All Chapters of Family’s Regret After Choosing Adoptive Sister Over Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The room went silent. The clink of a silver fork against a china plate carried across it. Relatives and friends lined both sides of the long table, their gazes sliding from Diana's face to the card in front of her.It read Sylvia Warren.Diana's fingers tightened around the stem of her glass. She looked down at the card, and her eyes turned red almost at once, as if I had humiliated her in front of everyone.My mother, Evelyn, reached over first, put a hand on my wrist, and pressed down. Her ring dug into my wrist. She kept her voice low, but loud enough for the whole table to hear. "Sylvia, tonight is about you coming home. Don't make it awkward."My father set down his glass and joined in. "It's a chair. One is as good as another."I picked up my place card and set it beside the bronze family crest in the middle of the table."If one is the same as another, why is my name on the invitations? Why are there flower arrangements all over the estate tonight that say 'Welcome Home, Sylvia'

Chapter 10

Six months later, I bought my own place.On my birthday, the doorbell rang. My parents, my three brothers, and Diana were standing outside. My father was holding flowers, and instead of walking right in like he used to, he asked, "May we come in?"I stepped aside.The table was small, and there weren't enough chairs. Lucas went to get more without being asked. Ethan hung up everyone's coats. Noah asked if he could put the cake in the fridge.My mother stood beside the table without telling anyone where to sit. "Sylvia, where do you want to sit?"That stopped me for a second.It was an ordinary question, and yet it took me somewhere else for a moment. This was the first birthday I'd spent with all of them since they found me.No concert. Nobody stationed outside somebody else's bedroom door. Nobody leaving in a hurry the second the candles were lit. I even caught myself glancing at the phone on the table. Nobody took a call, and nobody stood up.It turns out that when everybody is actua

Chapter 2

The homecoming dinner was over in less than an hour.Back at the Warren estate, Diana was wrapped in a cashmere blanket on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate by her feet. My mother sat beside her, patting her back.I had barely gotten through the door when Lucas looked up at me, his mouth twisting to one side."Apologize to Diana."I took off my coat. "Apologize for what? Spell it out, or I might apologize for the wrong thing."Ethan came out of the study with a dark blue velvet box."Let it go," he said, quickly pushing the box toward me as if he were wrapping up a meeting. "Tonight didn't go well. Take this. Call it compensation."I opened it. Inside was a pearl necklace with a brand-new clasp and the tag still attached. Diana glanced over, and her hand went to her throat. She was wearing a rose-gold crest necklace, its pendant bearing the Warren beech leaf.I had seen a photograph of that necklace.Three years ago, the first time my parents came for me, my mother sat on the old c

Chapter 3

At nine the next morning, we were at the county clerk's office. The clerk checked my ID, my DNA test results, and the court authorization, then told us we were missing a joint confirmation from the trustees of the family trust.The driver went out into the rain to fetch it while we sat in the waiting area.The number on the screen ticked up one at a time, and the cold white light made everybody look terrible.Twenty minutes in, Diana's phone went off. She took one look at the screen and knocked over her cup.My mother's hand was on her shoulder at once. "What is it?"Diana handed over the phone. On the screen was a photo from Pierce. A few workers were carrying things out of her room. A pink suitcase sat in the middle of the hallway, and a clothes rack lay on its side."I only had them move Diana into another room," my father said, frowning. "Sylvia should be moving back into her own room."Diana looked down, her lashes trembling."It's fine. If my things get thrown out, they get throw

Chapter 4

Back at the estate, the hallway was full of Diana's things. A pink ribbon hung from the side of a box. Scented candles had rolled into the corner. A picture frame sat on the floor, with Pierce's stiff face reflected in the glass.Pierce saw me and pulled off his white gloves immediately. "Ms. Hart, Mrs. Warren says the room change is off for now. Diana isn't stable.""I know."That threw him. "You aren't going to ask why?"I pushed open the door to my room.The plate on it still said Guest Room Three.A dress with the tag still on hung in the closet, a full size too small around the waist. My mother had bought it in Diana's size, but Diana hadn't liked it, so it had been palmed off on me. On the desk sat a commemorative game cap Lucas didn't want, his name stitched on the brim. In the drawer was a box of sleeping pills from Noah. I'm allergic to one of the ingredients, so I never took a single one.The only things I packed in the suitcase were my documents, my laptop, and the old photo

