“Room 218,” the nurse said. “But you didn’t hear it from me.” Elin rested her hands lightly on the girls’ shoulders as they walked down the hall, anxiety braiding her steps toward the unknown, and then toward the known, which felt a whole lot worse; all those old, pigheaded arguments now filling her with guilt, her hands on her sister’s daughters, her sister/their mother, the person at whom Elin had hurled insults for years. She fought off the worming in her chest, the bile headed for her throat. It was one thing to bicker like siblings, all the shoving, bullying, competition. But something
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