Fortune Favors the Bold

44

Her heart fell. "What?" Kalani whispered. "Mom and dad... they killed mom and dad?" Her heart began racing as her expression quivered, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.

She flinched when Marina stole the dagger from between her fingers. Only then did she notice how her sister had gripped Adrian's hair to tilt his head back, exposing his jugular artery. "No, Marina stop. Don't do this, okay?"

"It's the fastest way to kill him, isn't it?"

"I never killed mom and dad. I would never hurt them," Kalani quickly tried to speak, unable to keep her gaze off the proximity of the blade's cutting-edge to Adrian's skin. "Just let him go and we can talk about this. Don't hurt him-."

Marina rolled her eyes. "You kill my parents, but I shouldn't scratch your boy-toy because he's too pretty, right?"

Kalani shook her head. "I came looking for you-."

"Don't lie to me!" Marina shouted.

"I'm not lying!" Kalani yelled back. "Why would I lie to you, Marina? You're my sister-."

The girl replied quickly, yanking back on Adrian's hair. "Because I'm the one who controls what happens now. Not you, not him, me!"

Kalani's heart thundered in her chest. "Even if you weren't the one in control, I'd tell you the exact same thing because it's the truth! I asked Bennie where you'd gone when I saw our empty home. I- I even came by once and I saw you guys having dinner with a new boy. He had black hair and pale skin."

"Before you decided to kill them or after?"

"I didn't kill our parents. Why would I hurt them?"

Marina's temper shortened. "Because they never liked you and-."

But the words didn't sting Kalani, it was the thought that her own sister believed she'd stoop so low. The thought that even Marina never knew how her older sister felt about their family. "I know they never liked me!" Kalani screamed, the little control she'd maintained on her emotions finally snapping entirely. "But it doesn't matter because I'd never hurt mom and dad. I loved them! How do you think it felt to love two people who were relieved when they found I was the one who'd die?"

Tears began to blur her vision, but Kalani wiped them away. "I was a kid- I was their kid, but they hated me. They're my parents and, no matter how old I get, they were always the most important people in my life. No matter how badly they treated me; I would have taken a bullet for them even if they were the ones pulling the trigger. You were always the first one I thought of."

Marina watched her silently.

"I fought so hard to come back to you because I was afraid they'd treat you the same way they treated me. I fought until I wanted to kill myself, but I never did because I worried about you. So, no, Marina. I never killed our parents --I didn't even know they were dead and I'm sorry," Kalani's shouts waivered as she looked into her sister's eyes, seeing a shimmer of tears through the wall she'd lifted.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there when it happened. It must have been so hard on you, but you can't blame me for their deaths because I didn't do it and... it's not an excuse to hurt someone who had nothing to do with their death. If you want to take your anger out on someone, you can take it out on me because I'm your older sister and, at the end of the day, I'd never fight back when it comes to you."

A contraction of Kalani's lungs dragged in a sudden shudder as she tried to calm her uneven breathing. She watched Marina's expression, the hatred remaining etched on her features when she stepped away from Adrian and dropped her knife to the ground. The familiar sound of electric shocks sounded as he cried out, falling forward with tense muscles.