Chapter 9 - Severing the Final Tie
"Why, Vanessa?" I asked, my voice calm, steady, and entirely devoid of the pain she had spent three years trying to inflict on me. "I loved you. I protected you from our father. I gave you a home when you had nothing."
"That's exactly why I hated you!" Vanessa hissed, slamming her hands down on the plastic table. "You were always the perfect one. The protective older sister. And then you landed Luca Moretti—the king of the city. You lived in a palace while I had to beg for scraps. I wanted to see you broken, Sarah. I wanted to see you run away into the dirt like a dog. And it worked. You threw away your crown over a few shadows and a cheap sedative."
I looked at my sister, and for the first time in my life, I felt absolutely nothing but profound pity. She had consumed herself with jealousy until there was nothing left of her soul.
"It didn't work, Vanessa," I said softly, standing up from the table. "I didn't break. I built a beautiful life. I have two magnificent children. And today, I am going home to my husband. You didn't win anything. You just locked yourself in a cage of your own making."
"Sarah! Don't leave me here!" she screamed as the attendants stepped forward to restrain her, her manic laughter turning into desperate, ugly sobs. "Sarah! You owe me! You're my sister!"
I turned my back on her, walking through the heavy security doors without looking back. Luca was waiting for me in the hallway, his face filled with quiet concern. I slid my hand into his, our fingers interlocking perfectly, solid and unyielding.
May you like
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
"I am completely whole," I replied, leaning my head against his shoulder as we walked out into the warm afternoon sunshine. The final shadow of our past had been completely burned away.
