Chapter 7: The Choice At The Roof

I already knew who my parents would choose, and that was exactly why I followed them up to the roof.

The stairwell smelled of cold concrete and disinfectant, and all the way up I could hear my mother sobbing Lydia's name while my father's heavy footsteps pounded beside her. Hollis stayed one step behind me, silent as a shadow, and Elias spoke quietly into his phone. When the roof door finally banged open, the wind hit us all at once, cold enough to make my eyes water.

Lydia stood on the narrow ledge at the far edge of the roof, barefoot in a thin hospital gown, her hair whipping around her face. One hand gripped the metal railing behind her, and below her the city lights stretched out like scattered glass. From where I stood, she looked so small and fragile that even I might have believed it, if I hadn't heard her thoughts.

"Lydia!" my mother cried. "Sweetheart, please, come down!"

"Don't come any closer!" Lydia's voice cracked beautifully. "Everyone hates me now. The doctor said I lied, and Tessa made everyone think I'm a monster. If nobody loves me, I don't want to live."

"Nobody hates you," my father said, his hands raised as though she were a frightened animal. "I swear it. Come down, and we'll talk about everything."

Dr. Okoro and the young nurse hovered near the door, and Callum stood frozen beside the stairwell, white-faced, staring at his sister on the ledge. I looked at Lydia's right hand. Her knuckles were pale, locked tightly around the railing, and I didn't need to hear her thoughts to know she had no intention of letting go. But I listened anyway.

Don't look down. Keep crying. Mommy will give in first, and Daddy will follow. They always do.

My stomach turned. Then Hollis leaned close, his voice low enough that only I could hear. "My lady, I have a man positioned behind the water tank. If she slips, he will reach her before she falls."

I nodded once and walked forward.

"Tessa, stay back!" My mother grabbed my arm. "Don't you dare provoke her."

"I'm not going to provoke her, Mother," I said quietly, pulling free. I stopped a few steps from the ledge, close enough for Lydia to see my face. "I'm going to help."

Lydia's tear-filled eyes widened a fraction. What are you doing?

"Lydia says nobody loves her, and that she doesn't want to live without it," I said, turning to face my parents. "So let's settle it tonight, in front of everyone. If you save her, nothing changes. But if you decide not to, if you let her make her own choice, I will give you back everything. The house, the chairmanship, the shares. All of it, tonight, with Mr. Brandt as my witness."

The roof went silent. Even the wind seemed to pause. My mother stared at me as though I had grown a second head.

"You're insane," she whispered. "She is your sister."

"She is the girl you chose over me," I said. "I'm only asking whether you would choose her again."

My father said nothing. I watched his eyes move from Elias's folder to the city lights behind Lydia, and then back to me, and I saw the calculation happen in his face, quick and cold. It lasted barely a second, but it was long enough. My mother noticed too, because she turned her head slowly toward him.

"Gregory?" she said.

Daddy? Daddy, what are you doing? Say something! Lydia's thoughts were frantic now, her calm completely gone. If he hesitates, I'm finished. Come on, think, think...

Then her expression changed. I saw her eyes lock onto my father's, and I felt the pressure in the air, that cold fog I remembered from my last life. My father blinked, and his face went slack for a moment, as if someone had pulled a curtain across his thoughts.

"Lydia," he said hoarsely. "Come down. Please. We'll... we'll save you."

"Save my daughter!" my mother screamed, lunging toward the ledge. "Please, somebody save her!"

I stood still while they rushed past me. Hollis's man stepped out from behind the water tank and reached the railing just as my father did, and together they caught Lydia by the arms and lifted her down. She collapsed against my mother, sobbing into her shoulder, and my mother held her as if she had just been pulled from the sea.

"I'm sorry, Mommy," Lydia wept. "I didn't know it was a misunderstanding. I was so scared."

I watched them from a few feet away, and I waited for it to hurt less than I expected. It didn't. Even knowing exactly what they would do, even after two lifetimes, some stubborn part of me had still hoped my mother would look back at me, just once, before she picked up my sister.

"So I'm not your daughter," I said softly. It was barely louder than the wind.

My mother didn't hear me. My father did. His eyes flicked toward me and away again, and he said nothing.

I turned and walked toward the stairwell. Behind me, Callum called my name, his voice cracking, but I didn't stop. Hollis fell into step beside me, and Elias followed a moment later, quietly closing the door on the cold and the crying.

The drive back through the dark was quiet. I sat in the back seat with my grandfather's coat pulled tight around me, watching the streetlights slide across the window, and I let myself breathe for the first time all night. Hollis drove with both hands on the wheel, glancing at me in the mirror every few minutes. Elias said nothing, but he reached back once and set a small paper cup of water on the seat beside me, the way he used to when I was a child.

"They will never stop choosing her," I said at last. "Will they?"

"Not until the truth is impossible to ignore," Elias said gently. "But that is what we are here to do, Miss Tessa."

Hollis's phone buzzed against the dashboard. He glanced at the screen, and his face changed. He pulled over to the side of the road, answered, and listened without a word for almost a full minute. When he finally lowered the phone, his jaw was tight.

"My lady," he said carefully. "That was the security chief at the mansion. While the family was at the hospital, someone broke into your grandfather's study."

I sat up. "What was taken?"

"The safe has been emptied. Every file inside it is gone." He hesitated. "Mr. Brandt, the backup records of your father's accounts were in that safe."

Elias went very still beside him. "That was the only complete copy."

"There's something else," Hollis said. "The security chief found a note taped inside the empty safe." He looked at me in the mirror, and for the first time since I had known him, I saw something close to fear in his face. "It says: The brakes were only a warning."