sister was treated differently than you, probably got whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was rewarded for everything and praised for every little thing she did, even things that she didn’t do. Your parents most likely embellished everything she did and kept their mouths shut whenever she did something wrong, painting her as the perfect child and when she didn’t do anything praise-worthy they made it up or-”
“Gave her credit for things I did,” Kylie found herself adding, frowning in confusion and wondering how he knew all of this.
“And whenever she did something wrong, they either pretended that it never happened or they blamed you,” Grey said, watching her as that coin continued to work its way across his fingers.
“Yes,” Kylie said, pulling her trembling hand free so that she could wrap her arms around herself as she thought of all the sick and evil things that Denise did. The people she’d hurt, the money she’d stolen, the lies she’d spread, and the way she-
“Your sister was allowed to hurt you, most likely encouraged to do it and whenever you complained about how you were treated, they belittled you, punished you, mocked you, and made you think that there was something wrong with you,” he continued, making her stomach hurt.
“Yes,” she whispered hollowly.
“They treated your sister better, probably took better care of her, always made sure that she had what she needed and more, made sure that her every need was met, and always had an excuse why she’d deserved to be treated better in every way,” he guessed correctly.
Unable to answer, she nodded as she thought of all those times that her parents had told her no one second only to give in to her sister the next. The way that her parents couldn’t seem to do enough for her sister, making sure that her every need was taken care of, giving her whatever she wanted. The way that they couldn’t seem to do enough to make sure that Denise was taken care of, making sure that she was taken to the doctor every year, the dentist twice a year, and saw every specialist there was to make sure that everything about Denise was perfect. They’d only taken Kylie to see a doctor when she’d missed too many days from school and needed a note, or the school demanded a physical, which wasn’t very often. They always made sure that one of them was in the room, making sure that she didn’t say anything, didn’t complain, or let the doctors look at her back. They’d always had an excuse, joked about her being shy or distracted the doctors to make sure that they didn’t raise the back of her shirt and see the damage they’d left behind.
“They kept you pretty isolated, only letting you leave the house when they had no choice or they needed you to do something for them and even then, they only let you around people who believed them. If you mentioned any adult in a favorable manner, they went out of their way to make sure that person didn’t trust you,” he said, as Hunter got up from the couch and walked over to the double patio doors.
“Y-yes,” she said, because that had probably hurt more than anything.
They’d taken away every last hope that someone, anyone, could care for her. She’d lost count of how many teachers who’d once greeted her with a smile, stopped talking to her, yelled at her, or threw the things that her parents said about her back in her face. The parents that once told her that she was welcome in their home made sure that their child stayed away from her after one talk with her parents. With her parents’ reputations and the fact that most of the town hated them because of the things that they did and said, it made her existence very lonely.
“They allowed other people to treat you like shit and probably encouraged it.”
“Yes,” she said, as she watched Hunter’s hands clench into fists as he stood there, staring out the patio doors.
“They expected your sister to grow up to be something special, but instead she has problems holding a job, gets fired a lot, steals, does drugs, and has a serious problem with alcohol, but none of it is ever her fault. Your parents still cover for her, but now your sister is the one spreading lies and embellishing her life. Even with that, they still treated her better than they treated