All Chapters of My Sister's Fiance: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

178 Chapters

a drawer full of fatherhood

Max hugged the ball to his chest. His blue eyes lit up so brightly that something in my chest tightened. “The bed is low,” he said, inspecting it.“So you don’t fall.”“I don’t fall.”“You fell off the couch in your sleep once.”“That was because the couch moved.”“The couch did not move.”“In my dream, I moved.”“Too much blue.” Issa appeared behind us and looked around her brother’s room.Max glared at her. “My room isn’t for you.”“I don’t want it either.”“You were looking at the ball.”“I looked because the color was yelling.”“Your lavender yells too.”“Lavender whispers.”“Lavender is for grandmas.”Issa immediately lunged at him.I caught her around the waist just in time. “No.”“But he insulted my color family!”“Your color family will survive.”“He has to apologize.”Max grinned. “Lavender grandma.”Issa shrieked.I lifted her before her hands reached Max’s hair. Her weight immediately pulled at my arm.“Dios mío, you’ve been in this house for two minutes.”“I’m the victim,”

fear, money, & very efficient stupidity

I was still holding Max’s pack of crackers when Zach’s words reached my brain in an extremely rude way.Since Medellín.Not since this morning. Not since Daniel Kessler hit the wet pavement with Theo’s face torn halfway off. Not since his phone coughed up one leftover file after the auto-wipe and called me the primary guardian like I was applying for a job in hell.Since Medellín.I put the crackers back in the drawer with a level of care no children’s snack deserved. If I set them down too hard, I might start throwing things. And Max’s dinosaur lamp was too cute to become collateral damage in the war against an Italian man with a God complex.I turned around slowly.Zach was still standing near the door, tall, half-wet, far too handsome for a situation this morally disgusting. The ends of his black hair had started to dry, falling slightly over his forehead. His white T-shirt clung to his chest in a way that should have been illegal within fifty feet of a kid’s bedroom.“Since Medell

sentimental, sadly.

I closed the tablet. “This doesn’t mean I agree.”“I know.”“This doesn’t mean I trust you.”“I know.”“And if you secretly have a basement room filled with photographs, red string, and strands of my hair in plastic bags, I’m burning down your forest.”This time, his smile appeared a little more fully. Thin. Dark. Extremely unhelpful to national stability. “Your hair is difficult to get.”I stared at him.He added, “You’re always replacing your brush.”I pointed at him. “That is the creepiest thing you’ve ever said, and you once told me Switzerland was too cold for kidnapping.”“I thought you liked observant men.”“I like men who can die quickly when necessary.”“Promising.”Before I could decide whether the heavy security tablet could be used as a blunt weapon, Bianna appeared in the sitting-room doorway with her phone in one hand and the expression of a woman who had just found her purpose in life.“Boss.”“What?”“I have a suite.”“I know.”“Not a room. A suite.”“Congratulations.

little hands

The first problem appeared at 8:42 p.m.I knew the time because ever since we walked into this house, I’d been checking the security tablet every seven minutes like a completely sane woman who had definitely not just watched a psychopath wear her twin brother’s face.The problem wore dinosaur pajamas and stood in the middle of the family-wing hallway with a pillow tucked under one arm.“I’m not sleeping alone,” Max announced.“Me too.” Behind him, Issa appeared from the lavender room in matching satin pajamas, a tiny bonnet in one hand and her unicorn tucked under her arm.I looked from one to the other.The two bedrooms that had been psychopathically prepared since Medellín stood open behind them. The dinosaur lamp glowed softly in Max’s room. Issa’s canopy fell prettily from the bed frame. There were night-lights, cameras I’d already disabled from the tablet, panic panels, and a connecting door to the small sitting room.Everything was safe.Everything was comfortable.Everything had

the bed became a border dispute

Max ran to the bed, patted the mattress twice, then climbed up with all the grace of a small potato. He stood in the middle and opened his arms.“This is big enough for a whole country!”Issa, still in Zach’s arms, studied the bed seriously. “A small country.”“A country is still a country.”“I want the side close to Uncle Shiny.”“You’re always close to him.”“Because he’s warm.”“I’m warm too.”“You’re sweaty.”“I’m an athlete.”“You’re four.”“I’m still an athlete!”I walked past them and opened the walk-in closet.The lights came on automatically.Rows of shirts, suits, coats, and casual clothes were organized by color. Everything was dark, neutral, or some combination a man would choose when he wanted to look expensive without admitting he’d spent ten minutes thinking about his outfit.I glanced into the bathroom and found only one toothbrush and one towel hanging neatly. After making sure there was nothing else I should not be noticing, I returned to the bedroom and looked aroun

the new house was still too early.

