Every September They Chose My Sister Novels & Stories

I said. She looked at me. "I've known for a while," I said. "I just haven't said it back yet." She was very still. "Aurora," I said. "Yes." "You are the sister I chose," I said. "Not in the complicated way. In the simple, complete way." I held her gaze. "Tomorrow you stand beside me in the ceremony. Not behind me, not watching from the courtyard, beside me, because that is where you have been from the beginning and that is where you will be."

"You don't have to sign. But think about your best friend. She's staying at the McKinzie nursing home, remember?" Lynn Dole—my first real friend in this world. A year ago, she'd rented an apartment full of toxic chemicals without knowing it. Now she had leukemia. We hadn't found a matching donor for her yet. The nursing home was the only thing keeping her alive. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be, Jennifer." His voice was soft. The threat underneath it wasn't. My hands were shaking as I picked up the pen and signed. Not because I agreed, but because none of this mattered anymore.

"See for yourself. Your abuse killed your daughter." The video showed me—still oblivious to the truth of the car crash—shielding my sister from the lethal impact of the accident.

He pulled me into his arms, whispering sweet words in my ears, while I sobbed in his chest. I sobbed because yet again, someone had chosen me….and even though my sister tried to steal another man from me, I was chosen this time around…..by a man completely out of their league, even when the world and his siblings believed I killed his brother.

Howard sat by the window and put the brochure on the empty seat beside him. More than ten years earlier, he had held that same brochure against the glass of my isolation room, pointed to this very mountain, and told me, "When you're better, I'm taking you there." I never got better. And he never took me there. The wind at the top blew hard. He opened the brochure. All twelve of my notes were still there. He took out a pen and held it over the space after the final line for a long time. He didn't cross anything out or mark any of them paid. Then he put the pen back in his pocket.

My adopted sister, Sofia Leone, was the orphaned daughter of my father's most loyal right-hand man, Enzo Bellini. She'd just been diagnosed with kidney failure. Just because our blood types matched, my family ordered me to give her one of my kidneys. I refused and fought them on it for three months. Everyone in the Leone family called me cold and selfish behind my back, saying I'd rather stand by and watch my own family die. The day Sofia came out of emergency surgery, my brother, Dylan Leone, came to my room looking exhausted. He was the future Don of the Leone family. "Sofia's still so young. Her life is only just beginning. "It's just one kidney. It won't really affect your health. Aria,

A week before our wedding, Kane Orsini bought two islands, one for me and one for my younger sister, Zelinda Bellucci. But Zelinda pointed to the island in the photos that was meant for me. "I like this one." As he'd done countless times before, Kane didn't ask what I wanted. He just ruffled Zelinda's hair and said, "Okay." Then he looked at me. "She's your sister. Just let her have it." Just let her have it. Kane said those words more than anything else. I thought I'd do what I always did: swallow my feelings and say "okay." But I heard my own voice say, "That's your wedding gift to me. I don't want to give it up." Kane looked a little surprised, but he just raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I

he lowly said before vanishing into the crowd. His eyes had been full of judgement, as if he couldn't believe I was choosing one sister over the other. But I wasn't. I just needed time to think. I set down my phone and went with her to cut her cake, smiling for more photos, dread growing in my stomach.

When Evelyn was six, her parents' enemies attacked, and she vanished in the chaos. Her parents spent nine years searching for her. When she came home at fifteen, Evelyn believed with all her heart that she finally belonged somewhere. But that very night, through a thick wooden door, she heard her younger sister Serena sobbing. "Now that she's back, will you still want me?" The next morning, Evelyn offered to give Serena the sunniest bedroom. Her mother hugged her and wept. Her father stroked her hair and told her again and again how understanding she was. Serena took her hand for the first time. For the first time since coming home, Evelyn felt fully embraced. From then on, Evelyn knew exact

I host a late-night campus radio show and have been on the air for three years. I take calls about cheating, scandals, and even people threatening to end their lives. The final night to submit college choices is also my last night on the air before graduation. At 11:30 pm, an anonymous call comes through. It's a guy. "Host, I changed my sister's college choices for my mom tonight," he says. "I have two sisters. Ever since we were kids, the older one has been better at everything than the younger one. "She gets better grades, she's prettier, and even strangers praise her. "This year, my younger sister is just 20 points short of the cutoff, while my older sister is certain to get into