I was trying to avoid Katie as much as humanly possible without making it too obvious that I was trying to avoid her as much as humanly possible.
So you can imagine I was quite happy when toward the end of June, her and Connor went to Ocean City for a long weekend together.
I tried to not make it suspicious as she left.
"Have a great time." I said, and gave her a hug, which made me feel sick while doing so.
"Thanks." she grinned at me.
In my head I wondered how a human could be so sick and twisted. Here she was, just going off to the beach with her boyfriend- who had no idea what she had done- and she was able to be happy. Meanwhile, April was living in an stuffy apartment in a bad area of the city, not leaving her house except to strip at 10 PM, with immense trauma and scars to show it.
And the more I thought about it- it made sense. Katie had shown the least amount of sadness and interest in finding April this whole time. She didn't give a fuck. I figured she must've known she wasn't dead considering her car was missing- but she knew that April would be too scared to come back.
I started thinking- wondering if she had always been this way and if I just missed it all. That's when I had an idea- in my dads office he had a bunch of files. There was a drawer for each of us kids. Everything from our birth certificates to diplomas to medical bills and history. I decided I was going to go check out Katie's file.
It was a Friday, and both of my parents were at work. The only person home was Kylie, but she was up in her room doing whatever she does.
So, I went into my dads office. His office with his sleek desk, bookshelf, and big screen Apple computer. In the corner was a black file cabinet. I knew that our records were in the bottom drawer.
So I opened it up. I saw the five tabs- Scott Vincent Fiori, April Victoria  Fiori, Katherine Rose Fiori, Josephine Cecilia Fiori, and Kylie Marie Fiori.
My hands crept toward Katherine Rose. And I started to search through her file. From her birth certificate, to some old report cards, her kindergarten graduation photo, and then...I came across something that looked particularly intriguing. The folder was labeled Dr. Alan Darby, M.D. and then the practice name was underneath- Flower Mill Psychiatry.
Psychiatry. Hm. I looked at the first page, where notes were written. This looked like come kind of copy. And then I saw that the top said, Katherine Rose Fiori, Age 7.
I saw the chief complaint for the visit was that she was having behavioral issues at school. And then I started reading off the list of symptoms she was showing:
-Inability to distinguish between right and wrong
-Difficulty showing remorse
-Lying tendencies
-Hurting other classmates at school
Fuck.
So Katie always had issues, since she was little. And my parents had tried to help her out early on. She obviously was able to get some kind of help to have her lead a "normal" life. But she must've always had this dark side to her. And I had no fucking clue.
And she wanted to be a child psychologist. Hilarious.
"What are you doing in here?"
I jumped at the sound of Kylie's voice. I immediately shoved the file into the drawer that I was looking at. I turned around to see Kylie standing there. She had just cut her auburn hair to her shoulders and she had on a floral sundress. She didn't look like my baby sister anymore.
"Don't worry about it." I said. I figured I wouldn't just flat out lie.
"It's weird that you're just in here looking through files." she crossed her arms.
I got up and walked toward the door. "Not really. Just don't worry about it, okay?"
"No seriously, what were you looking at?" Kylie asked me, grabbing my arm as I walked out.
"I said, don't fucking worry about it. Okay?" I practically barked at her.
She rolled her eyes, "Those anger management classes worked out real well for you, huh?" she said sarcastically.
All I could do was walk away and hope that she wouldn't tell anyone about this. Especially not Katie. It seemed as though this summer, with Katie living at home, the two of them had gotten closer.
But of course she told our dad. At around 9:30 I was in my room, listening to music, when I heard a knock.
"Josephine, can I come in?" he asked me.
"Sure." I said.
My dad walked in and closed the door behind him, "I'm just going to get right to it. Kylie told me she saw you going through the file cabinet today. Can I ask why?"
Fuck.
I sat up. "Dad, I'm going to need you to trust me right now." I started, "I can't say exactly why. Just know it was for a good reason. I promise."
My dad looked at me, not saying anything. He seemed to be trying to figure out what I had just said. Finally, he nodded. "Okay. I am going to trust you. I have no choice but to."
"I promise, you can." I said to him. I hoped he would believe me.
I was laying in my bed at midnight when my phone started vibrating.
Who the fuck was calling me so late?
I looked at my phone. It was an unknown number. And I knew I had to answer it. Because I knew there was a chance it could be April.
I answered very softly, "Hello?"
"Josie?" I heard April's voice come through.
I sat up. "April...what's up?" I practically whispered.
"Josie, I'm ready to come home. I've been really thinking about it. I want to come back. I'm so tired of living this way. It's draining my soul. I'm ready to come home and put Katie's bitch ass in jail."
"Okay." I said, "Let's do it."
"Save this number. We will talk about it, okay?"
"Yes. I can't wait for you to come home." I said.
"I love you, Josie."
"I love you too." I said.
I laid in my bed after we hung up, not believing that was was happening. I was finally going to get my sister back.
And for Katie- she was done.