The Deadly Sister Read Online Free

the depth of my hurt even if they didn’t know the cause. Who would be saying tons of things that would make me feel better, rather than these edgy little truths. But more than comfort, I was craving honesty.
    I took a deep breath. “It’s Jefferson Andrews,” I said.
    “What do you mean, it’s Jeff Andrews?” No one but Cheyenne ever called him Jeff. I guess she wanted to diminish him. Make him more masterable, somehow. “It’s Jeff Andrews who was off in the woods with her?”
    I nodded. Suddenly, it felt like if I didn’t get some truth out right away, I wouldn’t ever be able to speak, about anything, ever again. So I spoke.
    “He’s dead.”
    Nothing changed in the food court. A baby was still climbing on the back of a nearby seat. The Miss Sakura girl, wearing a skirt as a shirt, was still handing out samples. I could still hear the hum of the refrigerators at the cookie cake place. Cheyenne was still in the same position. But I witnessed something change in her. Her life had entered the same twilight realm as mine.
    She didn’t ask if I was kidding. She saw the answer in my face.
    I didn’t want to give her space to speak, didn’t want to hear her tell me I was accountable and monstrous. So I rambled on about the physical details. The run and the dog. The bashed head. The blood and the phone.
    “He’s really dead,” Cheyenne said, finally.
    I nodded.
    “And you think your sister had something to do with it?”
    I couldn’t answer that. I was cold and sweating, like I’d just woken up in the middle of the night with a fever. Even within the astonishment of finally revealing myself, Icouldn’t shake the feeling that Cheyenne wasn’t totally surprised to hear Jefferson was dead. She’d gone glassy, and her pupils were huge, but she hadn’t flinched.
    “You’re right not to have gone to your parents,” she said softly. “They gave up on Maya long before you did. They might actually want her caught. So that they’d finally, officially, not have to deal with her anymore.”
    I nodded solemnly. I’d drawn the same conclusion, even though I hadn’t admitted it to myself until now. I wanted to thank her, suddenly, for saying it out loud.
    “We’ll go to that tattoo place first,” she said. “Medusa something? Then we’ll try Veronica’s. She’s the only sorta parental type that gives a crap about Maya anymore—if your sister’s going to go to an adult for help, and I bet she will, it’ll be her. But maybe, do you think…oh god, Abby. What if Maya doesn’t realize she’s killed him? Like they fought, and she left without knowing he was bleeding to death?”
    I nodded.
    When Cheyenne tossed her Diet Coke into the trash, it traced a zigzag in the air, thrown by a shaky hand. Otherwise she seemed totally in control, someone I could lean all my weight on. “We’ll take my car,” she said, as though I hadn’t arrived on foot, as though we had some other option.
    She didn’t tell her manager she was leaving. She just tossed her work ID into the trash as we left the mall.
    Once we pushed out of the front doors I untied Cody, who had fallen asleep with her head resting against a bikerack, and started walking to Cheyenne’s car. Maya’s phone buzzed in my pocket. The text was from Keith.
abby made it back early im here if u want to come.
    My fingers flew over the keys.
ill be there in half an hour with a friend. dont tell anyone were coming.

5.
    A s we sat at a traffic light, I felt a new tightness in my stomach and realized that I hadn’t eaten all day. Cheyenne kept energy bars in the glove compartment, but I couldn’t imagine taking any food in. My stomach felt vacuumed shut, as if anything I’d force myself to chew and swallow would sit on the sealed organ until it wandered back up to my mouth.
    This isn’t me, I thought as Cheyenne merged onto the interstate. I’m the one who convinces the group not to jump Thrill Hill, who goes to every party but leaves early and never