We stare at each other with identical eyes, dark brown with gold-splashed centers. She was always the pretty one, but that wasn’t enough for her. There was one boy in our whole school who preferred me, and she had to take him, too.
Brandon’s betrayal doesn’t even hurt anymore. He and I would have been driftwood and our marriage a shipwreck. But her? My sister and how she decided to hurt me—that I’m not sure when I’ll get over. Not today.
“Brandon’s Aunt Sharon has pneumonia.” Terry lays a bushel of collard greens on the counter and pulls sweet potatoes from the grocery bag. “So they’re not really doing much of a Christmas up there. We’ll visit her soon, but decided last minute to stay here for the holidays.”
“Oh.”
That’s the best I can do. It’s been so many years, and I hope we can put this behind us, but I hadn’t planned on confronting this particular demon for Christmas.
“Brandon’s working at the garage,” she adds, pulling out two-dozen eggs. “And I ran by Food Lion to pick up some stuff for Mama.”
The least I can do is help. I pull out pepper and season salt from the grocery bag, instinctively opening the cabinet to the right of the stove only to find stacks of plates.
“Spices over there now.” Terry nods to the cabinet on the left.
It’s a small thing, but not knowing where my mama keeps her spices feels like another thing Terry robbed me of. She betrayed me. She stole from me, but I’ve been the one in exile.
“Mama says you’re starring in some big movie,” she says, lifting her brows like she’ll believe it when she sees it.
“I’m in a movie, yeah,” I say, putting a pack of neck bones in the refrigerator.
“She’s cooking those tonight,” Terry says. “Leave the neck bones out.”
I don’t mean to slam the meat on the countertop, but it happens. I’m tired of her knowing all the things I want to know, too. She confiscated the man and the life I don’t even want, but it was mine. And she didn’t leave me any choice.
“Surprised you even came home.” Terry twists her lips.
We’ve never discussed it, but of course she would know I’ve avoided coming because of her and Brandon.
“Assumed you thought you were too bougie for us now.” Terry rolls her eyes and pulls out two bags of shredded cheese for Mama’s famous macaroni.
“Wait.” I lean against the counter and rewind what she just said. “What?”
“Yeah, all these years you been staying up in New York, and now you in Hollywood. Uppity and too big for your britches and—”
“You think I don’t come home because I’m uppity? Bougie?”
“I mean, you were always bougie, thinking you were better than the rest of us. That you were gonna be a star. Go off and forget about your family. Hope you’re happy now.”
“Hold up. I didn’t come home because of you.”
“Because of me?” What looks like genuine surprise widens her eyes.
“Is that shocking? After what you did?”
“You can’t be talking about the thing with Brandon.”
“The thing with Brandon? I may have been young, and maybe it wouldn’t have lasted. Who knows, but I was engaged and you cheated on me.”
“There you go. Being dramatic.” Terry sucks her teeth. “I guess that is your job.”
“Did you bump your head and forget? Well, I didn’t. You fucked my fiancé and got pregnant with his kid.”
A gasp from the door leading to the car porch jerks both our heads around. Holding her phone, apparently mid-text, stands their daughter, Quianna. Horrified brown eyes with gold-splashed centers flick between her mother and me.
“Q,” Terry says, her lips tight around the nickname. “Go back out to the car. Let me finish unloading Grandma’s groceries.”
“You were engaged to Daddy?” Quianna asks me, ignoring her mother.