Chapter 4He Brought His Adopted Sister Home

Sean answered, murmuring a few distracted phrases into the phone.

After hanging up, he took my hand. “I’ll call my parents and have her move back home.”

His warm lips brushed against my ear. “Come home early tonight. What do you want to eat? This time, I’ll cook just for you.”

My mind flashed back to the past.

To him, pulling me out of a bar, his eyes red-rimmed.

To the helpless, pleading look on his face as he asked, “Rebecca, what do I have to do to make you look at me, to just see me?”

A lump formed in my throat.

“Alright, Sean. I’ll trust you one more time.”

“But if you lie to me again.”

“I will never, ever forgive you.”

He smiled, a genuine, relieved smile, and gently kissed my damp eyelids.

“Rebecca, I have never lied to you.”

That evening, I returned home to find Sean wasn’t back yet.

Lily was sitting on the sofa, radiating resentment like a sullen ghost.

“Why didn’t you accept my friend request?”

I gave her a dismissive glance. “Why would I?”

“What did you say to my brother?” she demanded, blocking my path. “Why is he making me move out?”

I had no desire to engage with her.

But she suddenly snapped, grabbing a vase and hurling it at me.

The heavy glass crashed against my forehead, the impact making my ears ring. The thorns from the roses scraped bloody lines down my cheek and arm.

Just then, the front door opened.

Lily immediately snatched a shard of glass and pressed it to her own wrist, her voice rising in a hysterical, tear-choked scream. “I was just trying to apologize to you! Why are you doing this to me? Do you want me to die? Is that what it will take to make you happy?!”

Sean’s eyes widened in horror. He rushed toward her, his face a mask of panic. “Lily!”

“Brother…” she sobbed, shaking her head tragically. “I know… I’ve always been the extra one in this family. I won’t get in the way of your happiness anymore, I promise…”

Blood welled up on her wrist.

Sean’s face went white. I had never seen him so terrified.

“Don’t say that! Brother will take you to the hospital.”

He swept her into his arms. From beginning to end, he never even looked at me.

I slid down the wall, slumping to the floor.

It felt as though my heart had been carved out with that same shard of glass.