Page 178 of Darling Venom
She sighed.
I shook my head. “And before you deny it, remember it would be hypocritical of you to lie, considering how hard you’ve been pressing me for the past several months.”
“It’s noth—” She clocked my cut-the-bullshit expression. “Fine. Whatever. It’s Leah. We aren’t talking.”
“Aren’t talking… as in, at all, or less than usual?”
“As in… legit beefing. I’m not talking about our usual Cold War.”
“When did this begin?”
Why do you care?
“Maybe a month ago. Could be more.”
“What started it?”
Again, asswipe—You. Don’t. Care.
“Kellan’s letter.”
“Elaborate.”
There went another thread. Patience. It was, admittedly, the smallest thread in the first place. And only reserved for moments like this, to remind me I spun wildly out of control when it came to Charlotte Richards.
“I never go into her room.” Charlie set aside the rag and spray bottle, resting her hip against the island. “Not after the night of the fire when I stole her cigarettes and her space became ground zero to our suffering. But we fought last month, I barged inside, and I spotted the letter.”
I swallowed. “For the first time?”
“Yes. I recognized the handwriting immediately and snatched it up. Leah told me Kellan handed it to her the night he died and asked her to give it to me, but she never did. Instead, she sent me out for a pack of cigarettes, and I arrived late to my meeting with Kellan.”
On the roof, I thought, remembering what she’d whispered in Kel’s room.
They met on the roof at St. Paul’s. Every year. To check up on each other.
She needed to be checked up on.
It didn’t surprise me.
She considered her parents’ deaths her fault. It didn’t help that Leah blamed her for the state of her face, instead of simply being grateful she had a sister that was alive. I would give fucking anything to have Kellan back.
Any. Thing.
“She was the last person he saw?” I stopped myself from pushing her about her arrangement with Kel.
Charlie eyed me warily, rushing out, “Before you get mad, and you have every right to be, understand that she didn’t know Kellan would kill himself. I also never told her after he did. So, the letter just sat in her room. Untouched.” She jutted her chin out. “But she took it with her when we moved, and I’d like to think that means something. Or maybe I’m making excuses for her. Either way, for the first time since the fire, I’m mad at her, and I feel like I have every right to be.”
“But you still feel guilty.”
Charlotte Richards: the martyr.
She could be so damn stupid sometimes.
“She sacrificed so much for me.” She jerked a finger at her chest, nailing herself right over the heart. “I’m the reason she lost her parents, hates her own face, and dropped out of college.”
Jab.
Jab.
