Page 2 of Dead to Me

I slipped the duffel over my shoulder.

“Thank you.”

The lobby was exactly the kind of place China would choose.

White marble floors. Gold fixtures. Fresh flowers so tall they could have their own zip code.

Everything looked expensive. My sister had always loved beautiful things, especially when they belonged to someone else.

A woman wearing a headset rushed past me holding a clipboard. Two men carried boxes of champagne toward a ballroom entrance. Somewhere nearby, a violinist was practicing the same melody over and over again.

I paused beside a huge flower arrangement. For a moment, I imagined a different version of today, one that should've been mine. Malcolm waiting at the end of the aisle. Me walking toward him. China in the front row. My mother crying. My father pretending not to cry. The image vanished as quickly as it appeared. That life ended six years ago.

“Milan?”

My name came from behind me. Every muscle in my body tightened. I turned around. China stood by the elevators.

If someone had taken my face, made it softer, given me longer lashes, and put a diamond ring on my finger big enough to blind someone, they would’ve made her.

She wore a white silk romper and fluffy bridal slippers, even though the wedding wasn't until tomorrow. Her long black hair fell down her back, and oversized sunglasses rested on her head.

She looked good and happy. That was what bothered me most. Six years had changed me, but they seemed to have barely touched her.

She lifted her hand to her mouth.

“Oh my God.”

I smiled.

“Milan.”

She hurried across the lobby. I had just enough time to brace myself before she hugged me.

China hugged me tight. I raised my arms and hugged her back. Anyone watching would have thought it was something beautiful: two sisters reunited after years apart, a bride welcoming her twin home.

No one would've guessed that the last time China and I were in the same room, she was on the witness stand. She cried then too. I remembered every tear and every time she looked at the jury instead of me.

I love my sister, but I have to be honest.

That’s what she said. The truth.

China let go and gently held my face in her hands.

“You came.”

“You invited me.”

“I know, but I didn’t know if you would actually come.”

I didn’t know either. Not when the invitation showed up. Not when I sat in my apartment, three hundred miles away, staring at that thick ivory envelope. Not even when I opened it and saw his name next to hers.

China and Malcolm. My twin sister, and the man who once told me he’d love me forever.

“You look beautiful,” she whispered.

“So do you.”

She gave a nervous laugh. “I look exhausted.”