My Parents Took My Sister To Italy Until They Came Home To An Empty House

Each word was a small shard of glass embedding itself somewhere deep inside me.

Then Lily looked at me across the table. There was no malice in her eyes, only a thoughtless, casual cruelty that came from a person who had never been taught to consider how her words landed.

“Don’t worry, Vicki,” she said, twirling her fork in her mashed potatoes. “I’ll continue reading …