Page 46 of See You There

Shouldn’t this be easier? They were sisters! At one point, they had been incredibly close. But ever since Hannah had gone into foster care, there had been a distance between them that Dahlia couldn’t bridge. Hannah had never forgiven Dahlia for leaving—for escaping their life and leaving her behind.

“Living the dream.” Her sister’s sarcasm was barely audible over the screech of a small child, followed by several high-pitched voices shouting.

“Is this a bad time?”

“Oh, sorry. Let me get my assistant to take the kids outside,” her sister snarked.

Dahlia’s heart sank. “I know you’re busy. I don’t want to interrupt.” Dahlia tried again. “I was thinking about you today.”

“Oh yeah?”

Was it Dahlia’s imagination or had the edge in her sister’s voice softened?

“I was almost hit by a car today,” Dahlia blurted out.

“What? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a scrubbed knee and elbow. Luke acted like I was going to fall apart, and it made me remember that time you dared me to climb to the top of the oak tree in the backyard.” Dahlia chuckled at the memory. “I was fine until I tried to climb down, and my shorts snagged on that branch, and I fell.”

Hannah laughed. “I thought you were dead! I was sure Granny was going to kill me. But then you took the scariest sounding breath, and I was convinced you were a zombie back from the dead.”

Dahlia smiled. This was what she needed. A reminder that beneath the façade, she was still a real person. “Luke could have taken lessons from you. He was all worried trying to clean my knee with a napkin—”

“Isn’t your boyfriend’s name Chandler?” Hannah asked, sounding confused.

Dahlia had never filled her family in on the details of her faux romance. Not that she didn’t trust them not to sell the story to a tabloid. They’d kept quiet about the image Victor had created around her, but that was to their benefit, too.

“Did you see the story about Chandler on the news?”

A child wailed in the background, and the edge was back in Hannah’s voice. “Believe it or not, Dahlia, I don’t have time to follow every bit of press about your life.”

“No, I just meant… There was this thing that happened.”

The wailing intensified, and Hannah sighed. “I have to go. Cole Jr. needs me. He’s been sick.”

“Of course,” Dahlia murmured, her chest tightening. “Is there anything I can do?”

“He needs his tonsils out,” Hannah said flatly, and the weight on Dahlia’s chest increased.

“That doesn’t sound like fun.”

“It’s more thannot fun. I’m going to have to take off work to take care of him, and insurance doesn’t cover everything—”

“Email me how much you need, and I’ll transfer it.” Dahlia cut her off. Sometimes it felt like every conversation with her sister ended the same.

“I don’t need your movie star charity.” Hannah’s voice dripped with scorn that Dahlia suspected covered her embarrassment about needing money.

“I want to help. Just tell me how much.”

After Dahlia ended the call, she swiped at the tears that trickled from the corners of her eyes. Her family resented her for leaving and resented any help she offered, even though they needed it.

To them, she was an outsider, someone who had rejected their small-town way of life. But the Lia Everton who showed up to press interviews wasn’t a real person either. Dahlia didn’t even know who she was anymore.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“What happened to you?”James eyed Luke from behind his desk.

Luke looked down at his dirty clothes. He had stopped at the office to check in with James before continuing up in the elevator to his condo.