He Left Me For My Sister Now He Begs For Me Back Chapter 24
Twenty days before my wedding, the Crawford family attended the annual winter event for the charity fund my grandfather had established.
Every year, the fund invited the families it had helped to a gathering near the old villa. Deep in the garden was a memorial grove named after my grandfather.
I hadn’t wanted to go.
But my father pointed out that after my marriage, I would be transferring my affiliation to the Westmoor Pack, so this would likely be the last time I attended as a Crawford.
So I went.
Behind the villa stretched a wide grove of plum trees, and beyond that lay the lake, a thin skin of ice covering its surface.
My sister was there, too.
She and Sebastian had been fighting so bitterly that she had moved back into our family home. My mother, feeling sorry for her, called the Black family daily, hoping they would come and take her back.
But Sebastian never came.
After the event, my sister asked me to walk with her by the lake.
I was about to refuse.
But my father said, “You’re sisters, after all. It would be good for you to say what needs to be said before you leave the capital.”
I looked at him, then agreed to go.
The wind by the lake was sharp.
Standing in the middle of the wooden bridge, my sister asked, “Are you really going to marry Gavin?”
“Yes.”
“You won’t regret it?”
“No.”
She suddenly smiled.
“That’s good.”
I said nothing.
She stared out over the frozen surface of the lake.
“Adeline, do you remember when we were six?”
Of course I remembered.
She said, “When I jumped in to save you, I didn’t think about whether I might die. I just wanted to push you back to shore.”
Looking at her, I felt a flicker of an old ache, one I hadn’t felt in a long time.
No matter what had happened since, the fact that she had saved my life in that moment was real.
Softly, I said, “I remember.”
Tears welled in her eyes.
“Then why can’t you go back to being the sister you used to be?”
That flicker of warmth vanished.
I asked, “Which sister was that? The one who gave you anything you wanted?”
She didn’t answer.
The wind picked up, whipping at our hair.
Then she suddenly stepped forward, and the railing at the edge of the bridge gave a sharp crack.
In the next instant, the entire section broke away.
My sister cried out and pitched sideways, toward the lake.
I reached for her without thinking.
My body moved faster than my mind, just as hers had all those years ago.
I caught her sleeve, but her momentum dragged me forward.
My foot slipped on the slick wood, and we both plunged into the icy lake.
The freezing water closed over my head, the shock instantly smothering my wolf’s instinct to shift.
My mind went blank.
From the shore, someone shouted my name.
“Adeline!”
It was Gavin.