Home / The Don Drained Our Children's Marrow for His Sister-in-Law, I Left / Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

All Chapters of The Don Drained Our Children's Marrow for His Sister-in-Law, I Left: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Vivian didn't hear the rest, as she had started to laugh and lose her mind.She laughed, and somewhere between the laughter, tears began streaming down her face.So that was it. Her three children hadn't died by chance. Her husband had taken them, one by one, because Claire's boy needed bone marrow.And all these years she'd lied to herself, telling herself her marriage was steady. Happy, even.When the truth was that even her babies' lives had been disposable. Just spare parts.She walked back through the empty corridor in a daze. A nurse at the station took one look at her and asked if she needed help.Vivian shook her head. Her voice was barely there when she asked the nurse to print her a divorce petition.She folded it carefully into her pocket, then made a phone call to the organization which handled vanishing acts for the families' traitors and runaways."I need a favor. I want everyone to think I'm dead."She hung up, wiped her face hard, and walked back to her hospital room.S

Chapter 2

The needle went into her vein and Vivian clenched her teeth shut, eyes closed.The warmth drained out of her with every drop.Her vision swam and her face went bloodless. She was almost at the end of what they'd taken when one of Ethan's men burst in."Don,Claire says it's not enough."A chill ran through her.The attending doctor's voice was small."Don, your wife is already pale. Her lips are turning blue. Any more and she could die."Ethan was silent for a long moment.Then he spoke. "Vivian. Don't worry. I remember what your mother asked of me. I won't let you die.""Doctor. Take the maximum she can offer. But she has to survive. Do it."Vivian's face went gray.The needle slid in again, but she didn't feel it this time.Probably because something inside her had already died.She woke up alone in the hospital room.Forcing herself upright with her head still foggy, she looked around. No one. Empty water glass and the dust on the bedside table suggested no one had been here in days.

Chapter 3

It hit like a thunderclap, and Vivian's mind went blank.Every piece of swallowed grief, every drop of patience, every locked-down scream broke open at once. She didn't think. Her hand flew up and cracked across Claire's face.At that exact moment, Ethan came through the door.He saw it, and his face went dark with rage.He was across the room in two steps. He shoved Vivian, weak and barely upright, away from Claire, hard."Vivian. Have you lost your mind?"He had never used that voice on her, not once in ten years.She'd just had blood drawn and was already shaking. The shove sent her into the bed frame, ribs slamming on metal, and pain bloomed across her chest.She forced the tears back and looked up at him."Ethan, the car crash that killed my mother wasn't an accident. Claire planned it herself."Ethan didn't hesitate even for a second."Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows what happened that night. The whole family wanted me dead. I tried to send you ahead and you wouldn't leave. Y

Chapter 4

A line of black sedans tore through the city in the dead of night.Vivian was crammed into the passenger seat, and Ethan's grip on her wrist was crushing.She had explained, God, how many times had she explained, that she had nothing to do with Claire being taken and had nothing to do with the Reeds.She talked until her voice gave out. Ethan didn't look at her once. Finally he spoke, cold and flat."Stop wasting your breath. Who else could it be? You found out Claire's carrying my child, so you arranged this."Carrying his child.Those words split Vivian open.He had killed her babies without flinching, and turned around and made one with Claire.The car screeched into a chaotic side alley, with dust rising and voices shouting.Claire was huddled in a corner with her clothes torn and mascara streaked down her face, surrounded by a circle of rough-looking men.The Reeds. The family the Vosses had been at war with for generations.The Reeds had cold eyes and wooden clubs.Ethan got out

