Chapter 4

Wendy's POV

The flight was over fourteen hours. It felt like a century.

I landed in New York in the middle of a downpour.

No umbrella. No luggage. I ran out of the airport and flagged down a cab straight to the hospital.

The hallway smelled like antiseptic. The cold went straight to the bone.

I sprinted to the ICU and found an empty bed. A nurse was unhooking a monitor.

"Where is she? Where's Lily?"

I grabbed her arm.

She flinched, then looked at me. Her eyes went soft and evasive.

"Miss Staley..."

"Where is Lily?"

I was shouting.

Dr. Morris stepped out of his office. He was holding a document. He looked at me and exhaled slowly.

"I'm so sorry for your loss."

Those five words fell like a hammer.

"When..."

I couldn't hear my own voice.

"Three hours ago."

He bowed his head.

"We did everything we could. If the medication had arrived even half a day earlier, there might have been a chance. But..."

But.

But the man who had promised to handle everything was on the other side of the world, picking out diamonds.

But the call that could have saved her life was hung up.

I didn't cry.

I didn't feel anything, actually. My body felt weightless - like one breath of wind could scatter me.

"She's in the morgue."

Dr. Morris handed me a small box.

"She was holding this until the very end. Wouldn't let go."

Inside was a cheap piece of candy in a crinkled wrapper, and a folded piece of paper.

I unfolded it.

Two figures in crayon. A girl with long hair holding hands with a shorter girl. A lopsided castle in the background.

Underneath, in unsteady handwriting:

"Wendy don't cry. I don't hurt anymore. Be happy, okay?"

A single tear hit the paper without warning.

I clutched that drawing in the middle of the hospital corridor and screamed.

My Lily. My little sister. The only person in this world I had left.

She was fourteen years old.

She never got to grow up. She never got to see what was outside.

And I killed her.

My stupidity killed her. My delusions about Lucas Hartwell killed her.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Lucas Hartwell.

The name blinked on the screen.

How fitting.

When Lily was alive, he disappeared. Now that she's gone, he decides to call.

I answered. Put the phone to my ear.

"Wendy! Who do you think you are?"

His voice was furious.

"Stella says you stole her watch and ran back? Get back here and apologize. Now."

"Lucas."

My voice was very calm.

"I took the watch. I'll pay you back."

"Pay me back? With what? Have you lost your mind? You think I won't cut Lily off completely-"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

I looked down at the tear-soaked drawing in my hands. A broken smile crossed my face.

"She's dead."

Silence on the other end.

A few seconds passed. Then his voice came back - frustrated, dismissive.

"Wendy, that's not funny. You're really going to stoop to this just for sympathy? I'm done with you."

Done with me.

He wanted to talk about disappointment?

"Believe it or don't."

I didn't want to give him another word.

"Lucas, we're finished. We're even."

I hung up. Pulled out my SIM card. Held it over the trash can.

Snap.

It wasn't just a SIM card I broke.

It was three years of crawling, and humiliating myself, and loving someone who never saw me at all.