don’t take her, no one will.]
I shivered, staring at the man on the bed.
“Lorelei, my head is killing me,” he mumbled, drunk and whiny.
I used to love his vulnerable side. Now it only made me sick.
His phone chimed, and the screen lit up with a message from his secretary.
Isabella Newman: [I took the pill last night, so don’t worry.]
I grabbed a thin coat and stumbled out of the house. The apartment lights were glowing across the street, but tears streamed down my face.
Aidan and I grew up in the same orphanage. I didn’t like him at first because he was too timid, always asking what I wanted to eat.
Then when I was ten, a fire trapped me in the warehouse. He rushed in to save me but scarred his right hand. That scar was still there.
He had a shot at being adopted by rich folks who loved his piano talent, but the fire ruined it. He stayed in the orphanage until we left at 15.
I followed him, wanting to be his little sister forever.
He said, “We can’t stick together forever if you’re just my sister, while husbands and wives can. Marry me when we grow up. I’ll give you a home.”
I held onto that promise.
In college, we worked part-time jobs and soaked up campus life.
After graduation, he started a business. When it crashed and debts piled up, I couldn’t watch him suffer and drown.
So, I dropped out of college, quit my prestigious internship, and took on a well-paid job selling liquor to pay off his debts. He wasn’t happy, but he swore he’d never fail me.
When his business took off, he pointed to a fancy complex and said, “One day, I’ll get you a place here. Then we’ll get married.”
For ten years, I treated him like my only family, giving him everything.
Last night, he proposed, and I was ready to offer myself to him. Then he claimed he had a work emergency. While in fact, he was sleeping with Isabella.
All those years, he didn’t touch me, saying it was to protect me. I believed him.
