One year ago, my sister pushed me down the stairs and killed my unborn baby. However, instead of mourning his own child, my husband chose to bring the murderer into our home. With her crocodile tears and fake kindness, she successfully moved in and bit by bit pushed me out of existence. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, she got pregnant. And that man — the same man who stood coldly by when I suffered the miscarriage — promised my sister he would raise her baby like his own.
View MoreELISHA’S POV
One year ago today, I lost my daughter, Carrie.
She hadn’t been born yet… it didn’t matter. I knew it was a girl, and I knew I’d name her Carrie.
In the quiet, pastel pink and mint green nursery, I sat on the rocking chair and folded her clothes.
Again.
For the hundred-millionth time.
As if it would dull reality and make my fantasy come alive.
The sharp ring of the doorbell startled me. I glanced at the tiny onesie slipping from my fingers and stood quickly.
Anthony probably forgot his key again.
I hurried down the stairs and swung open the front door, ready to tease my husband for his memory, ready to pretend everything was fine.
But Anthony Möller wasn’t alone.
My sister Natalie stood beside him, glowing like sunshine. “Hey, sis. Anthony invited me to crash here for a while!”
She didn’t wait for an answer, breezing past me into the foyer as Anthony trailed behind, lugging two massive duffel bags that he dropped heavily onto the floor. He didn’t meet my eyes.
How long was “a while”?
Why was she here?
My throat tightened.
How could my husband bring home the woman who killed our baby?
Natalie spun around, grinning with false sweetness. “So? Where’s my room?”
The question lingered between us like poison.
I watched as Anthony motioned for the butler to pick up his bags and show Natalie the guest rooms.
Natalie was my parents’ biological daughter. She had gone missing twenty years ago, which devastated our mother. On the brink of taking her own life, our father adopted me from an orphanage.
As some sort of replacement.
They named me Elisha… Elisha Montgomery.
I was raised by a wealthy family in a wealthy neighborhood and had a life most people only dream of. Good parents, a loving brother, a great school, all the bags, shoes, cars, and vacations a girl could dream of.
And we spent most of our time with the Möller family. Together, our families had several businesses and practically owned the city we lived in.
I believed I was the happiest, luckiest little girl in the world.
But two years ago… Natalie came back. Every DNA test confirmed that she was, indeed, my parents’ real child.
Cameras flashed outside the mansion gates. Reporters buzzed with excitement, chasing the tragic fairytale reunion: “Missing Montgomery heiress found after twenty years.”
My mother sobbed into Natalie’s shoulder like she’d never stopped waiting for this moment, while my father stood behind them, too stunned to speak, his hand trembling on the staircase railing.
The Möllers stood by my parents in solidarity, thrilled and relieved that we were finally reunited.
I stood in the back as the relentless barrage of questions hit both families.
But I wasn’t upset about that. After all, Natalie deserved her moment.
But things didn’t exactly go back to normal after that…
Soon enough, I became an afterthought. First, it was like I didn’t exist. Then, it became like I was a nuisance. A burden.
I was being tolerated, while Natalie was being endlessly celebrated. Any new family photos that were taken after her return, my grandparents insisted I stay out so they could capture the “real” family. My mother would only shoot me an apologetic glance, but never come to my defense.
Nobody did.
It made me feel like I was a thief. Someone who snuck in, stole someone’s life, and was now just around because she couldn’t be thrown away.
Even Anthony, whom I had married years before, was technically promised to her by the Möllers.
Out of guilt, I tried to spend time getting to know her. My long-lost sister. Nat. When she was showered with love and praises, I joined in. I was just happy to have a sister.
But she didn’t feel the same way about me.
She had little inside jokes with Anthony. Her compliments to me were always backhanded, making comments about my clothes, my hair, or my body. I’d find the gifts I gave her in the trash. She started taking over any rituals or routines I had with my parents—tea time with my mother, playing golf with my father.
Bit by bit, she pushed me out of existence.
