I never assembled the pieces into a picture, because the picture was insane, and because she had been very, very careful to make sure each piece looked like ordinary bad luck on its own.

And she had an enormous advantage over me, which I only understood later: she knew there was a war, and I didn’t.

Everything I did, I did in the open, like a person living a life. Everything she did, she did in service of a single objective she never named to anyone.

When you’re playing a game and your opponent doesn’t know the game exists, you don’t have to be smarter than them.

You just have to be patient, and willing to do things they’d never imagine a sister could do.

Victoria was both.