The Ultimate Betrayal: My Fiancé And Sister Filmed My Rape For A Headline Chapter 10
He was out of breath by the time he reached my chair, nearly went down catching himself.
“Do you hate me that much? I waited for you to wake up, and now you’re leaving. I won’t let you.”
I looked up at him from the wheelchair. “You think I’m going to love you again?”
“Nate. This is over. Actually over.”
I turned to go. He grabbed the handles of the chair, eyes going red.
“Who decided that’s your call?”
“Claire, I’ve been trying to fix this. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
He could’ve picked anyone. He picked the only family I had left, and had a child with her.
That took every last thing I had to hold onto.
The day he chose her, he lost the right to fix anything with me.
I kept my voice level. “From now on, I stay out of your life. You stay out of mine.”
“No.” His voice cracked with the word. “I already cut off Vivian and the kid. I won’t see them again.”
“She was never worth holding onto as a sister. Marry me. I become your closest family. Isn’t that enough?”
The word choice alone turned my stomach.
What kind of family falls in love with your sister. What kind of family burns your name to the ground.
I already knew exactly what he was. I couldn’t unsee it now.
I let out a short, flat sound. “Not my problem.”
I followed the doctor to the car.
The recovery place sat out past the edge of town, air clean enough to hurt going in.
I did crafts. Walked the garden. Sat in the sun.
Whatever had been sitting on my chest started to lift, day by day.
Then the front desk called up. Someone here to see me.
Vivian looked like she’d aged ten years overnight. Her face had gone thin.
She crossed the room and sank down against my legs, the way she used to when we were kids.
“Claire. This is all on me. I did things I can’t take back.”
“Can we fix this? Please.”
The old version of me would’ve forgiven her before she finished the sentence.
She wasn’t the sister I used to know anymore.
I moved her arm off me. Kept my voice even.
“Not this time.”
“You’re not my sister anymore, Vivian.”
She froze like the words had physically hit her.
“But… we’re all either of us has in this world.”
I understood something now that I hadn’t before.
Trust breaks easier than people think. Blood or not, ring or not, anyone can turn on you when nobody’s looking.
She started to say something else. Nate cut in, shoving her back from the doorway.
“Claire doesn’t have a sister like you.”
“You don’t come near her again.”
Vivian scrambled up off the floor, looked at me once, and left.
Nate turned back around, holding out a gift bag stuffed with color.
“I got you everything you used to like, Claire.”
I pushed it away. Looked him straight on.
“I won’t forgive her. I won’t forgive you either.”
I turned the chair and left him standing there.
I heard later, secondhand, what happened after.
People online dug up everything, called Vivian out for building her whole career on what happened to me.
She denied it at first. Then Nate went public and confirmed all of it.
How they’d tricked me into being filmed. What it cost my name.
Vivian lost her press credentials. They both went to prison.
I watched the story play out on the news once, then switched the channel. Put on a movie instead.
Outside the window, the breeze moved slow. Sun sat warm on my arms.
Whatever those two people used to be to me, they had no place left in whatever came next.
The end.