I was folding Grandma\u2019s blankets when my sister texted, the money cleared and we just landed in Santorini. I smiled, set the laundry aside, and said good thing I emptied the account the night before. By the time they reached the front desk of the villa, everything began to fall apart.My name is Hannah Mercer, and the morning my sister believed she had finally outplayed me, I was standing in our grandmother\u2019s laundry room folding old quilted blankets that still carried a faint scent of lavender and cedar.Grandma Louise had been gone for eleven days.Eleven days since the funeral, eleven days since people filled the house with casseroles, sympathy, and practiced softness, and eleven days since my older sister, Brooke, had started acting like grief was just paperwork between her and a better vacation. Our grandmother had raised both of us after our mother died, and for most of my life, I believed that meant something. I thought it meant loyalty. I thought it meant there were lines you simply didn\u2019t cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then my phone buzzed.The message was from Brooke.The money cleared and we just landed in Santorini.I looked at the text, then at the blankets in my hands.There it was. No disguise. No careful phrasing. Just open celebration. She thought the transfer had gone through, thought I was still the sentimental younger sister too buried in grief to notice what she had done. A second message followed immediately\u2014a photo of Brooke and her husband, Derek, smiling in sunglasses outside the airport with two oversized designer suitcases and drinks in their hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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