Chapter 2

There was nothing on the profile except that one video.

I opened it again. The silver chain on Clara’s wrist caught the light, and the tears I had been holding back all the way home finally spilled over.

New replies had appeared beneath it.

【The first time I met my sister’s fiancé, I hated him. I had been betrayed before, so I didn’t trust men at all.】

【But he really was good to my sister. She has a sensitive stomach, and he remembered everything she could and couldn’t eat.】

【Whenever she worked late, no matter how busy he was, he would go pick her up. Whatever she liked, he always found a way to get it for her.】

I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood.

Vincent had been good to me.

He remembered the days I got period cramps every month, and his car always had painkillers and heat patches ready.?

Once, when I had a stomachache so bad I curled up in bed in the middle of the night, he drove forty minutes to bring me medicine without even changing out of the clothes he had worn to a meeting.

I once casually mentioned wanting cake from a shop in Manhattan, and the next day, he stood in line and brought it to me.

He did not believe in Christianity, yet before I left on business trips, he would go to church with me and sit quietly on the pew, saying he hoped I would be safe.

I had always been grateful that I had found the best man in the world.

With shaking hands, I kept scrolling.

【Later, my sister went to Sicily for work and told me I could call him if I needed anything.】

【I said I would rather die than call him. But one night, the power went out, lightning kept flashing outside, and I was so scared I still dialed his number.】

【Half an hour later, he appeared at my door, soaked from the rain. He smiled and asked me, “So even Wonder Woman Clara gets scared?”】

【In that moment, something in me changed, though I couldn’t explain what it was.】

I remembered that night. Vincent had told me about it himself.

On the phone, he laughed for a long time, saying Clara looked like she was afraid of nothing, and yet she was scared of the dark.

As he talked, there had been a softness in his laughter.

I had not noticed it at all. I had even reminded him.

“Clara never knows how to show weakness. Take care of her a little for me.”

So that sentence had been the beginning.

I had been the one who pushed them closer.

Behind my closed door, I watched the post keep updating.

【After that, whenever something at home broke, I would think of calling him without meaning to.】

【We started seeing each other more often, and somehow, I stopped hating him so much.】

【He often waited for me after work, then went grocery shopping with me or watched movies with me.】

【He even learned to cook the food I liked. Just like he did for my sister, he wrote down everything I liked and disliked in his notes app.】

The comments had already turned vicious.

【Disgusting! You’re going after your own sister’s boyfriend and still pretending to suffer? Have some shame.】

【I feel bad for the sister. The person closest to her and the man she loves are doing this behind her back. Just thinking about it makes me suffocate.】

【You couldn’t control yourself? Then go die. And the man is absolute trash too.】

Under every cruel comment, that burner account had replied.

【She is suffering more than anyone. She hates herself more than anyone. You have no right to judge her.】

【Yes, I’m trash. But even trash can want to protect someone.】

【If I had met her first, I would have chosen her.】

Then Clara’s newest comment appeared.

【You’re right to curse me. I’m disgusting. I’m filthy. I’ll stay away from him from now on. I can’t lose my sister.】

I stared at that last line until the words blurred.

She said she could not lose me, but she had already taken away the one person I thought would stay with me for the rest of my life.

The silver bracelet in the video flashed through my mind again.

Mom had left Clara and me matching bracelets before she died.

She said sisters should have something that matched, so even if we were separated one day, we would remember that someone in this world shared our blood.

I had kept mine in a jewelry box and rarely dared to wear it.

Clara wore hers all the time, and when I was little, I loved playing with the bracelet on her wrist.

She would complain that I was annoying, but she would still hold her hand out and let me turn the tiny silver beads one by one.

She was only thirteen then.

After our parents died in a car accident, every adult in the family wanted to take us in under the name of caring for us, but all they really wanted was the money our parents had left behind.?

Clara stood at the door with a kitchen knife in her hand, crying so hard her whole body shook, but she refused to let anyone in.

“Nora has me. I can raise her.”

After that, she was the one who came to my parent-teacher conferences, the one who braided my hair, and the one who blushed while teaching me how to use a pad when I got my first period.

Other children called for their mom and dad. I always called for Clara.

In my heart, she had never been just my sister. She was half a mother to me, and she was the one person in the world I never had to guard myself against.

But now, the person behind that post was her.