Familial Bond Romance Short Stories & Independence Novels

The day my college acceptance letter arrived, Aiden Corliss said he would pick me up for dinner. "Congrats on getting into college in Kelderwick, Eloise," he said. "Once the semester starts, I'll be out there too, and it'll be just like when we were kids." I believed him. I waited from 3:00 pm until 9:00 pm. The streetlight outside my rented apartment was broken, and I sat alone on the front steps, hugging the acceptance letter. He never showed up. When I opened social media, I found a video my sister, Clarissa Mallory, had posted. Aiden had gone with her to try on her new clothes, and at one point he crouched down to tie her shoelaces. Her caption read: [Good thing someone's always had a soft spot for me.] Underneath, our brother had commented: [Aiden's got me beat as a big brother.] Our mom had written: [As long as Clarissa's smiling, we can rest easy.] I suddenly remembered a year earlier, when Aiden had been the one convincing me to step aside. "Eloise, your grades are great and you can handle anything. Just let Clarissa have this one. Moving out is only temporary. Once she's better, everyone will bring you back home." All that waiting got me nowhere. Nobody replied when my exam scores came out. I ate takeout alone after my summer job, and when my suitcase broke at the start of the school year, no one cared. At 10:00 pm, Aiden finally texted me: [Crazy busy today. I'll make it up to you another time.] I replied: [Don't bother.] Then, I unpinned his chat. When someone was that late, there was no point in them coming at all.

Adrian Vance and I had been secretly married for ten years, and I had always been his perfect wife. He was the president of a hospital. But lately he'd fallen in love with playing broke. I asked him to pick up blackberries; he came home with bananas and a sad little story about money. I needed a ride to my own surgery; he drove me there rattling along in a beat-up van, because the van fit the part. And when our daughter was dying and the one person who could save her was him, he looked a stranger in the eye and swore he was nobody, just an assistant, certainly not the hospital's president. That was the moment it finally landed. He hadn't drifted into an affair on a whim. He had chosen, with his whole heart, to walk away from his wife and his child. Fine. I'd take our daughter and clear the way for his great love.

Natalie Jett's first love needs a mobile blood bank. But she's going to drain all the blood from my comatose younger brother due to me not arriving in time. I drop to my knees and beg her desperately. "Micah is already showing signs of waking up. The doctor said he'll die if you keep taking his blood. Take mine instead and leave my brother alone! Please!" But Natalie remains unmoved. She looks coldly at me as I kneel before her on the ground. "This is your punishment for being late. It's only some blood. What's the big deal? "Andy is severely anemic. He's the one who could actually die. Is your brother's life really more important than Andy's?" Ignoring my pleas, she orders her private doctor to increase the rate of the blood draw. Bag after bag of blood is sent to Andy Stone's hospital room. Not long after, my brother's heart stops. He dies after all the blood is drained from his body. When I receive the news of my brother's death, Natalie is celebrating Andy's successful surgery, setting off fireworks across the city that last the entire night. This time, I finally give up all hope. I kneel before Natalie's mother in despair. "I have nothing left to hold on to. From now on, Natalie and I have nothing to do with each other."

On Christmas Eve, while her husband takes their son to watch fireworks with his first love, Justine Payne finally makes up her mind—she's getting a divorce. They've been married for five years. To everyone else, she's the lucky woman with the perfect life. She has a devoted husband and a smart, adorable son. But only she knows the truth—her husband has never let go of his first love. Even worse, the child she nearly died giving birth to can't wait to replace her with someone else. So, Justine decides to set them both free—a husband whose heart doesn't truly belong to her and a son who can't wait to replace her. She refuses to keep holding on to love that isn't returned.