Chapter 10
I couldn't breathe.
Linda was my sister.
My half-sister.
The woman who'd tried to kill me. Who'd hurt Emma. Who'd destroyed so many lives.
She was family.
"I need to see her," I said.
"Maya—"
"I need to see her, Sarah. Now."
An hour later, I was at the jail.
Linda was brought into the visiting room in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit. Her hair was messy. Her eyes were red. But she still had that cold, calculating look.
She sat down across from me.
When she saw my face, she smiled.
"You know," she said.
It wasn't a question.
"We're sisters," I said. My voice was barely a whisper.
Linda leaned back in her chair.
"Half-sisters," she corrected. "Same mother. Different fathers. She gave me up when I was a baby. Kept you. Loved you. Gave you everything."
Her eyes burned with hatred.
"You had the life I deserved," she said. "The mother. The family. The love. And I had nothing. No one. Until I decided to take what was mine."
"You knew?" I said. "All this time, you knew who I was?"
Linda smiled. That same cold smile.
"I saw you at the grocery store three months ago," she said. "You were buying cookies. You were wearing that stupid necklace with the little bird charm. Mom used to wear one just like it. I recognized it. I followed you home. I found out you were moving in next door."
She leaned forward.
"It was perfect," she said. "I could finally get close to the sister who had everything. And I could take it all away from you. Just like it was taken from me."
I stared at her.
The break-in. The threats. The text messages.
She hadn't just been trying to stop me from exposing her.
She'd been trying to destroy me.
Because I was her sister.
Because I had the life she felt she deserved.
"Why didn't you just... talk to me?" I said. "If you'd told me who you were, I would have helped you. I would have been your sister."
Linda laughed. A bitter, broken sound.
"Help me?" she said. "You don't know what it's like to be alone. To be unwanted. To grow up wondering why your mother gave you away and kept the perfect little daughter."
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but her eyes were still hard.
"I didn't want your help," she said. "I wanted your life. And I almost had it. If you hadn't been so nosy, so determined to play the hero..."
She shook her head.
"But it doesn't matter now," she said. "I'm going to prison. And you get to go back to your perfect little life. With your perfect little family. And your perfect new friends."
She stood up to leave.
"Wait," I said.
She stopped.
"I'm sorry," I said. "For everything you went through. For the life you didn't have. For our mother's choice."
Linda stared at me.
For a moment, I saw something in her eyes. Something that looked like pain. Like regret.
But then it was gone.
"Sorry doesn't give me back my life," she said.
She turned and walked away.
I sat there, staring at the empty chair.
My sister.
The woman who'd tried to destroy me.
And I couldn't even hate her.
Not completely.
Because I understood now.
She wasn't just a monster.
She was a broken little girl who'd never been loved. Who'd never had a chance.
And that made everything so much sadder.
I left the jail and went to David's house.
Emma ran to me when I walked in.
"Are you okay?" she said.
"I'm okay," I said, hugging her tight.
David and Sarah and Clara were in the living room. They looked at me with concern.
I told them everything.
About Linda being my half-sister. About her childhood. About why she'd really come after me.
No one said anything for a long time.
Then David put his hand on my shoulder.
"Are you okay?" he said quietly.
"I don't know," I said. "I feel... confused. Sad. Angry. All at the same time."
"She's still dangerous," Sarah said gently. "She still tried to kill you. She still hurt Emma. None of that changes because you're related."
"I know," I said. "But it changes how I see her. She's not just a villain. She's a person who was hurt. Who never got the help she needed."
I looked at Emma, who was drawing on the floor.
"I want to make sure no other child goes through what she went through," I said. "What Emma went through."
David squeezed my shoulder.
"We will," he said. "Together."
The trial started two weeks later.
It was the biggest trial the town had ever seen.
The prosecution presented all the evidence. The video of Linda pushing Emma. The letters. The recordings. The proof of identity theft and fraud. Clara testified. I testified. Emma testified via closed-circuit TV, brave as always.
Linda's defense tried to paint her as a victim of a troubled childhood. They tried to say she'd been driven to desperation by poverty and neglect.
But the evidence was overwhelming.
The jury deliberated for four hours.
They found Linda guilty on all counts.
Attempted murder. Child abuse. Fraud. Conspiracy to commit murder. Identity theft.
The judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As the guards led her away, Linda looked at me.
This time, there was no smile. No hatred.
Just emptiness.
And something that looked like...
Regret.
I left the courtroom feeling empty.
We'd won. Justice had been served.
But it didn't feel like a victory.
It felt like a tragedy.
I walked outside into the sunshine.
David was waiting for me. He took my hand.
"You did good," he said.
"We did good," I said.
Emma ran up to me, holding a drawing.
"I made this for you," she said.
It was a picture of all of us. Me. David. Emma. Clara. Sarah.
Holding hands. Smiling.
The sun was shining.
And in the corner, Emma had drawn two angels.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Your mom and my mom," Emma said. "They're friends now. And they're watching over us."
I hugged her tight.
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
But they weren't sad tears.
They were tears of hope.
Of healing.
Of love.
We were going to be okay.
All of us.
Even Linda, in her own way.
I looked up at the sky.
And for the first time in months, I felt at peace.
But as we walked to the car, a woman stepped out from behind a tree.
She was older, with gray hair and kind eyes.
May you like
She looked at me.
And she looked exactly like my mother.
