He Chose My Sister. I Went Cold. Chapter 02

He Chose My Sister. I Went Cold. Chapter 02

That day, I gave Silas plenty of time to clean up his mess.

I didn’t come home until one in the morning.

The moment I opened the door, I saw Silas sitting in the living room, his expression dark.

“Where were you? I called you more than a dozen times.”

I set down my bag, my tone flat.

“Shopping with a friend.”

Silas stared at me as if he didn’t believe a word of it.

He probably thought I would cry, make a scene—do *something*. He hadn’t expected me to do nothing at all, to just go out for the entire day.

“What the hell are you thinking?”

“Claire is your sister, at least. If you have even a shred of conscience, don’t hurt her. She’s innocent.”

I shook my head.

“She’s my sister. I won’t do anything to her.”

Then I added, “She didn’t look well. You should go check on her tomorrow.”

The room fell silent.

Silas’s voice was low.

“You’re telling me to go see her?”

I knew why he reacted that way.

Before, if a woman so much as spoke to him for a few extra seconds at a dinner party, I’d grill him for hours.

Thinking about it now, I realize how awful I was.

Silas suddenly grabbed my wrist, his eyes filled with confusion.

“Freya, what is wrong with you?”

I pulled my hand back.

“Nothing. Don’t overthink it.”

I had been out all day and was exhausted.

Besides, I was pregnant.

Silas followed me to the foot of the stairs, his expression turning ugly. Just as he reached for me, my phone rang.

As soon as I answered, my mother’s shrill sobs burst through the line.

“Claire tried to kill herself! Someone posted the photos online. She took pills!”

Silas whipped his head toward me, his gaze turning cold in an instant.

I froze.

In my last life, I had been the one to do it.

But this time, it had nothing to do with me.

Before I could explain, Silas grabbed me and dragged me outside, then shoved me into the car.

When we arrived at the hospital, my mother rushed over and grabbed my arm.

Her face was streaked with tears, as if she were truly on the verge of collapse.

“Freya, I’m begging you. Let them be. Let Claire and Silas be together. She really can’t take any more of this.”

Looking at her blatant favoritism, my chest still ached.

Clearly, I was the one who was truly pitiful.

I’d been switched with another family’s baby at birth and grew up in the mountains of West Virginia.

At four, I had to stand on a stool to cook.

If I did anything wrong, my adoptive mother’s slap would land across my face.

At twelve, I dropped out of school and was sent by my adoptive father to work in the local textile mill.

A machine crushed my hand, leaving scars on my thumb and index finger that never faded.

But on the day I was brought back to my biological family, my mother looked at me, and the first thing she said wasn’t sympathetic at all. It was:

“Is she really our daughter? She looks like she’s from another world.”

Her crying dragged me back to the present. I lifted my head and looked at Silas.

He was watching me, too, as if waiting for my answer.

I smiled faintly, then looked at my mother.

“Fine. Aside from this marriage certificate, Silas can spend all the time he wants with Claire.”

My mother’s expression stiffened.

Silas, however, crossed to me in a few long strides, grabbed my arm, and pinned me against the wall.

“You caused all this, and now you’re trying to push me onto someone else?”

“Freya, what exactly am I to you?”

By the end, his voice was trembling.

I genuinely didn’t understand.

“Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”

This marriage was a business arrangement between our families.

Silas had never liked me. He thought I was crude and unworldly.

Even after marrying me, he hadn’t stopped sleeping with other women.

His reaction now was the one thing I couldn’t understand.