I snapped back to the present as Anthony came up behind me, his arms slipping around my waist.
“You’ve seemed so down lately,” he murmured softly. “I thought having your sister here might cheer you up.”
Sister.
The word felt like window dressing on a trash can.
I moved out of his embrace, turning to look at him. “Did you forget what today is?”
His expression darkened momentarily, then smoothed again. “It’s been a year. Isn’t it time we all moved on?”
Easy words for someone who hadn’t bled.
A year ago, I suffered a miscarriage, three months into my pregnancy.
All because Natalie bumped me from the top of the staircase in Anthony’s parents’ home.
She’d cried convincingly. Everyone believed her tears, even Anthony. They all saw it as a tragic, horrible accident.
But I still remembered the cold triumph flickering in her eyes just before it happened. The smug smile she gave me as her hands stretched out in front of her, and I tumbled downward.
Anthony had never cared for the child; it hardly pained him. It hardly affected anyone in the family.
I was left alone in my grief. Left alone to mourn.
All because Natalie decided an unborn baby wasn’t as important as her being the center of attention with the Montgomerys and Möllers.
Nat walked back to where we were, smiling ear to ear. “I love the room! I’m hitting the pool until lunch. Anthony?”
He smiled. “Pool sounds great.”
I watched them disappear together, Natalie chattering away, Anthony listening with focus and softness I had never seen.
It stung more than it should have.
I turned, heading back upstairs. I wanted solitude, the nursery, quiet grief.
But Natalie’s voice sliced through the quiet again as she popped around the corner, blocking my escape.
“Hey!”
I turned around to look at her questioningly, not caring to hide my annoyance.
“Anthony said you should help set up my room!” she said brightly.
We had people for that—staff who were paid to handle these things. But Natalie didn’t want efficiency; she wanted me humbled.
“Sure,” I said softly, swallowing my pride. “I’ll handle it.”
She flashed another bright, empty smile, vanishing toward the pool.
I made my way to the guestrooms and saw the maid already setting up. Quietly, I helped her lay the sheets flat and put the duvet on.
After finishing up, I stepped onto the balcony for fresh air. Just one quiet breath before returning to my grief.
The air was thick with summer heat, tinged with the sharp scent of chlorine and coconut sunscreen. Laughter echoed from the pool, distant and shrill, as sunlight flickered through the trees in golden patches. The stone railing burned warm beneath my palms. A soft breeze stirred my hair, but it didn’t cool me.
Nothing did.
I stared at the sky until it blurred, the world moving on around me while I stayed frozen in that one moment—falling, bleeding, breaking.
But from the patio below, Natalie’s voice drifted up, clear as crystal, her words a dagger straight into my heart:
“So… if my sister weren’t around… you would’ve married me, right?”
OSTARA’S POVThe museum’s glass façade caught the last few rays of light as the sun set. London nights began early in the winters and the cold was unforgiving. But inside the wide entrance doors, it was warm. The lobby was all wood, stone, and leather—more like an old manor than a modern museum.Cameron was waiting for me just past the ticket desk, a slim guidebook in one hand, his other tucked casually in his coat pocket. London suited him. Or maybe he knew how to fit into any space he was given. He had been nothing but lovely, kind, and available the last few weeks we’d been seeing each other. His natural ease, however, did nothing to untie the knots in my stomach—no amount of coffee or late-night notes or rationalization could do it.“Ready?” he asked, smiling, offering me the guide as though I might want to mark our route.“Lead the way,” I said. My voice sounded calm enough, though the thrum in my veins didn’t match it.We began in the sculpture hall. Marble figures stood in the
