My Family Chose My Sister Over My Love And I Disappeared Chapter 04
I was packing at home when I felt something an arm tighten around my waist.
The next second, Ethan carefully lifted me and set me down on the couch.
“How could you be this careless.”
I followed his gaze down and realized I’d run so hard on the way home that I’d lost a shoe.
The top of my foot had a gash on it that I hadn’t even noticed.
He didn’t hesitate. He held my foot in both hands and started dabbing antiseptic onto the cut, slow and gentle.
Watching him like this, my eyes filled up in spite of me.
Once, he really had known how to love someone.
Back then, if I mentioned some weird dish I wanted to try, he’d get up in the middle of the night and attempt it from a recipe.
Because I was afraid of the dark, he’d installed little nightlights in every corner of the apartment.
None of it was coming back.
Just then, the door slammed open.
Sienna came storming in, still in her wedding gown.
The instant she saw the position we were in, her eyes went red.
“Ethan, I knew you’d be here!”
“After what she did to me today, you didn’t even want to call the police. You still love her, don’t you!”
Ethan didn’t say anything. Sienna broke into a wail.
“Fine. If you don’t love me anymore, I’ll go make sure you lose our baby right now!”
I froze. Something in my head went white.
Baby.
So this was the “reason” Ethan had.
Ethan shot up to grab her, panic in his voice.
“Sienna, calm down. Please. Think of the baby.”
He turned back to me, and somehow, his eyes were pleading.
“Sloane. Listen to me. A lot happened that night…”
“But we’re here now. I have to do the right thing.”
“At the very least, I have to acknowledge this baby.”
I couldn’t seem to draw a full breath.
There are a lot of ways to do the right thing. This wasn’t the best one. But it was the one he wanted.
I didn’t want to hear another word of his excuses. I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the door.
Sienna lunged and grabbed my arm. Her nails sank in deep, leaving four bloody crescents.
“You wrecked my wedding, and now you’re just going to walk out?”
She yanked at me hard. Her own foot slipped, and she went flying backward.
She dragged me down with her, and I slammed into the floor.
Pain flashed white behind my eyes, and I felt something warm rush out from between my legs.
Ethan crouched down to help me up, but the second his hand touched my shoulder, Sienna clutched her stomach and screamed.
“Ethan, my stomach! It hurts!”
He hesitated for maybe three seconds. Then he chose her.
“Sloane, I’m sorry. Sienna has our baby to think about.”
“Wait here. I’ll come back and explain everything.”
Without so much as a glance back, he was gone.
I reached for my phone, and then the black rolled in and I was out.
When I opened my eyes again, I was staring up at a pale hospital ceiling.
The nurse looked at me with sympathetic look.
“You lost the baby, honey. You were about two months along.”
I stared at the IV needle taped to the back of my hand. My mind wouldn’t hold on to anything.
Right then, Madison’s messages started rolling in, one after another.
Photos. Ethan holding Sienna’s hand, all tenderness.
Mom peeling an apple. Dad steadying an IV pole. Julian at the foot of the bed cracking jokes to cheer her up.
She didn’t have to write a word. She’d said everything.
She wanted me to know when I was beaten and walk away.
Almost at the same moment, my boss’s phone call came through.
Turns out the hospital couldn’t reach any of my family, so they’d rerouted the call through my company.
“Sloane. I’ve already sent an assistant over with two care packages. Anything you need, come straight to me.”
I gripped the phone. Tears hit the screen in fat, steady drops.
A man I wasn’t related to by blood was treating me better than this.
And my own family, in this exact moment, hadn’t offered a single word of concern.
The day after the surgery, I dragged my body to the airport.
This city had drained me of every last tear I had. I couldn’t stand another second in it.
If my baby had left me for good, then I was leaving all of you, for good.