The Wrong Daughter

by Dandy Smith

They are home alone. Neither girl notices the man who watches them from the woods behind their house.

Already intrigued!!

flaxen

She lives contentedly in the long shadow of her sister.

I am crying in twinnnnn

Florence

Keep an eye on Florence ??

A lesson Caitlin has learned early on, is that beautiful people are often gifted beautiful things. Like flowers. Or journals.

Whats this like?!?! Lol

bedroom door yawning open down the hall.

Love tgis description

her sister is never coming home.

IM HERE FOR THIS!!!

Alone. That word doesn’t carry enough gravitas.

I get it

coveted

mostly my mother, outweighing my own personal hopes and ambitions.

This is how i operate

Then, ‘I can’t take you everywhere, Ellie.’

WHY

He doesn’t like to be kept waiting. But the irritation on his face quickly shifts into something else. A kind of sad longing. ‘You look more and more like your mother every time I see you,’ he tells her.

Whyy with all this paranoia

‘Olivia.’

Excuse meeeee

she burrows down in the library. It smells of strong coffee, of leather and learning. Besides her brother’s bedroom, it is her favourite

I get it

agog.

I just want to be … normal.’ She meets my eyes. ‘Like you.’

I understand butttt hmmm

Because the only thing these books will teach you is that happily-ever-afters are as common and as easy to find as dirty pennies.’ She tries to get up but he blocks her with his arm. ‘It’s all sugar-spun lies. Nothing worth having comes easy, Ellie. Nothing.’

Agreed

Jealousy is a handful of hard, green pebbles in Elinor’s mouth that threaten to break her teeth.

Im uncomfortable

‘Don’t you trust me, Caitie?’

Lol no

The police said that as he entered through the French doors at the back of the house, he must’ve come through the woods and across the field.

Ugh the paranoia seems so unrelenting and debilitating

Lugging cameras, rucksacks, shopping bags, and expectation, they amble too

Its giving bridgerton

‘I can’t believe he gave you his credit card,’ I say, struggling to imagine Dad, sensible and financially minded, simply handing it to her and telling her to go wild.

True she is suss

Especially our parents. I have spent years shrinking myself to make room for their wants, their plans, their idea of who I should be. But Olivia isn’t Mum. She isn’t Dad. She’s my sister.

I get trying to appease others

‘He knows you want to travel but he’s put his family first, is that right?’

Is she trying to just have her all to herself

‘Oscar would make a wonderful father. It would be a frightful shame if he never got the chance.’

Ugh the shame and the desire to appease; the conditional love

‘Twenty minutes,’ I warn. She beams.

She is relentless...lowkey annoying me

Please try on a dress for

manipulative

What kind of person, what kind of sister, would I be if I let my own irrational unease at the idea of marriage, stop her from feeling welcome in my life?

Ugh the guilt of having to acheive that archetypal role in a relationship

Olivia is the kind of beautiful found only in the pages of a fairy tale or written into legend. The kind that inspires princes to slay dragons or that launches a thousand ships. As a child, my sister’s beauty didn’t bother me,

She glorifies her sIster...puts her pn a pedastal...i get it i do the same w my twin

Just like mine.

Excuse meeeee

Even then, Heath was taking care of her, going over the sheet music with

Ahh so heath is just overprotective

‘Loved.’

Ughh boobbaaaa

‘I let her have a glass or two of wine.’

Always sacrificing himself for her safety...brotherly love

Too guilty for the part I played in the vanishing of their eldest.

The good girl i get itttt

‘I wasn’t thinking,’ I offer in a small voice. My sister’s brow creases and

Paralleling heaths protection over elinor

traipse

It was never enough. I was never enough. And I did it all so they could stand here and tell me I am attention-seeking and difficult, because for the first time in my life, I have disobeyed them. Olivia opens her mouth again but I shake my head.

Yessss i understand this feeling of needing to be perfect and never truly acheive

fucking stupid? So selfish?’ I was devastated he thought that of me. ‘She’s only ten years old, Myles,’ said Mum, soft and placating. ‘She was terrified.’ ‘So was Olivia. She was terrified. She

I understand he is distraught but this rhetoric can be damaging

we’re married,’ I offer, trying to lighten the mood. I wonder if his parents are putting pressure on him. They don’t think I’m good enough for their precious son. I don’t take it personally,

Yess his parents for sure

‘Delorean or Tardis?’

LOVEEEE THIS CONNECTION TO BTTF

her back. I don’t think I was ever that carefree. I never flirtatiously stole a boy’s hat and put it on just so he would chase me. Never snuck out. Never stole vodka from my parents’ house and passed it back and forth with a friend. My mother’s anxiety and my father’s austerity anchored me to the house.

Shes been deprived of her childhood; starved and restrixted

The only thing more valuable than being loved is being known by someone. Truly known.

I’m the therapist.’

Hmmmmmmm now im paranoid about everyone gosh darn

‘Aren’t you breaking patient confidentiality?’

Thats what i was thinking

felt the razor blades that laced the space between us; one wrong move would illicit a thousand bloody cuts.

The contention is so relatable

But, in this coffee shop, she isn’t just Heath Ledbury’s sister. She could be anyone.

Yesss living in the shadow of their sibling

He is unmarred by tragedy or loss. There’s a buoyancy to him that she hopes is contagious, because the more time she spends out in the world, the more obvious that gap between her and everyone else becomes.

I love this description

psychiatrist

Wait is this the tgerapost but back then

he squandered his intellect and his talent, too. Beauty fades, brilliance breeds legacy. Remember that.’ Elinor sighs. ‘My uncle thinks if you’re good at something, you should be great at it. Flawless, even.’

‘He sounds like a difficult man to please.’

Like caitlyns father