If I was sitting near the windowsill reading, and my arm or ankle got burned, she’d tell our mother. Or the sun hit me at a certain angle while I was sleeping. Or I must be coming down with a fever, a rash. Possibly I got a spider bite or was developing an allergy to gardenias, to mangoes. Or I was “coming down” with cancer like our father.

Dorothy got exponentially bolder and out of bounds as he got sicker. She decided he wasn’t able to stick up for Daddy’s pet anymore, rendering me defenseless, she assumed. I wasn’t. But I didn’t tattle or retaliate with corporal punishment.

There are better ways to deal with bullies, and in some respects I’m actually grateful to my sister. Thanks to her I learned the art of silence, the power of listening and the added potency that comes with waiting. As our father used to say:

A volte la vendetta é meglio mangiata fredda.

Sometimes revenge really is better served cold.

“What I’m wondering is if my sister might have mentioned the silly nickname to Natalie, to Janet.” I suggest this to Lucy because I’m seriously beginning to wonder who Dorothy has been talking to—not just recently but over the years.

“I don’t know,” Lucy says, “but there’s no way Mom ever passed on that story or anything else to Carrie.”

“Not unless we’re mistaken in what we’ve always assumed about the two of them not knowing each other. Are we absolutely certain of that?”

“They’ve never met and Mom knows nothing about her.” Lucy’s adamant, and I’m going to push harder.

CHAPTER 24

WHAT ABOUT IN THE very beginning?” I ask Lucy. “Are you sure you didn’t mention Carrie when you started your internship at Quantico? It would make sense when you went home to Miami or talked on the phone if you might have said something to Dorothy about your FBI supervisor, your mentor—especially one who gave you so much special attention.”

Carrie couldn’t have been more generous or charming, and Lucy was flattered out of her mind. She didn’t have a chance.

“I know you don’t like to think about it,” and I don’t want to be provocative, “but you were bowled over by her in the beginning. You couldn’t talk enough about her. At least to me.”

“I think you know why I didn’t mention her to Mom.” Lucy’s stare has turned hard and edgy. “I didn’t talk about Carrie or anybody else I so much as had a beer with.”