. Just enough that I realize I might not have always been the best sibling to her.

“I was so jealous of you,” she whispers. “I still am. You got to keep your family. Mine was split down the middle all because I was born.”

“It’s not your fault,” I breathe.

“No, but they made it my fault. My mom and dad hated each other after I was born because he went back to your mom and groveled his way back in. She’s still bitter, all these years later. Dad and I don’t have the relationship you do. Every time he looks at me, he just sees a mistake.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is.” I realize, maybe I was too harsh on her over the years. When she’d come to spend time with us, I didn’t want her around. I ignored her because facing her reminded me that Dad was not always the good, doting husband he had grown to be.

Like I could erase her if I didn’t look at her.

“I’m so sorry about Reid. I don’t know what came over me, but suddenly, I was eight years old again, watching you blow out the candles on your birthday cake while the entire family crowded around you. For my birthday, it was just Mom and me and I know that’s no excuse, but I just . . . I wanted to be in your shoes, for once. Feel what it felt like to get chosen. I’m a shitty person and I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t get chosen,” I murmur after a moment, tears burning hot and unhinged in my eyes.

Guess my tear ducts have been refilled.

“I never slept with Jack. I can’t say what he did with anyone else, but I couldn’t do it. I met him one night, but I left because the house was filled with pictures of you and him and he looked like he knew he was doing something he shouldn’t. I knew I loved you, even though you hated me and I just had to leave.”

She takes a deep breath, her voice shaking when she speaks.

“After that, I cut it off. I never spoke to him again.”

“Why him? Out of everyone in the world?”

She shrugs, offering me a sad smile. “I felt important. I felt like someone was choosing me.”

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