Catherine rolls her eyes. “You’re such a baby, Lyd.”
“I amnota baby. I simply know that some things are private.”
“Is that why you’re sneaking off with a former sex worker? To keep it private?”
Lydia pushes herself up and stares down at Catherine, her mouth a shocked O. “Oh. My.God. I am not sneaking off with him. And what he did tosurvivehas nothing to do with anything.”
“Who told you Lydia was sneaking off?”
Catherine glances down at me, a teasing gleam in her eyes. “Charlotte. We’ve been texting. I’m not judging his former profession, by the way. You just seem very lofty about sex.”
“Lofty!” Lydia scowls. “Charlotte’s goingdown.I haven’t been sneaking anywhere.”
“Goodness, Lydia. Those weren’t her exact words. She just said you seemed happy. And that you’d been spending time with Nate during Elise’s emotional breakdown.”
“It’s not an emotional breakdown,” I point out. “I haven’t had any emotions.”
“That’s the same thing. Plus, you missed the fact that Lydia’s in love with Nate.”
“Shutup, Catherine. I’m not in love with him. He’s just here, with his annoying face.”
“Lydia and Nate, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N sleeping together.”
Lydia smirks. “That’s rich coming from you, child bride.”
Catherine’s eyebrows go up. “We’renotgetting married.”
“You’re already living with him. That’s committed.”
“We’re committed to a separate agreement.” Catherine’s prim. Satisfied. She’s too happy to be smug. “We’ll get publicly engaged this winter, but there’s no obligation on either of our parts to get married.”
“So you’re just…having sex with him. And living with him. And, what, having babies with him?”
Catherine gives Lydia wide eyes. “I thought that was private.”
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
My middle sister tosses her hair over her shoulder. “We’ll live together, yes. We’ll have sex, yes. We’re going to travel. I might go to college, or we might just…hang out in Paris. Or wherever else. It’s fun. We’re having fun.”
“Isn’t that basically the same thing as selling—”
“Guys, don’t argue.” I put an arm over my eyes. “It makes my head hurt. And I think you’re missing the more important thing, which is that I’m a murderer. I understand if you hate me now.”
Silence.
I wait.
They don’t say anything.
I uncover my eyes. My sisters are both propped over me, their faces soft and concerned.
“Murderer.” I point at my chest. “I’m a murderer.”
They share a glance, and Catherine speaks first. “The cause of death was a heart attack.”
“Itriedto kill him. I bought insulin. I put it in a syringe. And before that, I was going to shoot him, but Gabriel stopped me. Like, I planned to kill dad twice. And then I didn’t do CPR.”
“I don’t…think that counts as full murder.” Lydia wrinkles her nose. “And…he really hurt all of us. Not equally, but…”