Navy Blue - A Second Chance Romance (Complete)

Navy Blue: Chapter 32

Emily's muffled cries bounced off the cold tile, the solid metal, the steel doors and boomeranged back to cut into her skin. The delicate paper on her lap jiggled with each bone shattering sob.

The single page.

Half of her message to Finn.

The explanation drilling its way into her head defied reality. Desperate for another solution, Emily studied the relic from the past for clues. Cool tears of sorrow transformed into sizzling streams of anger when her eyes fell on the faint E tucked into the bottom right-hand of the letter. The ink faded, clear enough to make out the little curl flourish her sister used when writing Emily's name on a life-time of birthday cards.

Mary.

Mary had read her letter to Finn.

Mary had removed the second page.

Mary had added the E to the first page.

Mary gave Finn the letter and let him believe Emily had what? Broken up with him?

"You abandoned me." His anguished words hammered in her skull. He really believed she had.

Because her sister had led him to that conclusioni.

Emily's nails dug into her palms, the sharp pain nothing compared to the knife twisting in her heart, straight through her back. Her sister had betrayed her. Over and over for eight years.

She scrambled to the toilet and vomited, gagging on the bitter bile.

Of course, there had been signs. Mary's bitter barbs thrown at Finn over his background, his non-existent future prospects, his poor relations. Compounded by the lame excuses to occupy Emily, keep her from spending time with Finn that summer.

Nothing compared to the deception Mary pulled off after Emily returned from Japan. Her stomach cramped at the memory of crying in Mary's arms, her sister bringing her favourite frings from the Waterfront to get Emily to eat, laying out clothes the day they left to take her to Yale. The guilt Emily felt at her selfishness those first few months at university. Mary shuttling between Washington and New Haven to ensure Emily went to class, organizing her study notes for her, finding a roommate to replace Finn.

Emily retched again. She'd imagined all these years Mary was protecting her. Her big sister was back, looking out for her again. Emily had been grateful. Instead of moving to New York she'd taken the job in Washington to stay near as a way to repay Mary for the debt of nursing her back to some semblance of normalcy. But Mary hadn't been taking care of her.

Mary had been taking care of Mary.

As usual.

Maybe she could understand Mary trying to stop Finn from... how had she put it... derailing Emily's life. Looking back now, Emily could see how her declarations of true love at such a young age could seed doubt. Without an adult around to guide them, both sisters had tried to step into the mother role. Emily with Beth. Mary with Emily.

But eight years. A fever prickled across Emily's clammy skin. So many years. So many chances for her sister to come clean, tell the truth. Instead, she'd lied. Worse. Stayed silent. Then buried the memory of Finn, banned any mention of him by the family. Avoided Bridgetown, refused to eat at the Waterfront Bar and Grill. Not to caution against Emily's bruised heart, but to sustain the deception.

Family. Mary died on the cross of family. Nothing else mattered. Except she's poisoned the well, the lineage, and nothing would ever be the same.

Reality cooled like molten steel dunked in ice water in Emily's veins. Mary conspired to separate Emily from Finn. Purposefully. Willfully.

"Emily?" She was sure her sister's whisper was an auditory hallucination brought on by the fury singeing her heart until Mary spoke again. "Emily, is that you?"

Emily tore off a hunk of toilet paper and wiped her mouth. Another wad dried her eyes, and she pushed up from the floor.

"Are you okay?" Trepidation laced Mary's question over the metal shield separating them.

"No." The word flew from Emily's lips like a missile. She thrust open the door, the hinges creaking at the sudden force, and stepped out of the bathroom stall.

A few yards away, by the sinks, Mary's wide eyes ping ponging between Emily's tear-stained face and the letters clutched in her right hand. Her sister inched forward, a hand stretched out, perfectly painted pink nails glinting in the fluorescent lights. "What did it say?"

"Finn said he loves me. Always has." Mary flinched, then froze in place. Any doubt Emily had at her sister's betrayal disintegrated in a flash.

The threads of Mary's long neck flexed. "You can't trust him."

"Oh no, Mary." Emily raised the hand holding the proof, her voice booming. "Finn is the only one I can trust."

Mary shook her head, biting a trembling lip.

"He didn't lie to me for eight years." Emily pressed forward, the walls of the bathroom closing in on her. "Oh Emily, of course I gave him the letter." Her mocking tone beat down on Mary. "Oh, you're better off without him. Oh, Emily, he left you."

When her sister's back hit the edge of the sink counter, she gripped the marble edge. "I didn't... you don't understand."

"You're wrong. I finally understand. Perfectly." Emily placed a hand on either side of her sister, the cold marble incapable of quelling the searing rage slithering beneath her skin. Mary's glossy blue eyes refused to meet her glare. "You removed a page from my letter. You let Finn think I left him."

"I did what I thought was right." Mary squeaked her response, no trace of her usual arrogant confidence.

"Right?" The word bit through Emily's clenched teeth. "You lied to me. You hurt him."

Nausea pressed against the back of Emily's throat, and she forced herself to swallow. Finn, whose heart had been battered and bruised when he placed it in her hands, trusting her to care for the damaged organ. Finn, who'd once told her no one was capable of loving him and she'd vowed to show him how impossibly wrong he was. Finn, who took the slightest diss as a rebuke and had lived under the impression she'd rejected him for years.

Finn, who'd given her his number and waited for her now. That thought broke through the haze of red coating the small room. "And I'm not letting you do it a second longer." Emily pushed off the counter. "Don't think we're done here. That is if I ever decide to talk to you again."

Mary's fingers dug into her arm. "Don't say that. We're family."

"We were." Emily shook off her sister's biting grip.

"Wait." Mary's voice called after her. "You're making a mistake."

"Watch me." Emily left the bathroom and the past behind. She had a future to fight for.