Charlotte reeled back as if she’d been slapped. “I’m not trying to sound like Dad. It’s how I feel.”
Except they both knew that wasn’t true.
Out of the two of them, Charlotte clung to him harder because of how close they were and how unsettling it felt to no longer have him around. Years later, Charlotte still reached for him; she still imagined all of the conversations they could’ve had together.
Savannah snorted. “Yeah, sure. You keep telling yourself that.”
Charlotte counted backward from ten and waited for her heart to stop racing. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you. I don’t know if it’s nerves because you’re supposed to be going to med school in the fall, or maybe you’re just having a hard time seeing Mom with someone new, but don’t take it out on me.”
Because Charlotte had no interest in being anyone’s punching bag, least of all her sister’s.
“Stop trying to psychoanalyze me,” Savannah snapped, her voice rising toward the end. “And stop acting like you have the answers to everything because you don’t.”
Charlotte’s stomach tightened into knots. “I never said I did.”
“Oh, but you sure do act like it. I told you before that not everyone has to follow the same path you did, and I meant it. So, if you’re calling to chew me out again, let me stop you there. You’re wasting your time. Just because you’re not happy with your life doesn’t give you the right to rip mine apart.”
Each word felt like a dagger piercing through Charlotte’s armor.
As usual, her sister knew exactly where to strike to make her bleed.
As Charlotte stood in the middle of the empty auditorium, heart pounding in her ears and bile rising in the back of her throat, she realized she had no idea what she was supposed to say next. Or how she was supposed to make things better between them.
Charlotte opened her mouth and snapped it shut again.
Savannah’s words were still ringing in her ears as silence stretched between them.
Was her sister right?
Was she unhappy in her life?
It made her feel like she was all alone in the world, like no one knew her at all.
Savannah released a deep, shaky breath. “I shouldn’t have said that. That was out of line.”
Charlotte’s ears were still ringing. “I said some things you didn’t like either.”
Savannah’s just lashing out. That’s why she said those things. You know what she’s like when she’s angry, and you do know how to push her buttons.
Savannah made a low noise in the back of her throat, and Charlotte heard a door open. A loud cacophony of voices rose, and then the door clicked shut. When Savannah’s voice came back on, it was garbled and unclear. Charlotte pulled the phone away from her ear, stared at it for a few seconds, and then placed it back against her ear.
Nothing changed.
Not the tightness in her chest, not her nails digging hard into her palms, and not the hollow ache she felt as she stood there, turning Savannah’s words over and over in her head. By the time Savannah’s voice came back on, still distorted, someone was calling out to her.
Once the call ended, Charlotte dialed Addison and waited for her to pick up.
Savannah was wrong.
She had to be.
“Hey, how are preparations for the play coming along?”
“Do you think I’m unhappy?”
Addison paused. “What?”
“Do you think I’m unhappy? Do you think that’s why I try to control everything around me and why I’m so hard on Savannah?”
