My name is Silje. Maja, my twin sister, was my other half, my reflection. We shared everything as children—clothes, friends, secrets—until we stopped sharing them. We were identical twins, she and I, almost perfectly matched when we looked at each other. But there was a difference. She was the sun, and I was the shadow.
Jakob was everything I had ever wanted in a man, but never dared to admit. He wasn't just beautiful—he had this way of seeing people that made them feel seen. When he looked at Maja, I saw it in his eyes. She was his everything.
This evening was no exception. I sat on their soft sofa and watched them preparing dinner together in the kitchen. Maja gave instructions, Jakob executed. They moved around each other with a naturalness that hurt to watch.
I sat there and observed them. How his hand found her back while she was talking. How she didn't even register the touch while she spoke. That's what made it unbearable—that he loved her in a way that was so... normal. So safe. So ordinary. And I was the opposite of all that. I was danger. I was a secret. I was everything she would never be.
"You're so quiet tonight," Maja said, setting a bowl of salad on the table. "Just tired," I said, the lie coming easily. "The myth of work."
"And Jakob says he wants to take things further soon," Maja said cheerfully as she set the table. "Maybe an engagement in the summer. I'm so happy, Silje. I never thought I'd find someone like him."
That was the second. That moment when time began to drain away. An engagement. Summer. A shared future that didn't include me, that couldn't include me, that would shut me out forever. Something broke inside me—something that had been waiting beneath all the shame and loyalty. Something that said: do something now, or lose him forever.
When Jakob gave Maja a small touch on the shoulder as he passed, I saw it. A light squeeze. Such enormous love. Something cracked inside me—a moment of such intense jealousy that I had to grip the back of the sofa.
