Chapter 4I Was Just My Sister's Marriage Test Subject

Haley let out a soft, dramatic gasp. "Mom?"

She stole a shy, blushing glance at Gavin, her cheeks turning bright crimson.

"He is MY boyfriend!" I roared, my voice breaking the tension like a shattered window. "We never broke up! Haley, if you want a boyfriend, go find one yourself! Why do you always have to steal mine?!"

I was losing my mind. The sheer absurdity of it was suffocating me.

My mother turned to me, her eyes dropping into a frosty, commanding glare. "Nora, lower your voice. Control your emotions. Stop acting like a crazy person. Do you honestly think a hysterical woman like you deserves a man like Gavin?"

Control my emotions?

With parents like them, staying sane was a medical miracle!

I had just pulled a twenty-four-hour shift at the hospital, running from patient rooms to emergency charts without a single second of sleep. My brain was firing on empty, my vision swimming with black spots, my chest tightening as if an iron band were wrapping around my ribs.

One of the distant aunts chimed in hesitantly, "Evelyn... Gavin is Nora’s boyfriend. Doing this... isn't it a bit inappropriate?"

My mother shut her down instantly.

"They weren't engaged yet!" she declared, raising her chin. "Besides, as far as I'm concerned, they are completely wrong for each other!"

She pointed a finger at me, turning to face the relatives. "Nora is just a lowly resident doctor! The medical field is an endless, soul-crushing grind with terrible pay starting out—what kind of future does she have? Haley is different. Haley is already a Corporate Finance Director at a major firm. She and Gavin—a regional manager—are a match made in heaven!"

My mother’s eyes brimmed with sudden, tragic tears. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, performing the role of an exhausted, selfless mother to perfection. "I’m her mother! Would I ever hurt her? Instead of watching them get divorced five years down the road, it's better to cut the cord now!"

I'm her mother.

Those three words were her ultimate shield, an impenetrable armor that made her morally invincible in front of the older generation.

Aunt Brenda nodded thoughtfully, convinced. "Honestly... Evelyn has a point. Nora and Gavin really don't seem to have much in common. If they got married, they'd probably end up drifting apart anyway." She looked at me, her voice softening into a preachy tone. "Nora, honey... a marriage without your parents' blessing never ends well."

The relatives chimed in one after another, picking apart my relationship, dissecting all the ways Gavin and I were supposedly incompatible.

Gavin tried to step forward to defend us, but I raised a hand, grabbing his arm tightly, stopping him.

I wanted to hear it. I wanted to see just how deep my mother’s cruelty could run.

My mother looked at me, tears streaming down her face like a tragic heroine. "Nora, you and Haley are both my daughters. I love you both equally. But as your mother, I genuinely know what's best for you. You two were never meant to be husband and wife."

Equal love. What a sick, malicious joke.

The last embers of heat in my chest died out, leaving behind a cold, hollow void. I felt a finality settling over me—my blood ties to these people were officially severed.

This was why she had assembled the entire family today. She wanted to publicly humiliate me, tear down my worth, elevate Haley, and use the collective pressure of our relatives to force me into walking away from Gavin.

I looked at my mother’s tear-stained, manipulative face. Then I looked at the relatives nodding along like sheep.

If she wanted to play dirty, then nobody in this room was getting out unscathed.

I took a step forward, a cold smile spreading across my lips.

"Aunt Brenda," I said softly, my voice echoing clearly through the quiet living room. "Did you know that Cousin Audrey’s ex-fiancé was actually the first guy Mom scouted out to be Haley’s husband?"