My Sister Stole My Husband, My Son, and My Medal Chapter 10

My Sister Stole My Husband, My Son, and My Medal Chapter 10

The last trace of hope faded from Stellan’s eyes.

He looked down at Bram, who was sobbing beside him, and gathered the boy into his arms.

“Romy, I know I failed you. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“But Bram is innocent.”

“For his sake, please give me one more chance. I’ll spend the rest of my life making this up to both of you. I

swear I’ll never hurt you again.”

Tears covered Bram’s face as he stared at me and kept calling for his mommy.

My chest tightened.

I hated that it still could.

But that didn’t mean I was ready to forgive him.

“He’s a child, Stellan. I know what all of you taught him. But I can’t just go back to being his mother because

you’re sorry now.”

I closed the door without another word.

Stellan didn’t give up after that first rejection.

He showed up at my house every few days. He drove twelve miles to buy chocolate mousse cake from the bakery I had once loved. On Mother’s Day, he brought Bram over with a handmade card. Whenever he thought I wasn’t feeling well, he left homemade ginger tea at my door.

He had treated me with the same care when we were dating.

It hadn’t stopped him from sleeping with my sister. It hadn’t stopped him from destroying me again and again.

for Cressida’s sake.

I watched him try, and I felt nothing.

Not anger. Not pain. Not even satisfaction.

Just emptiness where he used to live.

Eventually, I pressed charges.

For three years, Stellan and Cressida had conspired with people close to me, repeatedly feeding me

fabricated leads about a killer who didn’t exist.

To make those leads convincing, they hired people to pose as criminals and attack me, placing my life in

danger again and again.

My body was covered in scars.

How could I forgive any of them?

Stellan offered no defense in court. He admitted to every charge and pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced to ten years in prison for multiple counts of aggravated assault, conspiracy, and reckless

endangerment.

The people who had helped him lure me into those traps were charged as accomplices. Thayer Knox, Odette Pike, and Penn Raley each received sentences ranging from one to three years.

After three years, justice had finally caught up with them.

When Stellan went to prison, the court looked to me first because I was still Bram’s legal mother.

I wasn’t ready to take him back.

Pretending I was would’ve hurt both of us.

Conrad and Blythe were convinced I would mistreat him. They petitioned for custody. They bombarded me with emotional threats. They even threatened to harm themselves unless I signed him over.

I couldn’t force myself back into being his mother overnight, so I agreed.

On the day they came to take Bram, he cried and refused to leave.

“Mommy, don’t you want me? I’m sorry. I said those things and I didn’t mean any of them. I was just–you were never there. You were always working. I thought you didn’t want me.”

“Will you come see me?”

I looked at him, remembering every version of the child he had once been.

As a newborn, he had been a tiny, wrinkled bundle who wasn’t particularly cute, yet one look at him had melted my heart.

The first time he called me Mommy, I had smothered him with kisses and begged him to say it again. When I thought he had died in the explosion, I had fallen to my knees and searched desperately through the debris for any trace of him. It had felt as if my entire world had collapsed.

Then I finally found him alive, only for him to push me away and tell me I didn’t love him. Cressida was his mother now.

His rejection had hurt in a way none of my physical scars ever had.

I crouched down to his level.

“Bram, listen to me.”

He sniffled, his eyes wide and wet.

“You’re going to live with your grandparents for a while. They love you. They’ll take care of you.”

“But I want to stay with you.”

“I know.”

I reached out and brushed the hair from his forehead. He leaned into my hand, and for just a second, he was

the baby I had once held in the hospital, the one I had promised to protect.

Then I pulled my hand back.

“Study hard,” I said. “Be good.”

He nodded eagerly, his tears giving way to a fragile smile.

I stood up and walked away.

I didn’t look back.

By then, I had already submitted my resignation.

Getting my badge back mattered.

But my body was done.

I knew I couldn’t keep working the streets.

All I wanted now was to see the world on my own.

My flight to Iceland left in two hours. I didn’t know when I’d come back.

I packed one bag. I left everything else behind.

I sat alone in the airport terminal, watching the sun rise over the runway.

I had won. I had my medal. My name was cleared. The people who had hurt me were either in prison or cut

out of my life.

And yet, sitting there with a boarding pass in my hand, I didn’t feel like I had won anything.

I just felt tired.

The kind of tired that doesn’t go away with sleep.

A flight announcement cut through my thoughts. I stood up, adjusted my bag strap, and walked toward the

gate.

Halfway there, I stopped.

I pulled out my phone. The microSD card was still in it–the backup of everything. The evidence. The recordings. The scars, preserved in pixels.

I snapped it in half.

The pieces fell into the trash can beside me.

Then I walked onto the plane.

I found my seat by the window.

As the plane lifted off, Glenmarrow shrank beneath me–the department, the warehouse, the safe, the scars, the faces I would never see again.

I pressed my forehead against the glass and closed my eyes.

When I opened them, there was nothing below but clouds.