There was a time when seeing that photograph would have made me cry until I couldn't breathe, as if my entire being were being torn apart. But now I only stood there, looking at it in silence, my mind a perfect blank. Not a single ripple.
That was when Adrian Winslow pulled an envelope from her bag and waved it in front of my eyes, the satisfaction on her face completely undisguised.
"Sister, you really are hard to kill. Last time you went into the water, the whole family left you to drown, and somehow you're still alive."
She laughed softly, but her voice was all malice.
"I've been in a terrible mood lately, but then I found out something very interesting. Can you guess what it is?"
She paused deliberately, as if waiting for me to respond.
I said nothing.
She didn't care. She kept talking.
"I was wrong before. I actually believed that even if no one else in the world loved you, at least Julian did."
She waved the letter in her hand, her smile deepening.
"Until I happened to see the love letter he wrote to me. That's when I realized the person he'd been in love with all along was me."
Her voice grew quieter, but each word cut sharper.
"The one who brought me breakfast when we were children, that was him. Every time I was upset, he was always the first to appear, and it wasn't coincidence. Even marrying you was nothing more than making sure you didn't get in the way of my path to Julian Frost."
She laughed out loud, the sound thin and piercing against the cemetery silence.
"Sister, your whole existence is a joke."
I listened to every word she said and slowly closed my eyes.
There was no collapse. No anguish. Not the kind she had been expecting.
The satisfaction on her face stiffened, degree by degree, as though she'd lost her audience and her pleasure along with it. Irritation replaced triumph. She started to raise her hand, but her gaze caught movement in the distance: Julian Moretti, walking toward us across the gravel path. Something calculated flickered through her eyes.
Her hand stopped mid-motion.
The next second, she threw herself backward.
It happened too fast. I didn't even have time to react before she was already crying out, tumbling down the stone steps.
I stood frozen, and looked down without thinking.
Sure enough, Julian's expression changed instantly. He lost control, rushing toward her.
"Chloe!"