MAYA
I stareat my reflection in the small mirror above my laboratory sink, watching water drip from my face. The lab is quiet now—Sarah left an hour ago, but her perfume still lingers in the air like a reminder of all the ways I don't measure up. The invitation to dinner tomorrow sits on my desk, elegant script promising opportunities I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take.
But I can't stop thinking about the way she looked when she mentioned those Fae research programs. The careful control in her expression when I asked what she got out of it. The flush of guilt that colored her cheeks when I accused her of recruiting me.
Sarah's been talking to them about me. For how long? And why now?
My hands shake as I towel off my face, memories threatening to surface that I've spent two years trying to bury. Memories of the last time Sarah offered to help my career. The last time I trusted her to have my best interests at heart.
The last time I let myself believe someone might actually want me for myself.
I sink into my desk chair and close my eyes, but that only makes it worse. The images come flooding back—David'sapartment, the bottle of wine I'd brought to celebrate finally being ready. Ready to give him what I'd been saving, what I'd thought would be special because it mattered to me.
Two years ago. I was nineteen and naive enough to think that working in the lab until midnight meant David appreciated my dedication to research. That his invitations to discuss botanical theory over coffee meant he found my mind attractive. That when he asked me to come to his apartment that Friday night, it was because he wanted to be alone with me for reasons that had nothing to do with my sister.
I'd spent an hour getting ready that evening, choosing a blue dress that brought out my eyes, braiding my hair with a ribbon that matched. I'd even bought a bottle of wine from the expensive shop near campus—something I couldn't afford but wanted to mark the occasion. My first real relationship, my first real love, the first time I'd felt beautiful and wanted and special.
The memory of walking up the stairs to his second-floor apartment still makes my stomach clench. I'd been nervous but excited, carrying that bottle of wine like an offering, my heart racing with the knowledge that tonight everything would change. That I'd finally understand what all the whispered conversations in the dormitories were about.
I'd had a key—he'd given it to me the week before with a smile that made me feel chosen, significant. I'd used it that night because I wanted to surprise him, wanted to be waiting with wine and candlelight when he got back from his evening lecture.
The apartment was dark when I let myself in, but I could hear sounds from the bedroom. Not conversation—something else that made my stomach flutter with confusion. Rhythmic creaking, soft gasps, the unmistakable sounds of intimacy that I was too innocent to immediately recognize.
My heart started racing for all the wrong reasons as I walked toward his bedroom, wine bottle clutched in suddenly sweatyhands. Maybe he was... maybe he'd started without me? Maybe this was his way of showing me he was ready too?
The door was cracked open, warm lamplight spilling into the hallway along with sounds that made my cheeks burn. I'd pushed it open with one trembling hand, wine bottle in the other, expecting to find David waiting for me with that smile that made me feel special.
Instead, I found my sister.
Sarah's long hair cascaded over her bare shoulders as she rode David with practiced confidence, her back arched in pleasure, soft moans spilling from her lips. David's hands gripped her hips, guiding her movements, his face tight with the kind of intense focus I'd dreamed of inspiring in him.
They moved together with a familiarity that spoke of experience, of knowing exactly how to touch each other, exactly what the other needed. Sarah's body was perfect in the lamplight—curves where I had angles, confidence where I had uncertainty, everything I wasn't and would never be.
The wine bottle slipped from my numb fingers, shattering against the hardwood with a sound like my heart breaking. Red wine splashed across the floor, staining the boards like blood, like evidence of something violent and irreversible.
They froze mid-motion, Sarah's gasp cutting off abruptly as they both turned toward the door. For one horrible moment, we all stared at each other—me standing in the doorway like a child who'd wandered into the wrong room, them naked and joined and so obviously together that it rewrote every memory I had of the past few months.
The expression on David's face will haunt me forever. Not shock at being caught. Not guilt at betraying me. Not even embarrassment at the situation.
Irritation. Pure, undisguised irritation, like I was some annoying interruption to something important.
"Maya," Sarah breathed, not even bothering to cover herself as she climbed off David. Her skin was flushed and glowing, her hair mussed from his hands, her body moving with the languid satisfaction of someone thoroughly pleasured.
I couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Could only stand there with wine soaking into my shoes, watching my sister—beautiful, confident, experienced—straighten up with the casual grace of someone who belonged exactly where she was.
"Maya," Sarah had said, pulling the sheet up to cover herself. "This isn't—we didn't mean for you to find out this way."
Find out. Like it was information I should have been told, not a betrayal I was discovering.
"How long?" I'd whispered, unable to move from the doorway, unable to process what I was seeing.
David rolled off my sister with casual indifference, his body still glistening with sweat from their coupling. He reached for his trousers without even looking at me, as if my presence was barely worth acknowledging.
"How long?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the thundering of my heart.
"A few weeks," he said, pulling on his clothes with the same matter-of-fact tone he'd use to discuss lab results. "Since the symposium."
The symposium. Where I'd introduced them with such pride, babbling about the brilliant graduate student I was dating. Where I'd watched Sarah charm him with her sophisticated conversation while I sat quietly, content to let my accomplished sister shine.