“I said, if we live in a castle, I need a breakfast throne.”“This isn’t a castle,” Issa’s voice shot back, sharp, still rough with sleep but somehow fully powered for judgment. “It’s an almost castle. And a breakfast throne is for the queen.”“You’re not a queen.”“I have a queen personality.”“You have messy hair.”“I have volume.”I didn’t open my eyes.I needed three seconds to understand several things.One, it was morning and I was still alive.Two, my body was warm in a way that was far too comfortable.Three, someone’s breath was hitting the back of my neck.Four, the bed beneath me was not mine.Damn it.I slowly opened my eyes and immediately saw charcoal linen, the edge of a dinosaur pillow, Issa’s unicorn lying flat on its back like a tiny victim of a very long night, and the heavy curtains covering the glass wall still fully closed. Behind them were probably pine trees, morning fog, and all the expensive aesthetics that made rich people feel like they had discovered natur

the genius problem

School decided that an attempted kidnapping, an emergency relocation, and temporarily living in a secret mansion were not valid reasons to miss a day of education.I found out when the preschool portal chimed on the tablet.INDEPENDENT LEARNING DAYUnderneath was a cheerful message from their teacher, complete with a sun emoji that felt slightly aggressive.(Because school is closed today, we’ve prepared a few light activities to help the children maintain their routine. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Have fun!)The light activities consisted of nine pages of math, two art projects, one coding module, a reading log, and an eleven-minute video about forest ecosystems.I sat on the family-room carpet with the tablet in my lap, surrounded by pencil cases, thick drawing paper, crayons, markers, number cards, magnetic tiles, and a small fox-shaped coding robot Elena had just taken out of the education closet.Of course this house had an education closet.Zach’s mansion had a bunker, an ind

empty space still pulls

After coding, we moved on to the art project.The prompt appeared on the screen: DRAW A WORLD TOO SMALL OR TOO FAR AWAY TO VISIT TODAY. THINK ABOUT SHAPE, COLOR, LIGHT, AND MOVEMENT.Underneath were examples of a galaxy, the ocean floor, a mountain peak, the surface of a leaf, and grains of sand under a microscope.Max immediately grabbed a sheet of black paper.Issa chose the thickest white paper, inspected the corners, then exchanged it because she said the left side of the first one “looked tired.”I handed them watercolor pencils, pastels, markers, and regular pencils. “Not on the couch,” I said.No one had accused anyone of anything.Issa started by making thin lines with a gray pencil. She drew a low horizon, then built two mountains in the distance. One was taller, its peak imperfect. In the foreground, she made rows of pine trees in different sizes, not the childish triangle shapes, but small trunks, thin branches, and shadows that grew darker closer to the foreground.I stopp

For Them

The afternoon after lunch, the backyard of Zach’s estate officially turned into something between an expensive playground, a miniature military training zone, and the set of a detergent commercial that had lost its moral budget.The rain had stopped an hour ago, but the grass was still wet and gleaming beneath the gray Oregon light. The cold air clung to the windowpanes, leaving a thin layer of fog in the corners, while outside, Max’s laughter rang out far too loudly for a normal human being and Issa issued instructions in the voice of a woman who should have been running a small country before kindergarten.I stood in my bedroom’s walk-in closet in front of the tall window overlooking the yard, holding one of Max’s little navy sweaters in one hand and one of Issa’s lavender shirts in the other.I was supposed to put the clothes away.I was not supposed to be standing there watching my two children turn an Italian billionaire’s backyard into a prehistoric swamp.But down there, Max sto

The Years He Missed

Something in my chest tightened immediately.Zach got up from the chair, then moved closer until he was standing beside me, one shoulder almost brushing mine.“Thank you for raising my children so well.” His voice dropped.I looked down at the little shirt in my hands.Navy. A dinosaur wearing headphones on the front.Truly the least dramatic object in the world to be holding while a man with blue eyes decided to crack open your rib cage from the inside.“They still throw blueberries when they’re offended,” I said.“Bella.”“And Max once tried to keep a nugget in my jacket pocket for a ‘future emergency.’ Issa once cried because her glass ‘didn’t have feminine energy.’ So don’t start praising me too quickly.”“Our children are good.”Our.I folded the shirt once. Wrong. Opened it again. Refolded it.Zach didn’t touch me, and somehow that made the space between us feel crowded with something that didn’t have a decent name.“They’re smart,” he continued. “Funny. Brave. Spoiled in the wa

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