“This isn’t funny, Ivy. Your sister needs you.”
“No,” I said quietly. “She doesn’t. And neither do you.”
I hung up as Eric’s car pulled into the driveway. He carried a box of my old photos, the ones I had left at my parents’ house.
“Your mom dropped these off at my place,” he said. “I think she was hoping I’d know where to find you.”
I pulled out a photo of Sophie and me as kids in matching Halloween costumes. We used to be inseparable.
“People change,” Eric said gently.
“No.” I crumpled the photo in my hand. “People reveal who they really are.”
Elelliana’s phone buzzed. She read the message, then looked at me carefully.
“Sophie lost the baby.”
The words hung in the air like dust. I waited to feel satisfaction. Victory. Something. Instead, I felt hollow.
Eric touched my arm. “Talk to us.”
I kept staring at the ruined house. “I wanted them to hurt like I hurt. But this… this isn’t what I wanted.”
“What did you want?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Headlights swept across the lawn as another car approached. Sophie stepped out, looking pale and small, still wearing a hospital bracelet.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Elelliana started, but Sophie held up a hand.
“I need to say something.”
I stood facing my sister across the debris-strewn yard. She looked at the destruction around us, then back at me.
“I deserved this,” she said softly. “All of it. I destroyed your life because I was jealous. You had everything. The perfect fiancé. The perfect future. I wanted to prove I could take it away.”
“Sophie—”
“Let me finish.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I told myself it was love. That Jaime and I were meant to be. But really, I just wanted to win. I wanted to be the sister everyone chose for once.”
I looked at the house. Really looked at it. The torn-out rooms. The stripped details. The damage I had ordered just to make them suffer.
“I became exactly what they thought I was,” I whispered. “Bitter. Vindictive. Cruel.”
“We both did,” Sophie said, wiping her eyes. “I lost everything today. Jaime. The baby. Mom and Dad’s trust. But the worst part is that I lost you long before that. The day I decided my jealousy mattered more than my sister.”
Eric and Elelliana quietly backed away, giving us space.
In the deepening dusk, Sophie and I stood among the ruins of both our lives.
“I can’t forgive you,” I said finally.
“I know. I just don’t want us to keep destroying each other.”
I nodded slowly. “What happens now?”
She looked at the house, then at me. “I don’t know.”
I exhaled. “Now we start over. Separately.”
“Will you ever talk to me again?”
“Maybe someday. When it doesn’t hurt to look at you.”
She turned to leave, then paused. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Not because I got caught. Not because everything fell apart. Because I broke something that can’t be fixed.”
I watched her drive away, then turned to Eric and Elelliana.
“Call the contractor,” I said.
Eric blinked. “Tell him what?”
“Tell him to stop.”
“You’re keeping the house?”
“No.” I took one last look at the Victorian, my dream home, my instrument of revenge, my prison of bitterness. “I’m going to restore it. Not for Sophie. Not for revenge. For me. Then I’m going to sell it and move somewhere new.”
“Running away?” Elelliana asked.
“No.”