Staying In her Sister's Shadow
The wind howled through the broken windows, rattling the old glass like ghostly fingertips. Vivian stood in the doorway of the estate’s boathouse, staring at the dark waters beyond. The lake was still. Just like it was ten years ago.
Damien’s footsteps echoed on the wooden floor behind her. She didn’t turn.
“So this is where it happened,” he said quietly.
Vivian exhaled, her breath trembling. “This is where I lost everything.”
Damien stepped closer. “You didn’t lose everything, Vivian.”
She laughed bitterly. “Didn’t I? I lost my sister. I lost my father. I lost you.”
“I was never yours to lose,” he whispered.
Her hand curled into a fist at her side. “No, you were just hers. Even now. Even after everything she’s done.”
“She’s the mother of my child.”
Vivian turned then, sharply, eyes gleaming. “And what am I, Damien? Just the girl who carried your grief for a decade? The one you confided in, leaned on, kissed like it meant something—but only in the dark, when no one could see?”
He flinched. “You don’t understand—”
“No,” she cut in. “You don’t understand. I didn’t come back to fight for you. I came back because I needed to know if it was my fault. If I killed her. If I ruined this family. And now I know the truth.”
She stepped forward, close enough to see the storm in his eyes.
“She’s not the victim,” Vivian said. “And I’m not the monster.”
Damien’s voice broke. “Vivian, I never stopped—”
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t say it. Not now. Not when everything I believed in was built on a lie.”
Vivian DeWitt was cast out of New York’s most powerful family after her sister’s death ruined them all. A decade later, the sister she thought she killed walks into a gala—very much alive and arm-in-arm with the only man Vivian ever loved. Now forced back into a world of betrayal, power, and lies, Vivian must uncover what really happened that night, before it destroys her for good.
