“I know you didn’t!” Her voice rose, then broke. “I’m not angry at you, Claire. I’m angry that my brother spent his whole life paying for something that wasn’t his fault. And I’m angry that when he finally got to the end, he chose you instead of me.”
The room went quiet. Arthur didn’t move. The only sound was the air conditioner humming in the vent.
Marissa wiped her face with the back of her hand. “He told me to stay away, you know. Five years ago. I said something cruel about his ‘charity project.’ I said he was wasting his life on a girl who didn’t even know his name. He told me not to call him until I could say her name without contempt.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“I still can’t,” she said. “Not yet.”
She left without shaking my hand.
