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Chapter 14: Eight Years
publish date:
2026-10-30 21:12:32
Latest chapter
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 16: The Waiting Room
TanithThe hospital corridor smelled like antiseptic and burnt coffee.I had been sitting in the same plastic chair outside the ICU for six hours, and the chair had long ago stopped being a chair. It was just the place where I kept my body while the rest of me waited for a door to open.Grandfather was stable. Those were the words the doctors kept using, and I had started to hate them. Stable was not a promise. Stable was a pause button pressed on a man who had collapsed in the middle of a sentence and hadn't opened his eyes since.Mother had gone home at midnight — reluctantly, after the attending physician assured her there was nothing to do but wait. I stayed. Of course I stayed. At eight-thirty, the elevator doors opened at the end of the corridor, and the least person I expected to see stepped out. Caspian Rouker. Dark suit. Composed face. He spotted me immediately and as he walked toward me, for one irrational second, my whole chest lifted. Until I saw who was behind him.Vespe
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 15: The Man in the Hospital
CaspianThe call came at nine on a Thursday night, and I almost didn't answer it. The number was unlisted, and in the past month I had learned to let unlisted numbers ring out. Half of them were journalists sniffing around the story of my collapsing marriage, and the other half were creditors who had suddenly remembered I existed.Something made me pick up anyway."Mr. Rourke?" A woman's voice, professional, measured. "This is the communications office at Bellamy Holding. We're contacting a short list of associates because there may be press interest in the next twenty-four hours. Mr. Maxen Bellamy was hospitalized this evening after a collapse at his residence. He's stable. The family has asked that we get ahead of any speculation."I sat down slowly in my office chair."Hospitalized," I repeated. "What kind of medical event?""I'm not authorized to discuss his condition." A pause, carefully placed. "A statement will be released in the morning."The line went dead before I could ask
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 14: Eight Years
Tanith"No." One word. Flat and cold, like a door shutting.Mother blinked. The smile stayed on her face a second too long, like she hadn't caught up. "Father, I only...""I said no."He didn't raise his voice. He just looked at her, and the whole room seemed to get smaller. I felt it in my chest. Even the clock in the hall sounded afraid to tick."Please, let me explain." Mother leaned forward, her hands open. "She's changed. She's been alone for so long, and she only wants to come home and be useful. She's brilliant, Father, you know she is. She was always the one who saw things first, she was the one who...""Isolde.""She could help Tanith. Just think about it.""I have thought about it for eight years." His voice was low and steady. "My answer has not changed and it will not change. She does not step foot in this company. She does not sit at this table. She does not come near this family. Do not ask me again."I stared at my plate. My fork was shaking against it, and I realized i
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 13: Not family
TanithI stirred my soup for the fifth time and didn't taste a single spoonful.The dining room was quiet. Just the clink of silver and the rain tapping the windows. Grandfather sat at the head of the table, eating slowly, and I sat to his right, pretending to eat too.'Are you still angry at me?'The words kept replaying in my head. Eleven years. Eleven years ago, he was just gone. No goodbye. No note. No call. One week he was in my life every single day, and the next his house was empty and his phone rang out. I went to his door. I waited at the gate. I asked everyone I knew, and everyone shrugged.For a long time, I told myself there was a reason. Something happened. Something he couldn't tell me. He'd call tomorrow and explain, and it would all make sense.Tomorrow never came.Years went by before I stopped checking my phone. Even longer before I stopped looking for his face in crowds. And today he'd walked back into my life in a nice suit, with a nice voice, and asked if I was
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 12: The Past Between Them
Stellan"Stellan." She whispered my name like it hurt her.Eleven years. I had pictured this moment a hundred different ways. In none of them did she drop everything she was holding and stand there with her mouth open, looking at me like I was a ghost."Tanith," I replied. My voice came out lower than I meant it to. I cleared my throat and stepped inside, and the door swung shut behind me.Her papers lay scattered across the floor. I bent down without thinking and started gathering them. My hands weren't steady. I noticed that, and I hoped she hadn't."You don't have to," she bent too, picking them up in a hurry."It's fine." I said just as we both reached for the same page. Our fingers almost touched. She pulled back so fast it was like I'd burned her.I handed her the stack. She took it, stood, and brushed down her skirt. By the time she looked up again, her face had changed. The shock was gone. In its place was something smooth and closed, like a door with the lock turned.I knew t
He Chose My Sister, So I Chose Myself Chapter 11: The Man She Never Expected to See
TanithA month. That was how long it had been since I walked out of Rourke House with nothing but a trench coat and a hospital bracelet.Nobody told me it would still hurt this much, or in such small ways. I woke at six every morning, before the alarm, and for a few seconds I forgot where I was. Then the ceiling came into focus, the wrong ceiling, and I remembered everything at once.Breakfast with Grandfather was quiet. He ate less than he used to. He coughed into his napkin and acted like I hadn't heard, and I acted like I hadn't heard him act. We were very good at that.Then came the phone calls. Aunts. Cousins. A board member's wife who wanted to "check in." Every one of them wanted to know how I was doing, and every one of them was really asking what had happened. I said I was fine. I said it so many times it stopped sounding like words.And Caspian.Eleven missed calls last week. Three messages. One long email that started with 'I'm not angry anymo
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