“This doesn’t change the fact that Zion and I love each other.”
One of Valerie’s friends quietly picked up her purse.
Then another person did the same.
One by one, people began leaving.
No shouting.
No dramatic confrontation.
They simply walked away.
By the time the room was almost empty, Nadia turned toward me.
“Are you happy now?”
She was crying.
“You ruined our engagement.”
For one brief second, I saw my little sister again.
The girl whose hair I used to braid before school.
The girl I had grown up protecting.
It still hurt.
But I shook my head.
“No.”
“I’m not happy.”
I looked at her.
“You slept with my husband.”
Then at Zion.
“You lied about me afterward because telling the truth made you look terrible.”
I held Valerie’s letter.
“And when that wasn’t enough, you used Valerie’s death to make yourselves look innocent.”
Neither answered.
I folded the letter and placed it back in my purse.
“You can marry each other.”
I looked between them.
“You can stay together for the rest of your lives if that’s what you want.”
I paused.
“But you do not get to turn me into the villain just so the two of you can feel better about what you did.”
Then I left.
I kept Valerie’s house.
Eventually, I moved into it.
Sometimes I still sit at the little table in the sunroom where we used to drink tea.
And I think about the woman who knew the truth long before I realized she did.
In the end, Valerie didn’t leave me revenge.
And she didn’t really leave me a house.
She left me something far more important.
Proof.
A voice nobody could rewrite after she was gone.
She left me the truth.
