There was a time when seeing that photograph would have made me cry until I couldn't breathe, as if my entire being were being torn apart. But now I only stood there, looking at it in silence, my mind a perfect blank. Not a single ripple.
That was when Adrian Winslow pulled an envelope from her bag and waved it in front of my eyes, the satisfaction on her face completely undisguised.
"Sister, you really are hard to kill. Last time you went into the water, the whole family left you to drown, and somehow you're still alive."
She laughed softly, but her voice was all malice.
"I've been in a terrible mood lately, but then I found out something very interesting. Can you guess what it is?"
She paused deliberately, as if waiting for me to respond.
I said nothing.
She didn't care. She kept talking.
"I was wrong before. I actually believed that even if no one else in the world loved you, at least Julian did."
She waved the letter in her hand, her smile deepening.
"Until I happened to see the love letter he wrote to me. That's when I realized the person he'd been in love with all along was me."
Her voice grew quieter, but each word cut sharper.