They Called Me A Defective Copy Of My Sister Chapter 01

They Called Me A Defective Copy Of My Sister Chapter 01

After my sister Ruby Thorne was widowed, she re-entered the mate-matching registry, and the system paired her with Silas Sterling — my husband Vance Sterling’s twin brother.

The night we found out, Vance pulled me against his chest and held on like something inside him had broken. He didn’t sleep. Neither did I.

Sometime before dawn, I heard him give up on pretending he could sleep. He slipped out of bed and went out to the yard to call Silas.

“Silas, I can’t do this. I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering what might have been. Just — do this one thing for me.”

“Don’t worry about Hazel. She has no clue — she won’t figure it out. Remember when she couldn’t even tell us apart?”

“And Ruby’s never seen you, so she won’t know the difference. I’m begging you, Silas. One week. That’s all I need. I just — I can’t live the rest of my life regretting this.”

He begged until the sky began to pale. Silas finally caved — he’d pretend to be Vance and keep me in the dark.

When Silas said yes, Vance exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for years.

So did I. He had no idea.

Because the truth was, I wasn’t any different from him. I wanted someone too — someone I couldn’t have.

***

The call ended. He didn’t come right back inside.

He stayed in the yard, smoking a menthol to steady his nerves. When he finally came inside, he sat down on the edge of the mattress, so careful that it barely shifted.

I kept my breaths even, my eyes closed. He watched me the way he always did when he thought I was asleep.

His tail — warm, heavy with fur — curled around my feet where they’d slipped out from under the blanket. Pure instinct, not intention. Cool fingertips brushed the hair back from my temples.

This version of Vance — the gentle one, the one who touched me like I meant something — only came out when he thought I was asleep. Every waking hour of our marriage, he kept me at arm’s length.

He played the part of a dutiful husband without complaint. But his eyes gave him away — flat, almost clinical, the way you’d look at a stand-in for the person you actually wanted. I knew exactly what that look meant.

He was in love with Ruby. And when I slept, my face softened to mirror hers more than it ever did when I was awake.

“Hazel.” His fingers went still against my brow.

He leaned in, his breath hovering by my ear, and when he spoke, each word landed like a vow.

“I’ll never betray you. I just can’t stop caring about her.”

Even now, just thinking about seeing her, his tail had started to thump — a helpless, involuntary rhythm against my ankles. I curled my fingers into my palms until my nails bit into the skin.

My own heart was hammering just as hard — only for a different reason. His breath brushed warm against my skin.

“Hazel, loving someone you can’t have in your youth — that kind of longing eats you alive. And I don’t want it to eat me.”

“I’m going to build a real life with you. But if I’m going to do that, I need to see her. Just once.”

As her mate. Not as a memory. Not as a ghost. Some things you can only let go of once you’ve actually held them.

I understood.