A dry, humorless sound escaped my throat.
"Your family really raised a fine daughter. She stole eighteen years of my life, humiliated me the moment I came back, seduced my husband, bore his child, and moved right into my nest like a cuckoo."
Carl's face darkened. His voice cut through the room like a whip.
"Shut your mouth, Serena. If you hadn't shown up out of nowhere, June would never have felt so insecure. Everything she did was because she was terrified you'd steal our love."
He looked at me, his eyes glacial.
"Even if she made mistakes, you pushed her to it. And Patrick should have married her in the first place."
I laughed. The sound tore out of me, ragged and raw.
June had slandered me, framed me, more times than I could count. My parents knew the truth every single time, yet all they ever said was, "You're the older sister. Let her have her way."
Whenever anything was bought, Carl always let June choose first. "June has no one but us," he'd say.
I used to hide in my room and cry. Patrick was the only one who wiped my tears, who placed the best of everything in front of me, who told me over and over that he loved me, who held me like I was the most precious thing in the world.
And in the end, the man I'd poured every ounce of love into betrayed me. The family I'd been desperate to belong to despised me.
Patrick's brow furrowed at Carl's words. He wanted to argue but said nothing.
He still believed I was the one he loved and that June had been an accident. But hearing me lash out at her like that made anger flicker across his face all the same.
His expression went cold.
"Serena, I told you it was an accident. Someone drugged June. Was I supposed to just stand there and watch her get assaulted? If it had been you, I would have done the same thing."
If it had been you, I would have done the same thing.
Saved her right into his bed. Saved her all the way to a baby. Saved her straight into our home.
June's eyes welled with tears on cue. Her body trembled.
"I'm so sorry, Serena..."
Carl pulled her into his arms and cut her off.
"You have nothing to apologize for. Stop crying. We'll take you to your favorite restaurant."
As he turned to leave, he cast one last frigid glance in my direction.
"Serena, if you keep throwing these tantrums and bullying June, I will send you back where you came from. You can go back to scraping by."
I smiled. Cold and thin.