Chapter 13 - The Sisters
Jessica asked if Sophie could apologize to Emma.
We met at a bakery halfway between our houses.
No grandparents.
No forced hugs.
Sophie slid the ugly castle drawing across the table.
“I’m sorry.”
Emma looked at her. “Did you want me to go to Disney?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
Sophie stared at her hands. “I thought Grandma would get mad at me too.”
Emma pushed the drawing back. “I don’t want it.”
Sophie tore it in half.
Then again.
Emma finally smiled.
While the girls decorated cupcakes, Jessica sat beside me.
“I spent my whole life trying to stay the favorite,” she said.
“I spent mine pretending I didn’t care that I wasn’t.”
She laughed sadly.
“Mom played us against each other.”
“She did.”
“But I helped.”
“Yes.”
For once, she didn’t argue.
Jessica told me she was selling whatever parts of the Disney package could be transferred and using the money to pay down fraudulent debts.
Then she said, “I don’t know who I am if I’m not the good daughter.”
I looked at her.
“Maybe that’s the first useful question either of us has asked.”
By the end of the month, Dad signed the accounting admission.
Mom still refused.
Her attorney eventually forced reality on her: the applications, addresses, and spending records were too clear.
Finally she signed too.
My trust would be restored with interest.
My credit would be repaired.
Legal fees would be covered.
May you like
For the first time in my life, the facts existed on paper without Mom’s version wrapped around them.
Then Emma and I packed for New York.
