Chapter 14 - Vanessa Had Tried to Keep Me Invisible Forever
Vanessa’s hospital room smelled like antiseptic and expensive flowers.
She looked ridiculous in a wrist cast and perfect eyeliner.
Even injured, my sister refused to look unfinished.
I closed the door behind me.
She saw my face.
“Oh.”
“That’s your opening?”
“Mom told you.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa looked toward the window.
I stayed standing.
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
She said nothing.
“You paid Leon before Dad died.”
“Yes.”
“To stop him telling me about Alessandra.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Her eyes snapped back to mine.
“I did not tell him to kill Dad.”
“That was not my question.”
“I paid him to scare Dad.”
My stomach turned.
“Scare him how?”
“Steal files. Break into the gallery. Make him understand that if he told you, people would come after us.”
“And Dad died three months later.”
“I didn’t know Leon would set up that meeting.”
“Do you understand how many times people in this family have said they didn’t know what would happen after hiring dangerous men?”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
I laughed.
Of course.
“From what?”
“From becoming what you are now.”
“What am I now?”
“Targeted. Watched. Charged. Standing next to Carter Battalia while people shoot at you.”
“You framed me for fourteen million dollars.”
“Later.”
“That does not help.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She looked down at her cast.
“When Dad decided to tell you, I panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because everything always changed when you learned something.”
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
“When you were twelve, Dad told you the gallery would someday be yours. Suddenly he took you to openings and taught you contracts. When you were eighteen, Mom told you about the trust. Suddenly you had a future I didn’t control.”
“My future was never yours to control.”
“I know that now.”
“Do you?”
She swallowed.
“No.”
That honesty stopped me.
Vanessa wiped her face with her good hand.
“I hated that Dad looked at you like you were a secret worth protecting.”
“And me?”
“I loved you.”
The words hurt.
“I hated you too.”
There it was.
Both truths.
“I thought if you stayed small, nobody would take you away from me.”
My throat tightened.
“So you made me small.”
“Yes.”
“You dressed me badly.”
A faint laugh escaped her through tears.
“Yes.”
“You insulted my job.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated me in front of men.”
“Yes.”
“You hit me.”
Her face broke.
“Yes.”
“Then you framed me.”
“Yes.”
I sat finally.
Vanessa looked at me.
“I am sorry.”
I had wanted those words my entire life.
They did not repair anything.
But they mattered.
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I know.”
“I may never.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
She nodded.
Then I asked, “Why did you stab Dominic?”
Her mouth tightened.
“He said he was going to kill Gabriel.”
“The kidnapping was fake.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to get released.”
“Yes.”
“Then why stab him?”
“Because he threatened Gabriel earlier. I believed him.”
“Why do you care about Gabriel?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Because he’s your brother.”
I almost laughed.
“That has never stopped you from hurting me.”
“No.”
She looked away.
“But I’m trying to stop being the worst person in every room.”
That was such a Vanessa sentence that I smiled before I could stop myself.
She smiled too.
For one second, we were sisters again.
Not healed.
Just recognizable.
Then she said, “You need to know something about Carter.”
I sighed.
“Of course.”
“Dominic isn’t trying to take his territory.”
“What?”
“That’s the story Carter believes.”
“What does Dominic want?”
“To force Carter out.”
“Same thing.”
“No. Out of Philadelphia.”
“Why?”
“Because the federal government is building a RICO case around him.”
My stomach tightened.
“Carter knows investigations exist.”
“Not this one.”
“How do you know?”
“Dominic showed me the draft indictment.”
I stared.
“Draft?”
“Someone inside Justice is feeding him information.”
“What charges?”
“Racketeering. Extortion. obstruction. Conspiracy.”
“Evidence?”
“Some real. Some planted.”
Just like me.
My blood went cold.
“Who planted it?”
“Leon.”
Everything circled back.
Leon had not only been watching Carter.
He had been building a case against him.
“Why?”
“Because Salvatore left instructions.”
“To destroy his own son?”
“If Carter ever tried to dismantle the network.”
My stomach turned.
A dead father controlling a living son through legal sabotage.
I stood.
“Where is Carter?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Federal building.”
“What?”
“He was arrested twenty minutes ago.”
My phone rang.
Mara.
I answered.
“Tell me she’s wrong.”
Mara’s silence answered first.
“They took Carter.”
I closed my eyes.
“Charges?”
“Sealed.”
“Can you represent him?”
“I already am.”
“What do you need from me?”
Mara paused.
“Nothing.”
I almost laughed.
Nobody ever needed nothing.
Then she said, “Diana, do not try to help.”
That was when I knew helping might be exactly what Carter needed.
Not rescue.
Evidence.
There was a difference.
And for the first time, I understood why he had struggled so hard to learn it with me.
May you like
Before I left Vanessa’s hospital room, she called my name. I turned. She looked suddenly younger beneath the fluorescent light. “That red dress,” she said. I almost laughed. “What about it?” Her mouth twisted. “I picked it because I thought Carter would hate it on you.” I stared at her. “You barely knew him.” “I knew his taste.” “That is possibly the saddest confession you’ve made today.” She nodded. “I know.” Then she added, “He didn’t hate it.” Heat climbed my face, which annoyed me. Vanessa smiled for the first time without cruelty. “That made me furious.” I should have been angry. Instead, I understood something small and ugly: she had spent our lives arranging the room before I entered it, terrified that one day the room would rearrange itself around me. It finally had. Neither of us knew who we were without that pattern.
At the door, Vanessa said, “Diana?” I looked back. “I am trying,” she said. I believed that she was trying. I did not yet believe trying was enough. Both things could be true, and for once I did not force myself to choose between them.
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