“You both have until Monday to leave this house before I start the legal eviction process,” I said with a calm that terrified them. My mother called me the next day to tell me I was being cruel to my fragile sister and I told her that accuracy was not the same thing as cruelty.
On the night of the reunion I put on a black silk dress and diamond earrings that I had bought for myself to celebrate a major career win. I looked in the mirror and saw a woman who was no longer willing to be a supporting character in someone else’s delusion.
Troy was waiting downstairs in his best suit and he looked at me with a mixture of desire and dread that almost made me pity him. He told me I wasn’t allowed to go and I laughed as I walked out the door to meet Preston’s car.
The reunion was held in a grand ballroom at a historic hotel where the elite of the city gathered to compare their successes. I saw Troy standing near the bar with Kelsey on his arm and she was wearing a bright emerald dress that screamed for attention.
Preston placed his hand on the small of my back and we walked into the center of the room with our heads held high. It took less than a minute for the first person to notice the discrepancy and for the whispers to begin echoing through the hall.
“Hi Troy,” I said while smiling at the circle of his old friends who were looking between me and Kelsey with visible confusion. A man in a tailored blazer asked for an introduction and I introduced myself as Troy’s wife of ten years.
The silence that followed was the most satisfying sound I had ever heard in my entire life. I watched the color drain from Troy’s face as I explained that Kelsey was actually my sister and that he had been lying about his marriage for a decade.
Kelsey tried to claim it was all a misunderstanding but I looked at her and reminded her that she had rehearsed my memories in my own house. The room turned against them with a speed that was both brutal and entirely deserved.
Troy tried to tell me I was making a scene but I told him that I was simply providing the truth he had worked so hard to hide. I reached into my clutch and pulled out a thick envelope containing the divorce papers I had signed earlier that morning.