My Sister Stole My Husband, My Son, and My Medal Chapter 02

My Sister Stole My Husband, My Son, and My Medal Chapter 02

Through the blur of my tears, one face slowly came into focus.

My son’s.

Three years had passed. He was taller now. His face had changed, sharper, older. But I knew him. I would have known him anywhere.

Nothing else mattered in that moment.

Bram was alive.

That was the greatest gift I could have asked for.

I shoved past everyone and pulled him into my arms.

“Bram, come home with Mom. Please.”

He sank his teeth into my arm before I could finish. The pain shot up to my shoulder, sharp and hot.

Before I could react, he kicked me hard in the stomach. I doubled over, my grip loosening, and he wrenched himself free.

He ran behind Cress. Peeking out from her side, he stuck his tongue out at me.

“You’re not my mom anymore. Aunt Cress is my mom now!”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. All you ever do is make me study!”

“Aunt Cress isn’t like you. She plays video games with me, and she gives me all the candy I want.”

“You don’t love me. I don’t want a mom like you!”

I stared at him, unable to make sense of what I was hearing.

Something inside me caved in.

Bram had always had weak enamel. His dentist had warned us to limit sweets. Five minutes of happiness wasn’t worth years of damage to his teeth.

But I didn’t say that. I couldn’t.

Cress rested a protective hand on his shoulder and gave me a gentle smile.

“You probably don’t know this, but Bram was the one who begged to fake his death and leave with us three years ago.”

“I was going to leave him with you. But he cried and said he didn’t want to live with a bad woman. He begged me to take him.”

I tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Stellan had betrayed me. My sister had betrayed me. My parents and friends had betrayed me.

Now even the son I had carried for nine months and nearly died bringing into the world had chosen her over me.

A flicker of pity crossed Stellan’s face.

He came over with the birthday girl in his arms. Elara. She had his eyes.

“Romy, no matter how you look at it, I know I wronged you.”

“How about this? Promise you’ll leave Cress alone, and Bram and Elara can both call you Aunt Romy. We can still be a family.”

Mom and Dad exchanged satisfied looks. Then they turned to me as if Stellan had just offered me mercy.

“Romilly Calder, look how generous your sister and her husband are being.”

“Apologize to Cress. Then we can put all of this behind us and be a family again.”

The man I had loved for ten years was now being presented as my brother-in-law.

The son I had nearly bled to death delivering was supposed to become my nephew.

Cress had taken everything from me, yet somehow I was the one expected to apologize.

Why?

I slapped her.

“Cress is the other woman. Why the hell should I apologize to her?”

Before I could finish, Mom slapped me across the face.

“Don’t you dare say that. Cress has given up so much for you over the years. The least you can do is let her have something for herself.”

My vision went dark for a second. The smell of blood filled my nose, metallic and thick.

Stellan pushed me toward the exit.

“Romy, your parents have heart conditions. Have you forgotten? Stop acting like this.”

I looked up at him.

I knew every line of his face, yet I barely recognized the man looking back at me.

“Stellan, what did I ever do to make you hate me this much?”

I remembered the night Mom locked me in to keep me from enrolling at Hollisgate. Stellan had climbed through my bedroom window and gotten me out. Back then, he had been the one person willing to stand up to my parents for me.

We had both made it to Hollisgate. From that point on, he stood beside me while I chased my dream of becoming a detective.

Three years into our marriage, I became pregnant.

Stellan had never been religious. Still, he went to St. Aurelia’s, a hilltop chapel where expectant parents prayed for safe deliveries.

He climbed all ninety-nine stone steps on his knees. During the climb, he fell forward and split his forehead against the stone. Blood ran down his face, but he kept going.

He came home with a small blessed medal meant to protect mothers through childbirth.

I cried and called him an idiot.

He pulled me into his arms.

“Romy, losing you is the one thing I’m most afraid of.”

In the end, he was the one who let go first.

When I needed him most, he became another woman’s husband and taught my child to call her Mom.

Their staged deaths had wrecked the career I’d fought so hard for. I was removed from the Major Crimes Unit and reassigned to Property and Evidence, where I spent my days cataloging boxes in a warehouse.

For three years, I dreamed every night of Stellan and Bram disappearing in the explosion. I dreamed of Cress being captured and tortured to death.

I had chased every lead because I thought I was hunting the people who killed my family.

Now I knew every one of those leads had been planted.

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