My Family Chose My Sister Over My Love And I Disappeared Chapter 08
Sienna looked like she’d short-circuited. Not a word came out.
Everyone else just stared at each other.
Ethan slid the phone back into his pocket and locked his eyes on her.
A long time passed before Sienna finally stammered out a reply.
“Maybe… maybe I dreamed it. I’ve been in so much pain today. I’m not thinking straight…”
Her voice trailed off. Even she couldn’t sell it.
Ethan’s brow drew tight.
A terrible thought crept up on him.
What if this wasn’t the first lie Sienna had ever told?
He wouldn’t let himself follow it any further.
Right now, what mattered wasn’t cataloging Sienna’s lies. It was finding Sloane.
He had to find her. He had to explain everything.
He had to get her back.
Meanwhile, half a world away, I had landed in Lisbon, across the Atlantic.
The second Mr. Whitaker heard I’d arrived, he canceled the meeting he was in and drove out to the airport himself.
He took the handle of my suitcase, and there was nothing in his eyes but concern.
“Focus on getting well. Everything else can wait.”
He drove me to a recovery center by the coast and got me settled in.
At first, I couldn’t sleep. I’d lie there with my eyes open until sunrise.
But the sea breeze here had something to it. Day by day, all the creases inside me started to smooth out.
I started pulling myself together and easing into physical therapy.
It was exhausting, but my body and my head were both mending, a little more each day.
Three months in, the doctor cleared me to leave.
I rented a small apartment not far from the office and took in a stray cat.
I found my rhythm quickly.
Cooking. Commute in, commute out. The occasional walk through the neighborhood park with coworkers.
I thought that was how my days would go from here on out.
Until the shadow of my old life showed up on my doorstep.
That day, I was coming home from work when I looked up and saw four familiar figures standing outside my building.
Ethan had lost a lot of weight. His eyes were red as he looked at me.
“Sloane. We finally found you.”
“We’re here to take you home.”
Diana couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Sloane, you’ve gotten so thin.”
“Stop being angry with Mommy, okay? Come home with us. Let’s just be a family again.”
Richard was standing to the side, holding a cake he’d baked himself.
Julian gave my building a once-over and sighed.
“Sloane, quit it. Look at this place you’re living in.”
“Home is so much better. Why are you making yourself suffer here?”
Madison’s tears were falling in big, heavy drops.
“Sloane, I’ve missed you so much. Please come home with us. I already bought the tickets.”
I took a step back and looked at all of them coldly.
“You’ve got the wrong person. I don’t know any of you.”