Page 143 of Until We Burn
Nervousness swells in my gut. “What…what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?”She gasps. “Jonathan and Gregory are going to kill me, Diana! They’re going to think I planned this from the start and come after me!”
“After knowing what they did, no one is going to associate themselves with Jonathan and Gregory.”
“Because those slimy underground vultures they employ give a rat’s ass about who’s waving money in their face,” she snaps.
I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I was just trying to help you!”
“I never asked you to!” she protests. “I’d rather be ripped apart by the media than by Gregory and Jonathan!”
“You don’t mean that.”
“The media will eventually tire itself out. Jonathan and Gregory?They will never stop.”
I sink back. I hate how she’s right no matter how much I try to reason my way out of it.
Sophia shuts her eyes. Her breath weaves in and out before she stares back at me. Her rosy, demure beauty cracks, revealing that stubborn girl who’s been beaten down one too many times.
“Diana, I get what you’re trying to do for me. But I need you to stay out of it. I know I make bad decisions. I do everything I can to make sure I come out of them alive. I’m not naïve, though. I know I’ll have to deal with the consequences because that’s what bàba always says. I won’t leave all of this without struggle, without pain, and I’ve accepted that.”
Unshed tears tremble in Sophia’s eyes. Her fight to hold them back makes her cheeks flush. I remember the days when they were pudgy and pink from the blush she stole from my makeup drawer. My heart aches.
“Sophia, you don’t have to destroy yourself to get what you want.”
“It’s too late for that.” Sophia laughs. “Do you think I’m still the little sister who’ll watch Gilmore Girls with you? Who will ask you to help curl my hair? She died the same day that blade cut my hand. So, stop trying to bring her back!She’s gone!”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t have attacked that Viper,” I push. “You stayed to help me when you could’ve ran. What does that say about you?”
Sophia stiffens and avoids looking at me.
“You’ve made bad decisions.” I soldier on. “But you can walk a different path now. You can be better.”
“I don’t deserve better!”she cries out. “After everything I’ve done and said to everyone who got in the way of the life I wanted, I don’t deserve any better.”
I’m so desperate to wring some sense into her, but it’s so useless when Sophia believes that her flaws make her undeserving of becoming someone better. That she’ll always be the villain in her own life.
Sophia’s face falls. “Diana, I appreciate what you did for me, I really do. But this is a fight you can’t help me win.”
Then, as she’s done for the last several years, Sophia wipes her tears, squares her shoulders, and walks out of the room.
I drop my head into my hands. I thought clearing my name and Sophia’s involvement from the scandal would make everything else fall into place.
But it’s only fractured more than it was supposed to fix.
CHAPTER 57
DIANA
Myconversationwith Sophia leaves me drained and disoriented when my siblings and I gather in bàba’s office.
Agong and bàba regard me with so much pride glinting on their faces.
Bàba chuckles, shaking his head incredulously as he waggles his finger at me. “I almost gave up on you, darling. All your sniffling and silence. The way you made us think you were off embarrassing yourself.” He sighs. “Little did I know, you were playing a role to keep your brothers from thinking you had another fight in you.”
“And that’s when you struck hard,” Agong rejoices.
“With a mind like that, there’s no doubt you’ll see your name carved onto that blade in five months’ time,” Bàba praises.
