Mag-log inOne 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 honestly 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.
I stared at her. Her cheeriness, her very presence in my home, felt like a taunt to me and my baby.
“Nat, you have an army of staff here to ask for help. I’m going upstairs.”
With that, I turned and made my way back to the nursery.
***
Later in the afternoon, I stepped onto the balcony for fresh air. Just one quiet breath before I got some lunch.
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?”
NATALIE’S POVDubai was warm in a way that made forgiveness feel possible.The air here did not cling to old ghosts the way New York had, or prison, or that awful in-between phase where every room I entered still seemed to contain a version of myself I wanted to slap. Dubai let things shine. Surfaces were polished. And because for the first time in a very long time, no one was dragging me. No Peter. No Zane. No parents.I had a husband—still absurd to think about—who asked instead of demanded.That alone felt like a miracle.I was sitting in the private room of a boutique hotel in Downtown Dubai, going over sample tables for a wedding planner who had too many opinions about flowers, when it hit me again:I was planning a wedding.Not the prison paperwork version but a real one with a white dress, music, friends, and photographers.The planner pushed a tray of invitation paper toward me. “This one has the best texture,” she said, lifting a creamy card stock. “Elegant, understated, ve
ANTHONY’S POVSpeaking to Natalie again was the last thing I wanted to do.Every time her name came back into our lives, it dragged old filth in with it. My grandfather’s death. Ostara’s fear. Donna’s nightmares. And I was done letting the Montgomerys treat my fiancée like she was still theirs to summon, accuse, and corner.I found Ossie in her office that night. She was standing by the glass wall with her arms folded, looking down at the empty lab.I came up beside her and touched the small of her back.“Donna’s with your parents for another night. I explained the situation to them.” She nodded and sighed. “Tell me you have a plan,” she said. “I am so ready to have a normal life again, I don’t want to look over my shoulder anymore.” “I do,” I said. “Everything will be fine. I’ll fly to America, speak to Nat, and end this.”That made her blink. “She would’ve left by now, surely.”“Probably,” I admitted. “I’ll call the prison and check.”I stepped aside and did exactly that. The co
OSTARA’S POVFor one ridiculous second, all I could do was stare.My adoptive parents stood in the Harvest Bloom entrance like they had walked in from another universe—my old universe—the one made of cold dining rooms, conditional affection, and the constant feeling that I should be grateful just to remain in the house.Except now they weren’t in that house.They were in mine.My office. My world.My mother spotted me first and stiffened even further, if that was possible. My father’s jaw was so tight I thought it might crack.“There she is,” he said.The security guard beside me shifted. “Would you like me to call the cops—” “No,” I said quickly, though my pulse had already started to pound. “It’s alright.”It wasn’t alright. But I knew them.If I had them physically removed, they’d turn it into another story. So I stepped forward instead.“What are you doing here?” I asked.My mother gave a short, disbelieving laugh. “What are we doing here?”“Yes,” I said. “What are you doing her
OSTARA’S POVThe morning after the rooftop dinner, I kept catching myself staring at my own hand in disbelief. The ring Anthony had put there seemed to catch the light at the strangest moments. Over coffee. While buttoning my coat. Reaching for my phone. Signing off on production notes. Every time I noticed it, a small, warm shock ran through me all over again. I was engaged.It was hard not to flaunt it unconsciously… I noticed I had started moving my hands differently during conversation. And somehow, despite the surrealness of it, life did not pause to let me absorb it. Life kept moving—expansion plans, family complications, and now, wedding conversations. I was halfway through making my coffee in the office breakroom when Elijah walked in, in a suit as usual, mug in hand, looking thoughtful. “You’re thinking of something,” I said, clocking his expression immediately. He frowned. “Do I have the face?”“Yes, you can see it from space,” I joked. He huffed a laugh and lea
OSTARA’S POV“There is no way you’re serious about this,” Sabrina cried, hands thrown up in complete disbelief. “After all that effort we made to expose him, all the women who came forward—we made them vulnerable by releasing that information! You can’t just—”“I trust her,” Anthony said calmly, cu
OSTARA’S POVThe police station smelled like disinfectant and old paper.It wasn’t unpleasant—just sterile, stripped of warmth, as if the building itself had learned how to swallow emotion and spit out facts. Anthony’s hand rested lightly against the small of my back as we were led into a glass-wal
ANTHONY’S POVWith Zane out of our lives and buried in Blackwell, there was finally room in my head for something I hadn’t allowed in a while.Peace.It didn’t come all at once… it came in small pieces. In the way Donna slept through the night without jolting awake. In the way Ostara laughed a lit
NATALIE’S POVPrison had its own smell.Not like hospitals, where the air was sharp and clean and chemical, but in a comforting way. Or clubs where perfume and alcohol fought to the death. This place smelled like boiled vegetables, old sweat, and the kind of bleach that never quite won.I got used












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