“Nothing. I don’t deserve anything,” she said. Her voice cracked.

“I just wanted you to know. I see you now. Really see you. And I’m sorry I didn’t look sooner,” she said.

We sat in silence for a long time. Two sisters who’d grown up in the same house as total strangers.

“I can’t go back to how things were,” I said finally. “But I’m not interested in staying enemies either. Maybe we start over from scratch,” I said.

Josephine’s eyes filled with tears. “I’d like that,” she said.

It wasn’t the sister relationship I’d wanted as a child. But maybe it could become something real.