Chapter 5

Ethan carried Claire, shaking and limp, straight to the hospital.He didn't bother hiding how frantic he was. He put his own men outside her room. He sat through every test with her.But the more he sat with her, the heavier something in his chest got, something cold and crushing.The lights in the testing wing were sharp and white. He was alone on the bench in the hall, and Vivian's face kept rising in front of him.The way she had looked covered in blood after she took that bullet for him.The way her eyes had gone hollow after she lost the babies.The way she had begged him when they tied her down for the blood draw.And the three children. Three faces he never let himself look at. They were in his head now and they wouldn't leave.But he had decided, hadn't he? He had already chosen to let her go.In that alley, watching the Reeds drag her into the dark, he had told himself that she'd changed and it was time to be hard about this.It was Vivian who'd been petty. Vivian who couldn't

Chapter 6

Cars tore back out into the night.Gunfire ripped the silence, and smoke drifted thick enough to taste through the windshields.Ethan didn't wait. He kicked open his door, pushed past his men, drew his gun, and ran straight into the fight.A round skimmed his arm and cut a deep line. His coat bloomed red.He didn't feel it. Didn't blink. He just kept firing into the Reeds, his eyes more bloodshot with every shot.He took more hits, and blood ran off his fingers in a steady drip.He thought about every time he'd come home cut up. How Vivian had come running. How she'd cleaned his wounds with trembling hands, crying and cursing him for being careless, bandaging him up.Was there going to be anyone left who did that for him?Was anyone going to throw themselves into the fire for him again?For the first time in his life, he was scared.The Reeds went down one after another, and the alley smelled like blood.He grabbed one of them off the ground by the collar. His voice came out shredded.

Chapter 7

Ethan took the recorder with a shaking hand and pressed play.Claire's voice came on, and then a man's laugh, the Reed leader."Smart girl. Frame Vivian, swing Ethan all the way over to you. Beautiful.""Of course." Claire, smug. "Ethan's been seeing me as the gentle, helpless sister-in-law for years. He'll believe me over anyone.""Cold, Claire. Cold. But thank you. Without you we don't get revenge for the docks or our Don's leg.""Don't mention it. My husband is dead. Why does Vivian get to sit at Ethan's side? Why does she get to be the Don's wife?""I want to break her. I want her to have to destroy the things she loves most. I want her to live with that.""And the kid's leukemia? I made it up. I needed something to keep Ethan tied to me. Keep him guilty. Keep him close. As for Vivian's babies, who cares. One less obstacle each time."The recording kept going, and each line landed like a hammer.It was all a lie.The fragile sister-in-law. The kidnapping. The leukemia. All of it wa

Chapter 8

For days after, Ethan tore through everything she'd left behind. Every text. Every call log. Every receipt. Every scrap of paper. A loose strand of hair on a pillow.He treated each one like gold. He was hunting for any thread that might prove she was alive.He didn't sleep. He barely ate.When he was almost out of hope, one of his men found something, an unfamiliar number routed through layers and layers of relays.A ghosting service. The kind people called when they needed to disappear.His hand shook around the phone, and something he hadn't felt in weeks lit behind his eyes.Any chance. Any chance at all.He dialed. He didn't even try to sound like a Don. He was begging. He kept asking where she was. The operator hung up. He called back. He called back again.Far away from all of that, Vivian was home.A village out in the country, the one she had grown up in.She'd packed away every silk and every dress that belonged to the Don's wife. She wore plain cotton now. She tied her hair

Chapter 9

His eyes were threaded with red. He hadn't shaved. His expensive coat was torn in several places. The Don who used to walk into rooms and silence them looked like a man who'd been sleeping outside.The second he saw her, his whole face cracked open, and he stumbled forward."Vivian, I found you. I finally found you.""Please. Please, give me one more chance. I'll do right by you. I know I was wrong. I really know.""I locked Claire up. Whatever you want, it's yours. The Voss family, all of it, every dollar, every man, every piece of power. Whatever you want, take it.""Without you." His hand reached toward her, but he didn't dare touch her. "Without you I learned what this world actually is. How cold it is. How empty.""I sleep in our bed alone and I finally understand how big a room can be. How empty.""I sit in that hospital room every day. I look at the corners you decorated. I look at our wedding photo. I finally understand what I lost. Please. Come home. Stop making me pay like th

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