Chapter 6
Sarah showed up at my parents’ house an hour later.
She’d probably called my mother, realized something was wrong, and rushed over to do damage control.
She walked in with her usual perfect smile.
But it faltered when she saw the look on our parents’ faces.
And when she saw me.
Sitting there.
Holding the phone.
“What’s going on?” she asked, trying to sound innocent.
My father stood up.
His voice was like ice.
“Get out.”
Sarah blinked.
“Daddy, what—”
“Get out of my house,” he repeated. “And don’t come back until you’re ready to tell the truth.”
Tears filled her eyes.
Real tears this time.
Or very good fake ones.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s been filling your heads with lies—”
“Three years,” I said, standing up. “Three years you’ve been sleeping with my husband. While I was pregnant. While I was raising his child. While I trusted you more than anyone in the world.”
I held up the phone.
“I have all the messages, Sarah. All of them. Where you called me clueless. Where you planned how to hide the affair. Where you talked about how you couldn’t wait for me to be gone so you could have my life.”
Her face went white.
All the color drained out.
She looked at our parents.
Then back at me.
And for a moment, I saw something in her eyes.
Not remorse.
Not guilt.
Just anger.
That she’d been caught.
“It’s not my fault!” she screamed suddenly. “You never appreciated him! You were always so busy with Emma, with the house, with your stupid little life! You didn’t give him what he needed!”
I stared at her.
My own sister.
Blaming me for her own choices.
“So it’s my fault you slept with my husband?” I asked, my voice cold.
“He loved me first!” she yelled. “Before you! We were together in high school! And then you came along with your quiet little ways and your ‘perfect’ life and you stole him!”
I felt like I’d been punched.
High school?
They’d been together before Michael and I even met?
My mother gasped.
My father looked like he might have a heart attack.
Sarah kept going, her voice rising higher and higher.
“He was mine! And you took him! I was just taking back what was rightfully mine!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
This whole time.
This wasn’t just an affair.
It was revenge.
She’d been planning this.
Waiting for her chance.
And Michael had let her.
He’d played us both.
Or had he?
Had he been in on it from the beginning?
Had he married me just to get back at her?
Or had she manipulated him?
I didn’t know.
And at that moment, I didn’t care.
All I knew was that my own sister had betrayed me in the worst possible way.
And she wasn’t even sorry.
“Get out,” I said quietly.
Sarah laughed, a bitter, broken sound.
“You think you’ve won? You think getting a divorce is going to fix anything? You’ll always be the boring one. The second choice. He’ll never love you like he loves me.”
“Get out,” I repeated, louder this time.
She turned and stormed toward the door.
Before she left, she looked back at me.
“This isn’t over.”
Then she was gone.
The house was silent.
My mother was crying.
My father was shaking with anger.
I walked over to them.
And for the first time in years, my father hugged me.
Really hugged me.
“We’re so sorry,” he whispered. “We failed you. We let her get away with too much for too long.”
I held onto him.
“It’s not your fault. She made her choices.”
But I knew what he meant.
Sarah had always been the golden child.
The one who could do no wrong.
And I’d always been the one in her shadow.
Well, not anymore.
May you like
The shadow was gone.
And Sarah was finally exposed for who she really was.
