Chapter 6

Yvette had broken her arm.

That night I was made to stand outside her hospital room as punishment.

It was one in the morning before Mom finally couldn't bear it anymore and told me to go rest.

But I couldn't sleep.

I was scared. All I could see was Yvette tumbling down those stairs.

I'd nearly killed someone, and that someone was my own sister.

Guilt swallowed me whole.

The next day Dad told me to stay at the hospital and look after her.

From that day on.

I swallowed every shred of pride and waited on Yvette.

No matter how she went out of her way to make things hard for me, I took it.

The friends who came to visit all called me vicious.

Some of them even shoved me, to watch me hit the floor and squirm.

I knew it was their revenge on behalf of the injured Yvette, payback against the one who'd hurt her.

Slowly I started questioning myself. 'Had I actually pushed Yvette down those stairs on purpose?'

The details of that day were slipping away from me.

All I could still see was the moment she went tumbling down.

Panic crept in.

I kept demanding an answer from myself, over and over, asking how I'd turned so cruel.

Then came the day she was discharged.

Yvette leaned close and whispered something in my ear.

"Willow, falling down those stairs was no fun at all, but I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Everyone thinks you pushed me. No one's going to believe a word you say. They'll think you're a monster." She said.

At her words, every bit of tension I'd been bottling up for days felt like it was about to detonate inside my head.

I grabbed her by the shoulders, demanding answers."What are you saying? You did that on purpose. You threw yourself down those stairs, didn't you? I didn't push you. I didn't."

Yvette studied my face.

She seemed surprised that I'd actually started believing I was the one in the wrong.

But the words were already out.

There was no taking them back. "Willow, I knew you were naive, but I never imagined you'd be this naive." She laughed. "You can't even tell who the actual victim is."

I didn't get it.

Why Yvette hated me this much, why she'd gamble her own life to set me up.

Falling down a flight of stairs is not the kind of thing you can control.

What if she'd actually died?

Wasn't she scared?

"You're insane. What the hell do you even want?" I asked.

She smiled and said nothing.

Something felt off.

I turned around, and sure enough, there were Mom and Dad.

I'd lost count of how many times she'd set me up like this, dropping me into yet another mess.

And I knew Mom and Dad weren't going to believe me.

So this time, I didn't bother explaining. I stared at them, my face blank.

I wanted to see what they'd do to me this time around.

Sure enough.

Right on cue.

Dad started laying into me.

Mom stayed off to the side.

She wouldn't meet my eyes.

She didn't say a word.

All of a sudden, I felt exhausted.

A bone-deep exhaustion I couldn't put into words, like a boulder pressing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

I walked straight out of the room.

Only to be stopped at the door by Carter.

He looked at me coldly and quietly said a few words. "Yvette will always be my only sister."

Just like Yvette had said.

No one was going to believe me.