Chapter 2
I almost skipped the dinner.
My shoulder hurt badly enough that I had trouble pulling on dry clothes.
Aunt Caroline sat beside me in my hotel room while I struggled with the zipper on my dress.
“You don’t have to go downstairs.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t.”
I stared at myself in the mirror.
“I want to.”
The truth was uglier.
If I stayed upstairs, Vanessa would tell everyone I had deliberately ruined her wedding weekend.
She had already called me dramatic.
I refused to hand her another weapon.
So I swallowed two painkillers approved by the hotel doctor, put my arm carefully into the loose sleeve of another dress, and went downstairs.
The ballroom went quiet when I entered.
Not completely.
Just enough.
People looked toward me.
Then toward Vanessa.
She was sitting beside Daniel at the head table.
When she saw me, her mouth tightened.
Daniel stood immediately.
“Emily.”
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t believe me.
Neither did I.
“You should be resting.”
Vanessa stabbed her fork into her salad.
“She survived.”
Daniel slowly sat back down.
My cousin Rachel pulled out a chair for me.
I took the seat farthest from Vanessa.
For ten minutes, nobody mentioned the pool.
Then Vanessa’s best friend, Lauren, raised her champagne glass.
“To Vanessa and Daniel.”
Everyone lifted theirs.
I didn’t.
My fingers were shaking.
Lauren continued with a speech about destiny, love, and how Vanessa always knew exactly what she wanted.
That line almost made me laugh.
Vanessa had always known what she wanted.
And if someone else had it, she wanted that too.
Attention.
Approval.
Our parents’ praise.
Even sympathy.
Especially sympathy.
When Lauren finished, Vanessa stood.
“I want to say something too.”
Daniel looked at her.
She smiled beautifully.
For anyone who hadn’t been at the pool, she looked like the happiest bride alive.
“Tomorrow I marry the most patient man in the world.”
Scattered laughter.
Vanessa put her hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
“He even puts up with my crazy family.”
More laughter.
Then she looked directly at me.
“Some more dramatic than others.”
Silence.
My face heated.
Rachel whispered, “Don’t react.”
I wasn’t planning to.
Daniel was.
He removed Vanessa’s hand from his shoulder.
“Enough.”
Vanessa blinked.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
The microphone picked up every word.
People stopped eating.
Vanessa laughed nervously.
“I’m teasing my sister.”
“No. You’re humiliating her.”
The room changed instantly.
Vanessa placed the microphone down.
“Can we not do this here?”
Daniel stood.
“You started doing this here.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Daniel.”
He looked toward me.
“Emily, did Vanessa apologize?”
I swallowed.
“No.”
Vanessa whipped around.
“I said it was a joke.”
“That isn’t an apology,” Daniel said.
“She knows I didn’t mean anything.”
I finally spoke.
“You pushed me into a pool after making fun of my injury.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“So now you’re going to turn everyone against me?”
“I haven’t said anything to anyone.”
“You don’t have to. You sit there looking wounded and everybody runs to protect poor Emily.”
That sentence opened something old inside me.
Something I had spent years burying.
I remembered birthdays when Vanessa opened my presents because she was “too excited.”
Graduation when she announced her engagement during my celebration dinner.
My hospital room after the accident, when she complained my surgery date interfered with her bridal shower planning.
Small things.
Until they weren’t small anymore.
Daniel stared at her.
“Is that what you think is happening?”
“Yes.”
“You think Emily getting injured is somehow attention she stole from you?”
Vanessa’s face turned red.
“My wedding is tomorrow.”
“And?”
“And everyone should be happy for me!”
Daniel looked almost stunned.
“I was.”
Was.
One word.
Vanessa heard it too.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel looked around the ballroom.
Then back at her.
“It means I canceled Maui.”
The silence afterward felt physical.
Vanessa blinked.
“What?”
“The honeymoon.”
“You canceled a massage?”
“The trip.”
Her chair scraped backward.
“You canceled our honeymoon?”
“Yes.”
My heart dropped.
I hadn’t known.
Neither had anyone else.
Vanessa laughed because she clearly thought he was joking.
Daniel didn’t.
She grabbed his arm.
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“You canceled twelve days in Maui because I pushed Emily into a swimming pool?”
“I canceled it because after you pushed an injured person into deep water, your only concern was whether people were paying too much attention to her.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“That resort cost almost fourteen thousand dollars.”
“I know.”
“We can’t get the deposit back.”
“I know.”
Her voice rose.
“You threw away thousands of dollars to punish me?”
Daniel shook his head.
“It isn’t punishment.”
“Then what is it?”
“I needed time.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether tomorrow should happen.”
Someone gasped.
I felt sick.
Not because I disagreed.
Because I knew exactly what Vanessa would do.
She turned toward me.
“This is your fault.”
Daniel stepped between us immediately.
“No.”
Vanessa pointed around him.
“She has been jealous of me her entire life.”
That almost made me laugh.
Instead, I said quietly, “I came here because you begged me to.”
“You wanted this.”
“Wanted what?”
“To destroy my wedding.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Vanessa.”
But she wasn’t listening.
She stepped around him.
“You always do this. Something happens to you and everybody rushes to rescue you.”
My throat tightened.
“Something happened to me because you pushed me.”
“You’re fine!”
Daniel struck his palm against the table.
Not hard.
But enough.
“Stop saying that.”
Vanessa froze.
“You don’t know whether she’s fine.”
“She walked in here.”
“She nearly drowned.”
“She didn’t drown!”
Daniel stared at her.
“And if she had?”
Nobody moved.
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Daniel continued quietly.
“If Emily had gone underwater before someone reached her, would you still be explaining that it was a joke?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
But even then, she didn’t look at me.
She looked around the room.
Checking who was watching.
That was the moment I saw Daniel realize it too.
He looked devastated.
“I need space,” he said.
Vanessa grabbed his sleeve.
“Daniel, please.”
He gently removed her hand.
“I’m staying somewhere else tonight.”
She went pale.
“Our wedding is in fourteen hours.”
“I know.”
He walked away from the table.
Vanessa stood trembling.
Then she looked at me.
And the hatred in her eyes frightened me more than the pool had.
“You happy now?” she whispered.
I stood.
“No.”
I meant it.
There was nothing satisfying about watching my sister’s life collapse.
But Vanessa leaned closer.
“You’ve always wanted what I had.”
“No.”
“You won’t take him from me.”
“I don’t want Daniel.”
She smiled bitterly.
“That’s not what I mean.”
Before I could ask what she meant, our mother hurried between us.
“Enough. Both of you.”
Both.
As if we had done equal things.
As if I had shoved Vanessa into a pool too.
Mom turned to me first.
“Emily, maybe you should go upstairs.”
There it was.
The family solution.
Move Emily.
Calm Vanessa.
Protect the celebration.
I looked at my mother.
“No.”
She stared at me.
“What?”
“I’m done disappearing because she behaves badly.”
Vanessa’s face twisted.
Mom whispered, “Please. Not tonight.”
I looked toward the ballroom doors where Daniel had disappeared.
Then back at my family.
May you like
“Especially tonight.”
And for the first time in my life, I remained exactly where I was.
