All Chapters of My Sister's Fiance: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The night after baths, easy pasta Karl made because I refused to cook “on a vacation that is legally supposed to not be work,” and one small drama over who got the blue bowl, the cabin finally went quiet.Our version of quiet.In the living room, Max and Issa lay on their stomachs on the rug near the fireplace, each holding a crayon. Drawing paper was scattered in front of them. Bunny sat beside Issa like a supervisor. Max’s T-Rex lay on its back on a pile of pillows, possibly dead from exhaustion.“I’m drawing the waterfall,” Max said.“That looks like blue spaghetti,” Issa said.“It’s water moving fast.”“It’s spaghetti.”“What are you drawing?”“The cabin.”“That’s a box with eyelashes.”“Because this cabin is feminine.”I sat on the porch sofa outside, the glass door cracked open just enough so I could still hear them. The night air had gone cold, but it didn’t bite. After the rain, the sky had opened up. Stars appeared above the pines, small and clean, as if someone had spilled s

By almost ten, after one round of clothing negotiations, two threats of no hot chocolate, and one request from Issa for “an outfit that looks like rich forest girl, not lost child,” we finally made it outside.The plan was simple: a short trail to a little viewpoint, a scavenger hunt for the kids, then a picnic lunch near the creek before heading back to the cabin.Simple, said someone who had not given birth to two little De Sanctises with the last name Gómez.Max wore a dark blue rain jacket, a gray beanie, and mustard-yellow boots he had chosen because, according to him, they were “ranger but stylish.” Issa wore a pale lavender coat, white boots, and fluffy earmuffs that were absolutely not appropriate for hiking but were perfect for becoming a problem.Karl carried a backpack full of water, snacks, a first-aid kit, a rain cover, extra socks, and all the things that made him look like a competent adult man.I carried lip balm, my phone, sunglasses, and trauma.Balance.The morning

By evening, the cabin had changed color.The wet green afternoon had faded into dim gold at the windows. Outside, the forest looked denser now, the pine trunks dark, a thin fog rising again from the ground like something with bad intentions but enough manners to knock first. Inside, the fireplace was already burning low. The smell of warm wood, hot chocolate that had nearly spilled earlier, and children’s socks that somehow always managed to become part of a house’s atmosphere all mixed together.Karl was in the bedroom, the door half closed, his low, calm German voice occasionally leaking into the hallway along with fragments of words that sounded like money, deadlines, and people too rich for their own good making simple things miserable. Emergency meeting. Urgent, he’d said, with an apologetic face far too handsome for me to grant full mercy.“Go work,” I’d told him earlier. “I’ve never lost to two toddlers and one stove.”That was a lie, of course. I lost often. Usually in smaller

I woke up before the alarm.Because my brain was an asshole.The cabin was still half-dark, only a gray line of light slipping in through the gap in the curtains. The fireplace had gone out, leaving behind the smell of warm wood hanging in the air like the remains of an unfinished conversation. Outside, the forest was wet. The pines stood still, low fog caught between their trunks, and the little river behind the trail area sounded faint in the distance, thin and cold, like someone pouring broken glass over stones.On the sofa bed near the fireplace, my two children were sleeping in positions that would make an orthopedic doctor give up.Max was flat on his back with one leg kicked out from under the blanket, his black hair sticking up in several directions, his round cheeks slightly pink from sleep. Piney was near his pillow, of course. That pinecone now had stronger legal status than some of my former boyfriends.Issa slept on her side hugging Bunny, her hair beautifully tangled, on

This morning, the cabin was starting to look like the victim of a minor crime.There were children’s towels over the backs of chairs. One of Max’s socks had been found under the coffee table, wet for reasons I chose not to investigate because I still wanted to have a peaceful breakfast. Issa’s Bunny sat on top of a suitcase wearing a tiny scarf made from a paper napkin, while Piney and Stone Steve had been placed by the window so they could “say goodbye to the forest.”I stood in the middle of the living room with my hair twisted into a careless bun, sunglasses on top of my head, cream sweater, black leggings, and the expression of a woman who had packed three bags, two jackets, one snack box, two children, and her entire nervous system into the SUV.“Maxime,” I said, looking down at the floor near the fireplace. “Why is there another rock here?”Max froze near the door. “That’s not a rock.”I bent down and picked up the small gray object from the floor. “This is a rock.”“That’s Ston