PETER’S POVMorning broke damp and gray over Milan. The city looked rinsed, streets still shining from a night of steady drizzle. From my office windows the Duomo’s spires sat shrouded in low cloud, traffic moved in patient lines, and every sound—the horns, the scooters, the distant bell—felt dulled by the air.I’d been in before seven, a habit that never left even when there was nothing to do. Meetings were blocked in half-hour squares across my calendar—logistics with New Jersey, a compliance check on Naples, a call with a boutique hotel group in Florence. The day was set to move the way I preferred: clean, predictable, relentless.Of course, that all changed when one of my assistants knocked on the door. Marco edged in, spine too straight, a folder pinched in his fingers. He was never sloppy. He was also never pale. He looked pale now.“What is it?” I asked. “She’s signed,” he said.“With whom,” I asked, though my body already knew.He swallowed. “Zenith.”I could feel my stoma
ANTHONY’S POVHer email saved me.It didn’t just change the course of the week, or the month—it pulled me back from the edge of an abyss I hadn’t even admitted I was standing on. I had been ready to lay it all down, to hand Peter the victory, to call the last six years nothing more than wasted obsession.And then—her name in my inbox.Ostara.The subject line was nothing remarkable. The text was concise, deliberate, free of flourish. But every word of it was oxygen.Harvest Bloom will be moving forward with Zenith for our American distribution.I’d read it a dozen times before I let myself breathe. I’d laughed aloud, a sound so unsteady that Mark had looked up from across the plane with something close to alarm. I’d been on the verge of collapse, and with one message, she’d pulled me upright again.I couldn’t believe how close I’d been to surrender. The thought made me angry at myself, made me want to slam a fist into a wall. To give up—when I’d carried this torch through fire, thro
OSTARA’S POVThe car ride to Elijah’s house felt longer than any drive had a right to be.It was barely half an hour from the office to his townhouse, but the weight of the promise I’d made turned every turn, every red light, every stretch of quiet street into a stage for my rehearsals.Tonight, I would tell them.The final answer. The decision I’d been circling, avoiding, dressing up with excuses. The decision I knew they all suspected but hadn’t dared push too far—yet.The closer we drew, the tighter my chest became.My brothers had spent years keeping me hidden from Anthony. Money, connections, favors—they had burned all of it just to build me a fortress of anonymity. They carried the weight of my absence from the world, shielded Donna’s existence, cleaned every trace of Elisha Montgomery and Elisha Möller off the face of the earth.And now I was walking back into the very fire they had worked so hard to keep me from.Working with Zenith meant tying myself to Anthony and the Möller
OSTARA’S POVI had been awake most of the night.Donna’s small hand curled into mine long after she fell asleep, her chest finally rising and falling evenly, her little inhaler sitting like a guard on the nightstand. I stayed awake anyway. I kept seeing the curb. Her pink coat.And Anthony.Him kneeling on the wet asphalt, voice steady, talking to her like she was a delicate little thing. There had been no calculation in him, no leverage waiting to be used. Just focus. Just calm.Just… reliability.That was the part that stayed with me.By morning, I felt hollowed out. My reflection in the bathroom mirror looked polished, professional—hair pinned, jacket sharp, makeup neat. But underneath, I was still shaky. My body carried the echo of adrenaline, even as I walked into the office and let the weight of Harvest Bloom wrap itself around me again.Emails stacked, production schedules waiting, suppliers calling. The fire in Germany had already made its way through the trade publications.
ANTHONY’S POVThe numbers were a massacre.Even from thirty thousand feet, I could see it. Rows of red slashed across the financials as the plane pushed through the Atlantic night, London shrinking behind me. Losses climbing, contracts closing, hospitals pivoting. Every line that should have steadied us into recovery was pointing the other way.I sat there in the glow of the cabin lights, Mark across from me with his laptop open, the two of us hunched over the wreckage like coroners. The jet’s hum drowned everything but my own heartbeat.“Another three hospitals in Chicago,” Mark said, his voice stripped of its usual cushion. He scrolled further. “And a chain of clinics in Houston. They’re moving to MedDirect.”The name made my teeth grind. “Then we win them back.”He didn’t even sigh this time. Just shook his head and turned the screen toward me. “We’re out of time. Look at this. We’ve bled so much revenue in the last quarter, it’s not about winning them back anymore. It’s about sur
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