Chapter 2Love and Hate Are Too Luxurious

I rode all the way back to the old apartment building where my sister and I had lived. It had been empty ever since she died.

The rusty security door groaned open, and a wave of stale, forgotten air hit me. On the living room wall hung a photograph of four people, veiled in a thick layer of dust.

It had always been just me and my sister, two orphans against the world. Then, when I was sixteen, Linda burst into our lives. She said Amelia had saved her from drowning, had given her a second chance at life. She swore to be Amelia's best friend forever.

From the start, Linda and I were like oil and water, always bickering over the smallest things. That all changed on our senior trip, when a mudslide hit the resort. Our classmates were picked up by their parents, but my sister was away on a business trip, too far to reach me.

A torrent of mud and debris swallowed the hotel.

I was trapped under a collapsed beam, waiting for death to take me. But Linda, ignoring the chaos and the danger, ran back into the wreckage. She dug with her bare hands from dawn till dusk.

"Paul, don't be scared! I'm here!"

She carried me on her back for what felt like an entire night. It wasn't until we reached the hospital that I realized she'd lost both her shoes. Her feet were a mess of raw, water-logged cuts. Her perfectly manicured nails, her pride and joy, were broken and bloody.

"You idiot, what are you crying for?" she had said, grinning through her exhaustion. "As long as you're okay, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, even if it crippled me!"

In that moment, her smile was brighter than any spring day.

Then came Leo. It was New Year's Eve, and the three of us were making dumplings when he showed up at our door, a wreck of a man. He was the son of an old neighbor; his family had gone bankrupt, and he was hiding from loan sharks. Amelia, ever the soft heart, remembered his family once giving us a bowl of hot porridge. Without a second thought, she took on all of his burdens.

She quit her stable, respectable job and threw herself into the ruthless world of business, drinking herself into the ER with a bleeding stomach and cheating death more than once. In two years, she lost thirty pounds, paid off all of Leo's debts, and won his heart.

We raised our glasses together, the four of us, and swore we’d be a family forever, that we would never be separated.

I was lost in the memory when the sound of a key turning in the lock jolted me back to the present. The door swung open, and there they were. Leo and Linda.

I had forgotten. We each had a key to this place.

"Linda told me you were back," Leo said, forcing a smile. "We figured you'd be here. You should have told us you were coming; we would've picked you up."

He moved to clap me on the shoulder, but I sidestepped him.

"You can't stay here," he continued, gesturing around the dusty apartment. "Come back with us. Our housekeeper is on vacation, so we have a spare room."

I looked down. My fiancée’s family lived right here in the city. I was only here to see my sister, and later tonight, I was meeting my future mother-in-law for the first time.

I held out my hand. "The key."

This apartment was my sister's, but the deed was in my name. It had nothing to do with either of them.

Linda’s gaze flickered to the old photograph in my hands, her expression unreadable. "Paul, if Amelia were here, she would want to see the three of us getting along."

Leo looked away, unable to meet the eyes in that picture.

Ignoring me, Linda walked in, took off her coat, and rolled up her sleeves. She grabbed a broom from behind the door. "Leo, go open the windows. Let's get some air in here."

For a dizzying moment, it was like stepping back in time. The four of us, gathered here. Amelia would cook, Leo would help, and Linda would clean. I would be the one giving useless directions. The small apartment used to echo with our laughter. Now, only a heavy silence remained.

I wiped down the table and carefully placed Amelia’s memorial portrait on it. In the photo, her smile was so gentle. I never imagined this would be how the four of us reunited.

Suddenly, Leo lunged forward and slammed the portrait face down on the table.

"What are you doing, putting that up for?" he snapped, his voice tight with panic.

Seeing his frantic expression, a cold smirk formed on my face. So, he could feel guilt. He didn't have the courage to face my sister's clear, honest eyes.

"Paul, Leo is just worried about you," Linda said softly. "After all, someone… someone died here."

"And you two know better than anyone how my sister died, don't you?"

The broom clattered from Linda’s hand, the sound echoing in the dead quiet of the room, broken only by the wind whistling outside the window.

The year after my sister and Leo got married, everything changed.