“You and me both.”

“Were you just wasted? Is that why you acted so stupid?”

She shook her head. She deserved that. “No. I was tipsy for sure, but I knew what I was doing.”

“You could have found me last night and told me the truth about Preston. Instead, you went to him,” Ian said. He sounded so disgusted with her. “What the fuck? You can’t say you were ignorant then. You knew that he was with Lydia.”

“I know! I didn’t go to him,” she said. “He found me, and I was just stupid enough not to walk away.”

“Unbelievably stupid!”

“I know how this must all seem, but I was in love with him, Ian. I thought we were going to be together when I moved into the city in a couple of weeks.”

“That doesn’t excuse you from having sex with him last night,” he said.

Trihn winced. “No, it doesn’t.”

“I was here for you, Trihn. All week, I consoled you over this guy who had broken up with you, being everything you needed. Then, you went and fucked him anyway.”

“I know, okay?” she yelled back. “Don’t you think I’ve already been beating myself up enough about this? I feel like absolute shit for letting that happen. I am well aware that it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life. God! But it doesn’t mean that I’m not hurting! Not to mention the fact that he is fucking my sister in her room at this very moment,” she said, standing and pointing toward her house. “I just want out. I want away from here and away from them.”

“There’s nowhere you can escape to, Trihn. You’re going to have to deal with them eventually.”

“But not today, okay?” she pleaded. “Can we just…go away?”

“Where?” he asked skeptically.

“Will you just take me home?”

“Home? Next door or home…”

“The city.”

Ian sighed heavily. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to just run away from this.”

“If I don’t deal with it, maybe it will just go away?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Me either.”

Trihn sat and curled in on herself. She knew what she needed to do. She needed to talk to Lydia and get everything out in the open, but the thought of that was debilitating.

“Just think…he expects you to stay silent. He expects to just get away with this,” Ian told her. “Are you going to let him?”

Trihn shook her head and steeled her resolve. “No.”

TRIHN TOOK A HESITANT STEP back inside her house. Preparations were being made all around her for the sailing trip her mother had planned. She and Ian had discussed what she was going to say to Lydia, but it hadn’t made her feel any better. In fact, she felt awful. Her stomach ached, and at any second, she might be sick. She knew that she needed to talk to Lydia, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“There you are!” Linh said when she saw Trihn tiptoeing around. “Just in time. We’re leaving in half an hour, so go change.”

“Have you seen Lydia?”

“She’s tanning out back. Will you tell her that she needs to get moving, too?”

“Sure,” Trihn agreed easily.

She took a deep breath. The knot in her stomach hardened, and she was shaking by the time she made it to the back door. She didn’t know what she was going to find when she got there. She just prayed that Preston wasn’t going to be there because the last thing she wanted was to have this conversation in front of him.

No, she wouldn’t be able to have this conversation with him around. He would twist her words. It didn’t matter that she had loved him. She knew firsthand what he was capable of. She had experienced it last night on the very pool deck she was looking at now.

She tried to quell the tremble running through her body. It didn’t help that it was a perfect day. Couldn’t it match my mood or something? But no. No rain on the forecast, a perfect cloudless day, and the whole merry family was supposed to go out sailing.

Not after she got this over with.

Trihn pushed opened the back door and stepped outside. She could see Lydia lying facedown on a lounge chair in an all white bathing suit. Her blonde hair cascaded over the side of the lounger while she read a magazine. Trihn’s gaze shifted to survey the rest of the pool deck, but she found it empty, no Preston in sight. That was a relief. But it didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t nearby.

“Hey,” Trihn said hesitantly. She approached her sister on the deck. God, can I actually go through with this?

Lydia’s head popped up. She rested her elbows on the lounge chair and smiled at her sister. “There you are! Are you ready to go sailing? It’s been so long since we went. I can’t wait!”

“I don’t know, Ly.”

“You don’t know what?” she asked, rolling over onto her back and sitting up. “You have to go with us. It’s tradition. Mom is going to have a fit if you try to back out.”

“I’m not sure I’m feeling up for it.”

“It’s because you’re in those dark colors you’re always wearing. Come on, Trihn. Black and studs and dark denim for the beach? I have the cutest outfit you can borrow for the boat.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Trihn’s lips. Why couldn’t Lydia act like this all the time? This was the sister who Trihn missed and who she was looking forward to moving in with in a couple of weeks. This was the sister who shouldn’t have her heart broken.

“That sounds nice,” Trihn said softly.

“Plus, Ian will die when he sees you in it.”

“Ugh!” Trihn groaned. “Ian and I are not together.”

“But he wants you! I know, in your world, it’s bad to rebound or whatever, but in my world, you say good-bye to one and hello to the next. Give it a try. I know Ian would go crazy if you did. He’s liked you since you were kids.”

“What?” Trihn asked, laughing because of her sister’s ridiculous ideals. “He has not.”

“Please! You are not that naive.”

“I…wait, what?”

“Ian likes you. He always has. But you totally friend-zoned him in middle school,” Lydia explained. “That doesn’t mean you can’t unfriend-zone him. He’s cute, and you guys get along. He’s serious. He’s smart. You’ll both be in the city.” Lydia waggled her eyebrows up and down. “Think about it.”

And she was. Thinking about it made her gag. “He’s like a brother to me. Just no. No way.”

Lydia sighed heavily and sagged back in her chair. “Your loss. I bet he would worship the ground you walked on.”

Trihn shook her head. She wished that she and Lydia could just keep talking about frivolous things and let their relationship seamlessly repair itself on its own. That was what Trihn and Renée had talked about when she had first found out that Lydia was dating Preston. Lydia would probably break up with him in a couple of weeks, and then all would be well again between them.

But after last night and this morning…could I really wait around for that to happen? Pretend like it didn’t bother me? Pretend like Lydia didn’t need to know the truth?

“This isn’t really why I came out here,” Trihn said. She swallowed hard and tried to meet her sister’s eyes.

“Oh, yeah? Did Mom send you to tell me to make sure I got ready?”

“Well, yeah. She did, but—”

“All ready!” Lydia said, spreading her arms wide. She hopped out of her chair. “I don’t need more than bathing suit, but you on the other hand need my help. Come on. Let’s try that outfit on you.” Lydia latched on to her arm and tried to drag her inside.

“Lydia, I need to talk to you.”

“Okay. Let’s talk while you try on the outfit.”

“Lydia,” Trihn complained, “can’t we talk first?”

“Why so serious?” Lydia said in her best impersonation of the Joker. Then, she was dragging Trihn through the house and back to their bedrooms. She opened the door and tugged Trihn inside.