Page 91 of Sweet Revenge
“It’s been you this whole time.”
Evie stepped away from Maura as Nessa inched closer, running through everything that had happened, everything she thought Peter had done. Her parents’ deaths, her flat tire where someone had watched and waited, the notes, the bounty on her head.
“Surprise! I admit I was getting a little annoyed that Peter was stealing my thunder, but I got over it. It was nice watching you squirm.”
Evie eyed the gun tucked into the waistband of Nessa’s jeans, trying to calm the storm of thoughts that raged in her head. She had to think. “Why?”
“Oh, as if you didn’t know.”
“I’m supposed to know why you brutally stabbed our mother and then shot our father in the head? Why you pretended to be a victim?”
“You always were their favorite. The oldest, the prettiest, the smartest.” Nessa’s laugh was cold, heartless.
“So you killed them?” Evie spat.
“You were the golden child. The perfect one. I was always compared to you, but I never measured up. Not with teachers or friends or good old Mom and Dad. Why can’t you be smart like Evie? Why can’t you be funny like Evie? Why can’t you be good like Evie?”
“They loved you.”
“Maybe.” Nessa lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug. “But they loved you more. You were the one chosen by the prince, after all. After you left I thought I was finally going to get my shot at being seen as more than just the other twin. The other O’Brian girl. I was going to be the princess for once.”
“That’s why you told me not to come back.” Rage ignited inside of her, had her hand tightening on the gun. “When I called a few months after I left. I wanted to come home. But you told me everyone was still mad. That I should stay away for a while until things calmed down.”
“Oh, boohoo,” Nessa sneered. “Perfect Evie didn’t get what she wanted. Cry me a fucking river. I wanted my moment to shine. I wanted Declan to notice me for once.”
“But Declan didn’t want you.” Evie shifted, inching forward.
Nessa’s hands clenched into fists at her side. “No, he only wanted you. He pined for you.” She spat the word, jabbing her finger at Evie. “He even went to New York looking for you, convinced that’s where you’d go. It was disgusting.”
“But you got married.” She took another step closer. “Weren’t you happy?”
“Ugh, Michael. I just needed to get out of the house. I figured he’d want to have sex a few times a week and then leave me alone. But he wanted an actual wife, someone to talk to. Jesus, he talked constantly—about everything. It was so annoying.”
She ran a hand through her hair. “It was pure dumb luck that he hurt his back loading in a shipment at the docks. I started crushing up extra pain meds in his food so it looked like he was abusing them.”
Evie’s eyes widened in shock. “You killed him?”
“It’s embarrassing how slow you are to catch on. Really. You’re supposed to be the smart one. He was already addicted, but he didn’t know it. One night I crushed up the whole bottle into a beer, and he just”—she waved her hand in the air—“never woke up.”
“And now you play the grieving widow.”
“In the beginning, pretending to be sad about it was the hardest part.”
Nessa dissolved into a fit of fake hysterics that ended in wild laughter. Evie’s stomach rolled. Her sister was a monster, cold and calculated.
“But after a while, no one knows what to say to the young widow. So you keep wearing your ring.” She held up her left hand. “And giving sad smiles when someone asks you how you are. And they leave you the fuck alone.”
“Why Mom and Dad?”
“That one was kind of an accident.”
Evie’s jaw clenched, and she had to force herself to relax. She had to keep Nessa talking, keep her distracted so she could get close enough to rush her sister before Nessa had time to draw her gun.
“How do you accidentally stab someone a dozen times?”
“I honestly don’t think I could have planned it better if I tried. One day I was doing my obligatory visit where I’m forced to smile and nod and pretend like I care—so very exhausting, by the way—and Mom mentions that she’d recently spoken to you.”
Nessa rubbed at her temple, eyes angry. “I didn’t even know you two were still talking. All she had to do was answer my damn questions. But she wouldn’t. Your sister asked me not to. That’s all she would say, over and over.”
