Page 84 of Dead to Me

I didn’t answer.

The knock became harder.

“China?”

That made me pay attention. They thought I was China. Good. I looked at my sister one last time. Then I screamed. It wasn’t a pretty scream or something from a movie. I screamed until my throat hurt. The door opened a few seconds later. Two officers came in led by an hotel employee and stopped when they saw the room, all the broken glass and blood.

One officer came straight toward me.

“Ma’am.”

I backed away.

“No.”

“China?”

I stared at him, then looked at my sister. My knees gave out, but he caught me before I hit the floor.

“I didn’t know,” I said.

The words came out between sobs.

“I didn’t know she was going to do this.”

The officer put one arm around me.

“Who?”

I pointed toward China.

“My sister.”

He looked at the body. Then back at me.

“Milan?”

I nodded violently.

“She killed Malcolm.”

The officer called for medical personnel. I kept crying.

“She killed Malcolm, and then she came after me.”

The second officer crouched near China.

He checked for a pulse. I already knew what he would find.

Nothing.

“She’s gone,” he said.

The first officer held me tighter. I pressed my face into his shoulder. My whole body shook, and I could feel the adrenaline. The fear was real too. I wasn’t afraid of what I’d done. I was afraid of whether people would believe what I needed them to believe.

Someone placed a blanket around my shoulders. A paramedic examined the cut on my arm. Another asked if I had been stabbed. I shook my head.

“She had a knife.”