Page 39 of Home Tears

“But you used to.” Julia turned back, her hand to her face, as if just waiting to swipe another tear before it trickled down.

“I did.” She had loved him so much. “It took an entire year before I didn’t think about him when I woke up in the mornings. A year.”

“You left us.”

Dani stiffened.

Julia lifted her chin up, challenging her. “You didn’t tell anyone. You have no idea what you put us through.”

“Put you through what?” Dani narrowed her eyes. She must’ve heard her sister wrong. The sister who never wanted her around. The sister who always took Erica’s side in every fight. The sister who barely talked to her, even when they were children. She would come in the house, laughing, and look around for someone to share whatever had made her laugh. She’d see Dani, and that light would dim in her eyes. Every time. She’d find Erica or Kathryn to tell, and Dani would hear them laughing together from the next room.

“Ten years, Julia.” She closed her eyes. “I went through twenty-two years of torture from you and Erica. Twenty-two to your ten?” She shook her head. There was no comparison.

“It was a selfish, thoughtless act that you did. You have no idea what you put Erica through—”

“What I put Erica through? Erica?!” Dani cocked her head to the side. Maybe her hearing was actually going? “Erica was probably the first to celebrate I left. She wasn’t this perfect little princess everyone pretends she was. She might’ve changed at the end, but she wasn’t perfect. She was far from it.”

Julia paled. “You don’t even dare—”

“She stole boyfriends.”

Julia gasped.

“She cheated on her boyfriends.”

“Shut up.”

Dani pressed, “She lied. She backstabbed. She called the cops on at least six of her friends’ parties. She stole money from you, Aunt Kathryn, and me—she probably stole from friends. She sent one girl to a psychiatric hospital. Erica wasn’t a saint, and I’m tired of you acting like she was.”

Julia refused to look at her. She turned to the side, and raised her head even higher. If she’d been looking at Dani, she would’ve been literally looking down her nose at her. “You shouldn’t say those things, not about Erica. She’s not here to defend herself.”

“She doesn’t need to be.”

“We all know why you left. Stop blaming Erica for everything. So what? Yes, she stole Jake. Well, I have him now. Are you going to talk about me how you’re talking about Erica? I’m alive, Dani. What are you going to say about me when I die?” A shrill laugh slipped from her.

“I just told you that I’m not here for Jake.”

“Then why’d you come back?” She whipped back around to face Dani fully. Her nostrils flared. “Why are you here? We were fine without you.”

Dani felt slapped in the face. The real Julia just stepped forward. “Not even thirty seconds ago, you were saying how could I have left and put you through…what? What did I put you through? You’re mad I’m back, not that I left. That’s the truth. Isn’t it?”

“Stop it, Dani.” Julia hissed. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah,” She bit out. “What I just said. You’re mad I came back.”

“This isn’t your town anymore.”

This wasn’t her home.

“Jake’s mine.”

Not yours.

“Aunt Kathryn wants nothing to do with you.”

She never had.

Julia’s eyes were irate. Her skinny arms and hands pressed against her side. If she’d been a violent woman, Dani would’ve braced for a slap. She was wary, waiting for it, but Julia started crying again. She didn’t sniffle this time, or make a sound. The tears slid down and Julia didn’t react. Dani wondered if her sister even knew they were there. And in that moment, she felt farther away from her sister than when she’d been on the other side of the ocean.

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