My Sister Faked the Fall. This Time, I Filmed It. novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Kylie Leaves

Kylie asked on the morning of her last day, in Gran's kitchen, with the coffee still too hot to drink.

"I've been trying to find a way to say this that doesn't sound like a trick," she said.

"Just say it."

"Will you let me write to Theo?"

I put the mug down.

"Once a month," she said quickly. "Short ones. I won't ask you to read them to him. I won't ask for answers. You can keep them in a box until he's old enough, or you can put them in the stove."

"What would you write?"

"The truth." She laced her fingers on the table. "What I did, and why, and what I'd do differently if I could. I don't want him to find out from a stranger."

I looked at her.

She was twenty-seven years old, and thin from nine days of not eating, and wearing Gran's cardigan with the sleeves pushed up.

She had her mother's posture and none of her mother's polish.

"Why now?" I said.

"Because in a year he'll start remembering faces," she said. "And I'd like to be one of them. Even if all it is, is a face on a card."

I did not answer right away.

I thought of Gran's pale blue letter, and the last line I had never shown her.

"Gran left you something," I said.

Her head came up.

"She wrote to me before she died. She said Gisela raised you to be hungry." My voice was steady. "She said to be careful, and to be kind, if you ever asked."

"She said that?"

"Those words."

"She never gave me anything," Kylie whispered.

"She gave you that."

Kylie pressed both hands over her mouth.

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