Chapter 7 - What Their Mother Never Told Them
Robert’s heart attack changed the family.
Not instantly.
Not magically.
But the fear of losing him stripped away some of their ability to pretend.
During his recovery, Susan asked Emily and Chloe to come home for dinner.
Chloe hesitated.
Emily agreed.
They sat at the same table where so many fights had happened.
Robert was thinner.
Susan looked exhausted.
Chloe had not moved back.
She still lived in transitional housing and was saving for a small apartment.
Emily noticed she wore the same coat three weeks in a row.
Old Chloe would have considered that humiliation.
New Chloe seemed too tired to care.
After dinner, Susan said, “There’s something I need to tell both of you.”
Robert looked at her.
“You sure?”
“No.”
She smiled sadly.
“But I should.”
The sisters waited.
Susan folded her hands.
“When you were little, Chloe almost died.”
Chloe frowned.
“What?”
Emily looked at her mother.
“I don’t remember that.”
“You were six. Chloe was three.”
Susan explained.
Chloe had developed severe pneumonia.
She spent twelve days in the hospital.
For two nights, doctors were uncertain she would survive.
Susan had never recovered emotionally.
“When she came home,” Susan whispered, “I couldn’t say no to her.”
Chloe stared.
Susan continued.
“If she cried, I gave in. If she wanted something, I found a way.”
Emily understood immediately.
“And me?”
Susan looked at her.
“You became the easy child.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“I was six.”
“I know.”
“You expected me to understand?”
“I told myself you were strong.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“I wasn’t strong. I was a child who learned there was no room to be difficult.”
Susan began crying.
Chloe looked stunned.
Emily continued.
“When Chloe broke something, I was told to forgive her. When she took my clothes, I was told to share. When she ruined my graduation dinner because her boyfriend dumped her, everyone comforted her.”
“I know.”
“No, Mom. You don’t.”
Susan covered her mouth.
Emily had never allowed herself to say these things.
“I loved her. I still love her. But you trained both of us.”
Chloe whispered, “Emily.”
She looked at her sister.
“You trained her to believe someone would always fix everything.”
Emily’s eyes moved to her mother.
“And you trained me to believe loving someone meant accepting whatever they did.”
No one spoke.
Robert’s eyes filled with tears.
“I should’ve seen it.”
Emily shook her head.
“You saw some of it.”
“Not enough.”
Chloe stood suddenly.
“I need air.”
She went outside.
Emily followed ten minutes later.
Chloe sat on the back steps.
“You were right,” she said.
Emily sat several feet away.
“About what?”
“Everything.”
“No.”
“Most things.”
Emily looked toward Ryan’s now-empty house.
A new family had moved in.
Children’s bicycles rested beside the garage.
Chloe followed her gaze.
“I hated you.”
Emily looked at her.
Chloe corrected herself.
“No. I loved you.”
She laughed through tears.
“That was the problem.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You were everything Mom said I should be whenever she was angry with me.”
Emily frowned.
Chloe continued.
“Responsible like Emily. Kind like Emily. Why can’t you think before you act like Emily?”
Emily had never known.
“So when men chose me…”
“You felt better than me.”
“For five minutes.”
Chloe nodded.
“Then I needed it again.”
Emily swallowed.
“Ryan wasn’t the first.”
“No.”
Emily looked at her.
“My college boyfriend?”
Chloe said nothing.
Emily already knew.
“Oh my God.”
“He kissed me once.”
“When?”
“Thanksgiving. Your sophomore year.”
Emily remembered the breakup weeks later.
He had claimed he needed space.
“You never told me.”
“I liked that he wanted me.”
Emily stood.
Chloe did not stop her.
Then Emily turned back.
“I can forgive a lot of things.”
“I know.”
“But forgiveness doesn’t make us sisters the way we used to be.”
Chloe nodded.
“I know.”
“You’re going to have to build something new.”
“I know.”
Emily stared.
Chloe smiled sadly.
“You hate when I say that.”
“A little.”
Emily sat again.
They stayed outside until the air turned cold.
Over the next several months, Chloe did exactly what Emily had asked.
She built.
Slowly.
She rented a studio apartment.
She worked.
She paid down debt.
She started therapy.
She stopped dating.
For the first time since she was fifteen, Chloe went six months without a boyfriend.
Emily joked once, “Are you sick?”
Chloe laughed.
“Possibly.”
Their relationship remained careful.
Coffee once a month.
Family dinners.
Occasional texts.
Trust returned in teaspoons.
Then Noah gave Emily a key to his apartment.
“I know this isn’t a proposal.”
“Good.”
He laughed.
“Would that be terrible?”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
Noah raised an eyebrow.
Emily realized what she had said.
“I mean eventually.”
“Eventually.”
She smiled.
Grace overheard.
“Can eventually be before I graduate?”
Noah shouted from the kitchen, “Go do your homework.”
Grace grinned.
One year after the backyard disaster, Emily drove past a bakery display and saw a lemon-blueberry cake.
She stopped.
For several seconds she was back in Ryan’s yard.
Broken plate.
Blue lace.
Humiliation.
Then she realized something.
The memory no longer hurt the same way.
She bought the cake.
At dinner, Noah asked, “Special occasion?”
Emily smiled.
“Actually, yes.”
“What?”
“I survived being stupid.”
Noah laughed.
“That deserves cake.”
Grace raised her fork.
“To being less stupid.”
Emily clinked forks with her.
Later that night, the doorbell rang.
Chloe stood there.
Her face was pale.
“Can I come in?”
Emily immediately knew something was wrong.
“What happened?”
Chloe stepped inside.
She held an envelope.
“I got a letter from Ryan.”
Emily’s heart gave one strange beat.
“What does he want?”
Chloe handed it to her.
Emily opened it.
Inside was not a love letter.
It was a wedding invitation.
Ryan Bennett was getting married.
And beneath the invitation was a handwritten note.
Emily,
I know this may be strange, but there’s something I should have returned a long time ago.
Please come if you feel comfortable.
—Ryan
Emily looked at Chloe.
“What does he mean?”
May you like
Chloe whispered:
“I think I know.”
