Chapter Twenty Eight

Kyla.

"I can't do this, I just can't." Jake said and immediately stormed out, the door slammed so hard behind Jake that the walls shook, and for a few heartbeats the room was nothing but silence and the sharp echo of his anger fading down the hall.

I swallowed hard, my eyes burning as I turned my head to the one person I never thought I’d be trapped in a room with again.

Amina. She was the last person I wanted to see or even share the same space with. 

She stood at the foot of my hospital bed, her chest heaving, her eyes gleaming with triumph and rage all tangled together. For the first time in five years, my sister and I were face to face no distractions, no family gatherings, no pretending we didn’t exist to each other. Just us. The way it always should have been, except now there were broken pieces of our past scattered like shards of glass between us.

I let out a bitter laugh, the sound dry and hollow in my throat. “Well, congratulations, Amina. You finally got everything you wanted. My husband. My family. The life you always swore wasn’t yours. Are you happy now?”

Her eyes widened at the word husband, and then narrowed into slits. She stormed closer, the fire in her face unmasked. “Happy?” Her voice cracked like a whip. “You think this is about being happy?”

“Yes!” My voice rose, my body trembling against the pillows. “Because that’s what you wanted all along, wasn’t it? To take what was mine. To stand where I stood. You have always wanted that since we were kids.”

Her laugh came sharp and ugly, her hands fisting at her sides. “Don’t you dare make me the villain, Kyla. Don’t you dare.”

I flinched at the venom in her tone, but she wasn’t done. She stepped right up to the side of my bed, her shadow falling across me.

“You always had it easy,” she hissed, her voice trembling with years of pent up fury. “Everything. The looks, the charm, the way people bent over backward just to smile at you. Mom and Dad worshiped the ground you walked on, you could do no wrong in their eyes. You were the golden child, the perfect daughter, the one who got everything handed to her.”

Her words cut deeper than any knife, because they were spoken with the kind of truth only bitterness could twist.

“And me?” Her voice broke, raw and jagged. “I was the shadow. The mistake. The one who had to scrape and claw for every single scrap of attention. Do you have any idea what it was like to live in your shadow and never be seen for myself? To be compared to you every damn day of my life? Why can’t you be more like Kyla? Why can’t you act like your sister?”

Her chest rose and fell in sharp bursts, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

I shook my head slowly, my throat tight. “Amina, you don’t know what you are saying. My life wasn’t perfect”

“Don’t you dare!” she screamed, slamming her hand on the metal railing of my bed. The clang echoed, making me jump. “Don’t you dare stand there and pretend like you struggled. You got Jake. The one man I wanted, the one man who saw you and not me. You got him without even trying. Do you know how that felt? To love someone with every bone in your body and watch him fall at your feet instead?”

Her voice cracked, her face crumbling for just a moment before hardening again.

“I waited my whole life to be seen, Kyla. To be chosen. And for once, for once it was my turn. He turned to me. He stayed with me. And you think I’m going to feel guilty about that?” She laughed again, broken and sharp. “No. It’s my time. Mine.”

Her words sank into me like stones, heavy and suffocating. My chest heaved, tears stinging my eyes.

“You think it was easy for me?” I shot back, my voice trembling. “To lose everything? To watch my own sister slip into my life, my marriage, my family? You think I didn’t bleed for that, Amina? That I didn’t scream into my pillow every night wondering how my sister could betray me like that?”

Her mouth twisted. “Betrayal? You want to talk about betrayal? You betrayed me the day you were born. You stole the spotlight before I even had a chance. You were always the first, always the favorite, always the one people wanted. And me? I was nothing but second best. Do you have any idea how small that makes a girl feel? How invisible? I hated you for it. I hated the way you could breathe and people would love you for it, while I had to fight just to be noticed.”

Her words hit like blows, each one pulling the air from my lungs.

I shook my head, my tears spilling freely now. “I never asked for any of that. I never asked to be loved more. I just wanted a sister. I just wanted you.”

For a split second, her face faltered, something fragile flickering in her eyes. But it vanished as quickly as it came, swallowed by her anger.

“No,” she spat. “You wanted to keep me in your shadow. Always beneath you, always behind you. But not anymore. It’s my turn to shine, Kyla. And I’ll never give it back.”

The silence that followed was thick and suffocating. The heart monitor beeped in the background, too steady, too calm for the storm that raged between us.

I stared at her, broken and raw, realizing that no matter how much time had passed, the wound between us had only festered, deeper and darker than I ever imagined.

And as I looked at my sister, the girl I once played dolls with, whispered secrets to under the covers, laughed with until our stomachs ached I saw nothing but fire and resentment staring back at me.

And I knew then, this was a war that started long before Jake.

And it wouldn’t end here.

"He is my husband Amina, we are still married. I am the mother of his children and he will find out sooner or later what you did," 

"I don't know what you are talking about, it seems you are delusional too." 

"You know exactly what I am talking about Amina, and soon the whole world is going to find out."