Chapter 4 - The Blacklist
Life for Vanessa became an absolute nightmare.
She had built her entire identity around being a military socialite—the beautiful daughter of a General, the soon-to-be wife of a rising Major. But the military community is fiercely protective of its own, especially those who bleed for the flag.
Vanessa was unceremoniously dropped from the charity boards she chaired. She was uninvited from the holiday galas. When she went to the local upscale cafes where the officers' wives gathered, they would silently pay their bills and walk out the moment she sat down.
Desperation makes people do stupid things.
Three weeks after the gala, Vanessa cornered me in the parking lot of a grocery store. She looked frantic, her designer hair messy, her eyes rimmed with red.
"You ruined my life!" she screamed, blocking my car door. "Kyle left me. Dad won't even look at me because he blames me for his ruined reputation. You need to fix this, Riley! You need to go on Facebook and tell everyone it was a misunderstanding!"
I slowly placed my groceries on the hood of my car and looked at her. "You stripped me half-naked in front of a hundred people to mock my pain, Vanessa. You thought you were stepping on a bug. You just didn't realize the bug was a landmine."
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"I’m your sister!" she sobbed.
"And you showed me exactly what that meant to you five years ago when you took my bedroom while I was still in a hospital bed," I said, getting into my car. "Have a nice life, Vanessa."
