Chapter 3

My steps faltered, a thick bitterness rising in my chest.

The ring I'd never gotten to give him was still hanging on the barbecue cart.

In my spare moments, I'd turned it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out how to apologize to him, how to humble myself before him.

Turns out, as far as he was concerned, we'd already broken up a month ago.

He stepped closer, caught my arm, and pulled me tightly into his chest.

"Rachel, I really wish you didn't have to be so tough all the time. I wish, just once, you'd cling to me and refuse to let go..."

My eyes filled with tears in an instant.

After my parents died, I'd been a girl fending for herself in the night market alone.

Drunk men.

Jealous women who splashed water on me out of spite.

City inspectors who were always looking for a reason to move me along.

Vendors who fought dirty to compete with me.

A sister who got bullied by her classmates.

Teachers' reminders and warnings.

A sister going through her teenage years.

From eighteen to twenty-eight, I'd long since forgotten what it even looked like to be soft, to lean on someone.

I was just about to push him away when a trembling voice cut through from behind us.

"What... what are you two doing?"

I turned around slowly and saw Paige staring at us, wrapped in each other's arms, disbelief written across her face.

She stormed forward and wrenched us apart, then slapped me hard across the face.

"Rachel, you actually tried to seduce my boyfriend. Do you even deserve to be my sister?"

I clutched my cheek, scrambling to explain.

"I... I wasn't... Charlie and I..."

I looked over at Charlie, desperate for him to step in and set the record straight. But his eyes just stayed fixed on me, and he said nothing.

Paige followed my gaze, then warily pulled him behind her.

"So that's it. All this time I thought you turned down every small-time vendor who chased after you because your standards were too high, and it turns out you had your sights set on a man way out of your league.

"Look at yourself. High school education, nothing to your name, and you think you're good enough for Charlie? If you're that desperate for a man, I can put out a public ad for you..."

"Enough!"

Charlie yanked her arm, his voice low and sharp.

"You can't talk to your sister like that."

Rather than back down, Paige only burned hotter.

"Oh, really? Used to dating flight attendants as glamorous as us, and now you've developed a taste for greasy, washed-up women like her?

"Charlie, want me to strip her down so you can get a good look at all the grease stains and burn scars covering her?"

The slap cracked through the air. My whole body was shaking, but I couldn't hold back. I struck her hard across the face.

Her tirade cut off instantly. She stared at me, a look in her eyes I'd never seen from her before.

Lights flicked on window by window in the shabby building around us. Someone shoved a window open and yelled down at us, annoyed.

"What's all this racket? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

Paige pointed at me, glaring up at the heads poking out from the windows one after another, her voice sharp with accusation.

"Rachel's lived here for ten years, you all know her. Well, I just caught her red-handed trying to seduce my fiancé. Tell me, shouldn't I be furious?"

Their contemptuous stares crawled over me like snakes' tongues.

"I always said there was no way a young thing like her was holding up a whole household on her own. Guess it was never anything but trading on her looks."

"Just the other day I offered to introduce her to my son, who has cerebral palsy, and she turned me down flat. Doesn't even know her own worth. A toad dreaming of marrying a prince."

"Stealing her own sister's man? How low can you get?"

I watched the same old neighbors who used to treat me so politely now hurling insults at me, and a cold, hollow feeling spread through my whole body. I could barely stay on my feet.

Charlie finally couldn't stand to listen anymore.

His face darkened, and he grabbed Paige's arm and pulled her away.

"Are you done making a scene? Don't forget, we need your sister to show up at the family dinner the day after tomorrow."