We Are Us

But Sadie only shakes her head. “I don’t trust you, sis.”

“What other choice do you have? I’m not going with you.”

Her stare narrows as it drifts to a spot just over my head, a look of resignation settling over her features. “No, you’re not.”

The sun outside the window shifts, as if sliding out from behind a cloud, momentarily bathing my sister in soft white light and reminding me of my final moments with my babies. Our last goodbye.

And with it, reality finally hits home. I can’t let Sadie go. No matter how badly she betrayed me, she is still my sister. Tucker will be caught, and if he’s caught by the man from the other night… A shiver of fear shakes my spine. Sadie might not make it out alive. “If you go to Tucker now, you’ll be ru

Sadie’s eyes blaze with fire as she slams her hand against the kitchen counter. “See. I knew it. You don’t want him, but you won’t let me have him either.”

My phone is in my bedroom. Damn it. I push off the wall, turning my back on Sadie. “Believe what you want, but I’m calling the police. It’s for your own good.”

I don’t get two steps before I hear it, the sound of Sadie pulling a knife from the wood block beside the stove.

When I spin around, the sight of my sister bearing down on me, stainless steel blade glinting in her hand, seems like a dream. A terrible, terrible nightmare.

“Sadie, what the hell?” I squeak, backing away from her.

“I won’t let you ruin all of my plans.” Her face is a vengeful mask, almost unrecognizable from the sister I know.

Correction: the sister I thought I knew.

“So what, you’re going to kill me?” I’m stalling, trying to buy time. Sadie is a Soul Cycle addict, small but fast. And she hasn’t been dealing with a head injury and multiple lacerations all over her back. If she lunges, I am a goner. Somehow, I need to talk my way out of this.

“That’s the idea, although, of course, I’ll make it look like a suicide. I mean, it would be understandable, right? Your life is a complete train wreck. Husband a criminal who’s gone missing. Assets frozen. Police questioning your involvement. Plus, there’s your unhappy marriage to Tucker, and your miscarriage. Twins, so a double whammy.” She speaks in a singsong voice, moving closer.

“You know what, you’re right. Tucker is waiting for you. Why don’t you just leave now? I won’t say anything, I promise.”

“Liar,” she spits. “You’re such a goody-two shoes, Poppy. Always have been. I wouldn’t make it halfway down the corridor before you called the police on me. No. This is the way it has to be. You have to die.”

My instincts kick in. I lash out with my forearm, knocking into Sadie’s wrist and sending the knife skittering across the polished wood floors. Bone collides with bone and we both yelp, looking at each other in surprise. Sadie recovers first, spi

“Ooof,” she gasps, sucking wind.

The knife in sight, I army-crawl over her prone body to get it. Barely an inch away, my fingers outstretched for the handle, Sadie rears up, flopping me onto my back. Explosions of pain light up along my still healing skin, my skull smacking the hard floor. The edges of my vision blur, but not enough that I don’t see Sadie wrap her hand around the knife and straddle me, her face flushed with exertion and rage.

“Get. Off. Me.” I grunt, the pain in my head and back negated by a rush of adrenaline.

“Not a chance,” she says, reaching for one of my flailing arms. “Just two quick cuts, you’ll barely feel it. I’ll throw you in a tub, stage it like a suicide. By the time your body is found, I’ll be sipping daiquiris on a beach with Tucker.” Sadie cackles. “Virgin for me, of course.”

This isn’t happening. I can’t be fighting off my depraved lunatic of a sister who is intent on killing me to run off and join my husband.

But I am.

Swatting away Sadie’s attempts to capture my hands, one of my nails draws a diagonal slash across her cheek. “Fuck!” she screams, holding a hand to her injured face as she stares at me accusingly.

“Let’s just stop, okay? Right now.” I freeze, my palms outstretched to block the knife still pointed my way. “This is crazy, Sadie. We’re sisters—no guy should ever come between us.”

And at that moment—just before the thunderous sound of the front door crashing open, wood splintering around a booted foot, hinges being ripped from the frame—I see Sadie give the slightest shake of her head before drawing back the knife intending, I know without a shadow of a doubt, to kill me.

She never gets the chance.

Gavin points his gun, shouting for Sadie to drop the knife. My arms are shaking, fighting a losing battle to keep her from plunging it into my chest. Even so, I risk a glance Gavin’s way. Just in time, I catch the almost imperceptible narrowing of his eyes, the clenching of his jaw. I don’t have to see his finger twitch to know he is going to shoot my sister.

“No!” I scream, flinging myself up in an adrenaline-fueled burst of strength and wrapping my arms around her.

There is an explosion of pain in my right shoulder as Sadie and I jerk from the strength of the bullet that tears through both of us.

The knife clatters to the floor as Sadie’s grip loosens, the two of us coming to rest in a tangled heap, our blood a fast-moving river heading toward the discarded blade.