Chapter 5

That night, I moved into company housing.The HR manager was waiting downstairs in a long trench coat with a ring of keys in her hand. She raised an eyebrow at the Warren estate luggage tag on my suitcase."You actually moved out?" She put the keys in my palm. They were cold from the night air. "It's empty, and your name is on the door. Don't complain about the size."It was small.A bed, a closet, and a desk by the window. But the sheets were new, the closet was empty, and a printed sign was taped to the door: Sylvia Hart.That is the surname I grew up with.I stood in the doorway looking at it for a few seconds, then pushed the suitcase inside.It turns out a room isn't yours because it has a fireplace or a chandelier. It's yours when it actually has a place for you.At nine that night, my father called.The moment the call connected, he snapped at me. "Come back now, and I'll pretend today never happened.""No, thank you."I didn't move out to sulk, and I didn't withdraw the registr

Chapter 6

Three days later, I walked into a conference room at the Warren Group.My parents sat at the far end of the long table. Diana sat next to my mother, still wearing my grandmother's crest necklace.Ethan, Noah, and Lucas were all there.My father's face stiffened when he saw me. "You actually came?"I opened a timer app and set my phone on the table. "I bill by the hour. Everything you say from now on goes on the invoice."The room went quiet.I moved on to the first item. The fund's annual statement appeared on the screen, covered in rows of red flags. "Last year, the Warren Missing Children's Fund raised two point six million dollars. Of that, eight hundred fifty thousand went to a film production company."My mother frowned and pushed her coffee cup an inch away. "Film production?"I clicked to the next page.A documentary poster appeared: Diana in a white gown on the estate's staircase, with the title above her.The Daughter Love Chose.I enlarged the payment breakdown."Eight hundre

Chapter 7

Diana stared at the letter for a long time, her lashes trembling."I did take a copy of her documents."Last year, when we were setting up the family insurance policy, the agent said they needed everyone's paperwork."But I put it back as soon as I was done.""So it was for the insurance." My mother relaxed a little. "I said this couldn't have anything to do with Diana."I turned to the finance manager. "Who contacted the consulting firm?"He pulled up the system records and scrolled for a while."Diana's assistant. Emily Carter."Half an hour later, they brought the assistant into the room.She wore a black suit and held a folder against her chest.She saw the letter on the screen and stopped short. The folder slipped from under her arm, scattering pages across the floor. "I did it."Diana jumped to her feet."Ms. Carter, why did you use my sister's name?"The assistant crouched to gather the pages, but she was shaking too hard to grasp the corners."You told me not to let the documen

Chapter 8

That night, Diana came to my office building and waited in the lobby for two hours.She got up as soon as she saw me. "Can we talk?"I checked the time. "Ten minutes."At the coffee shop, she pushed a box across the table. My grandmother's crest necklace lay on black velvet."You should have this." Diana kept her eyes down and picked at the sleeve on her cup. "I really wasn't trying to take your things."I closed the lid. "Then why didn't you give it back before?"She didn't answer."At the homecoming dinner, did you know that was my seat?"She waited a few seconds. "Yes.""On the day of the registration, did you know that if they thought something was wrong with you, every one of them would leave with you?"The color slowly drained from Diana's face.I looked at her. "Did you actually have an attack that day?"Her lips moved a few times before she quietly said, "No."A sharp crack came from the next table.My mother's cup had fallen from her hand, and the shards skittered to a stop ag

Chapter 9

At ten to five the next afternoon, the Warren Missing Children's Fund had gotten every dollar back. Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been returned to the fund's account, and Diana had paid the remaining hundred and eighty thousand out of her own pocket.She resigned as the foundation's brand ambassador and gave up her role as the face of the documentary. The documentary was pulled, and the remaining funds were redirected to DNA testing.But returning the money didn't mean it was over.Regulators began investigating Diana for forging an authorization and diverting charitable funds. The foundation's public fundraising was suspended.My father called me once after that. He didn't ask me to cut him a break. He only asked, "Will the banks see the findings too?"I said, "Yes."It was quiet on his end for a long time.I later found out that the Warren Group had two large loans due at the end of the month. The banks had already agreed to roll them over, but they backed out after th

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP