Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Rain

It rained on the day they buried me.

The cemetery sat on a hill outside the city, and the wind came across it cold and thin.

Marianne stood alone in front of a small gray headstone in her black suit.

There were no flowers yet and no mourners.

A man from the cemetery in a green coat waited at a polite distance.

I stood beside her, and my feet did not feel the wet grass.

The stone had my name on it, and under the name a photograph.

I knew the picture.

It was taken on my eighteenth birthday, in the dining room, with a paper crown on my head.

It was the last peaceful day I had.

She crouched and wiped the rain from the glass with her thumb.

"Eli," she said.

Her voice was hoarse and it shook.

"This was my fault."

I had waited five years to hear her say it, and now I did not know what to do with it.

I wanted to be angry.

I only felt very tired.

"Do you remember what I said to you, the night they came to the house?" she said to the stone.

"I said it a thousand times when you were small. I said it in the car after the funeral."

Her mouth twisted.

"As long as I'm here, nobody will hurt you."

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