‘I wouldn’t be surprised,’ he said. ‘She probably has to pay a price for spending time with you.’
Alex sighed. ‘I don’t want to make her life worse.’
‘You’re not, Alex,’ he said. ‘You’re trying to be a sister to her. And she needs you, whether she knows it or not. Someday she may come to her senses and realize how futile it is to try and please that woman. If it’s ever gonna happen, somebody has to be on her side.’
‘But you just said that it would never happen.’
‘Well, I’m trying to be realistic. That sick relationship with Elaine is pretty strong. But that doesn’t mean I think you should give up. Elaine would like to keep you out of Dory’s life. Isolate her. It’s easier to torment her that way, with no one to object. But if you’re not in Dory’s life, who will be there for her?’
‘You’re right. I have to try,’ said Alex.
Seth nodded. ‘We’ll keep trying.’
‘We?’ she asked.
‘We’re in this together,’ he said. ‘Right?’
‘Right,’ she said.
Alex thought about her mother’s letter, offering her a sister she didn’t know she had. She had wanted Alex to have a sister to depend on. The sister Alex had found had turned out to be something much more complicated. But still, Alex felt there was a connection between them that defied explanation. She knew that her mother had worried that Alex would not have a family to rely on, to lean on, to celebrate with. Alex glanced at Seth’s profile. I have you, she thought, full of gratitude. You are my family now.
She huddled closer to him as they walked through the cold in the darkening twilight. We are a family, Mom, she thought. Seth and I. And children some day, and a home. A life together. This is the family you wanted me to have. And as for the sister you wanted me to have? As for Dory?
Dory has us both.
Sisters Page 25
