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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Marcus placed the documents on the wedding table, Juliette looked as though the floor had vanished beneath her.<\/p>\n
“You planned this.”<\/p>\n
“Yes.”<\/p>\n
“You wanted to humiliate me.”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
I looked around the ballroom.<\/p>\n
“I wanted everyone to see what happened.”<\/p>\n
She laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
“You’ve always been jealous of me.”<\/p>\n
The sentence hurt more than I expected.<\/p>\n
Not because it was true.<\/p>\n
Because I had spent my whole life afraid that she believed it.<\/p>\n
“I was jealous of one thing,” I said.<\/p>\n
She frowned.<\/p>\n
“What?”<\/p>\n
“That you could still call me your sister.”<\/p>\n
She stared.<\/p>\n
“And you couldn’t even do that.”<\/p>\n
Andrew finally stepped forward.<\/p>\n
He looked completely lost.<\/p>\n
He had been preparing to marry a woman he thought he understood.<\/p>\n
Now he was watching a supposedly dead sister stand before her.<\/p>\n
“Juliette.”<\/p>\n
She turned.<\/p>\n
“Andrew, don’t.”<\/p>\n
“What is she saying?”<\/p>\n
“She’s lying.”<\/p>\n
Marcus opened another file.<\/p>\n
“Then let’s examine the records.”<\/p>\n
Juliette looked at him.<\/p>\n
“Who are you?”<\/p>\n
“You know who I am.”<\/p>\n
She looked away.<\/p>\n
Marcus placed a photograph on the table.<\/p>\n
It was an old security image.<\/p>\n
Grainy.<\/p>\n
Blurry.<\/p>\n
But recognizable.<\/p>\n
Juliette stood outside the house.<\/p>\n
Alive.<\/p>\n
The timestamp was visible.<\/p>\n
11:42 p.m.<\/p>\n
My family had claimed she had been unconscious at that time.<\/p>\n
Juliette stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n
Marcus said:<\/p>\n
“You told investigators you were trapped upstairs.”<\/p>\n
She said nothing.<\/p>\n
“You told them you escaped through a window.”<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
“You told them you never saw Caroline.”<\/p>\n
Her lips parted.<\/p>\n
Marcus placed another photograph beside the first.<\/p>\n
This one showed the hallway.<\/p>\n
Smoke.<\/p>\n
Fire.<\/p>\n
And a figure near the entrance.<\/p>\n
Me.<\/p>\n
Then another figure behind me.<\/p>\n
Juliette.<\/p>\n
She had been there.<\/p>\n
The room erupted in whispers.<\/p>\n
Andrew looked at her.<\/p>\n
“You told me you weren’t there.”<\/p>\n
Juliette shook her head.<\/p>\n
“I was confused.”<\/p>\n
“You said you were downstairs.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t remember.”<\/p>\n
Marcus leaned forward.<\/p>\n
“That’s interesting.”<\/p>\n
He opened another file.<\/p>\n
“The hospital report states Caroline was found alive at 11:58 p.m.”<\/p>\n
Juliette stared.<\/p>\n
Marcus continued.<\/p>\n
“Your death certificate was filed the following morning.”<\/p>\n
“So?”<\/p>\n
“The problem is that your father signed an estate authorization at 7:30 a.m.”<\/p>\n
Juliette froze.<\/p>\n
My father closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
Marcus looked at him.<\/p>\n
“You signed it before Caroline was officially identified.”<\/p>\n
My father’s shoulders dropped.<\/p>\n
“I was told she was dead.”<\/p>\n
“By whom?”<\/p>\n
My father looked at Juliette.<\/p>\n
She whispered:<\/p>\n
“Dad.”<\/p>\n
I watched him.<\/p>\n
“Tell them.”<\/p>\n
He couldn’t.<\/p>\n
So I did.<\/p>\n
“She told you I was dead.”<\/p>\n
Juliette shouted:<\/p>\n
“No!”<\/p>\n
“You told him.”<\/p>\n
“No!”<\/p>\n
“You told him I was gone.”<\/p>\n
“I thought you were dead!”<\/p>\n
“You knew.”<\/p>\n
“I didn’t!”<\/p>\n
“You looked at me.”<\/p>\n
My voice cracked.<\/p>\n
“You looked directly at me while I was trapped in that hallway.”<\/p>\n
She began crying.<\/p>\n
“I was scared.”<\/p>\n
“So was I.”<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know what to do.”<\/p>\n
“You walked away.”<\/p>\n
Her tears continued.<\/p>\n
“I thought the ceiling was going to collapse.”<\/p>\n
“And you left me.”<\/p>\n
She covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
For the first time, she looked less like a bride and more like the little girl I remembered.<\/p>\n
But I couldn’t let that memory save her.<\/p>\n
Not this time.<\/p>\n
Marcus turned to Andrew.<\/p>\n
“You deserve to know that the Mercer estate was transferred after Caroline’s death.”<\/p>\n
Andrew looked at Juliette.<\/p>\n
“Your sister’s inheritance?”<\/p>\n
She said nothing.<\/p>\n
He understood.<\/p>\n
“That’s what this is about?”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
“It’s about what happened before the money.”<\/p>\n
I looked at my father.<\/p>\n
“Tell him.”<\/p>\n
My father finally spoke.<\/p>\n
“Caroline found irregularities in the company.”<\/p>\n
Andrew frowned.<\/p>\n
Juliette looked at him.<\/p>\n
“She misunderstood.”<\/p>\n
“No,” my father said.<\/p>\n
Juliette stared at him.<\/p>\n
“Stop.”<\/p>\n
He continued.<\/p>\n
“She found transfers I couldn’t explain.”<\/p>\n
“You promised!”<\/p>\n
“I was trying to protect you.”<\/p>\n
“You promised you wouldn’t tell.”<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
The confession hidden inside a broken sentence.<\/p>\n
Juliette realized what she had said.<\/p>\n
Her face changed.<\/p>\n
Marcus slowly closed the file.<\/p>\n
“Thank you.”<\/p>\n
She stared at him.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t mean\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Yes, you did.”<\/p>\n
I stepped toward her.<\/p>\n
She stepped backward.<\/p>\n
My satin-clad sister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Marcus placed the documents on the wedding table, Juliette looked as though the floor had vanished beneath her. “You planned this.” “Yes.” “You wanted to humiliate me.” “No.” I looked around the ballroom. “I wanted everyone to see what happened.” She laughed bitterly. “You’ve always been jealous of me.” The sentence hurt more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-427","sr_chapter","type-sr_chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sr_chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}