Chapter 1
Bella's POV
“Vanessa!!!,”
I called out in shock. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it would burst. I stared at the scene in front of me. My sister, who I loved more than anyone in the world, was naked under the sheets with Daniel. My fiancé. The man I was supposed to marry in three months.
The basket of cookies I had baked with so much love fell from my hands and hit the floor. I stood frozen, tears already rolling down my cheeks. I looked at the two people I trusted most. I didn’t recognize them anymore.
“Baby, I thought you said she wasn’t coming today,” Vanessa said with a smirk. She looked me up and down like I was dirt on the floor. She didn’t break eye contact as she ran her fingers down Daniel’s chest, as if I wasn’t standing right there.
Daniel didn’t say anything. He just stared at me. His eyes were cold. There was no love there. No regret. The warmth and affection I used to see in him was gone.
I couldn’t speak. I was too stunned. My throat felt tight. I wanted to throw up.
“Vanessa, how could you?” I whispered, my voice shaky.
She sat up slowly and stretched, not even trying to hide her naked body. “Don’t act surprised,” she said. “You always walk around like you’re so perfect. But you’re not better than me. You’re just pathetic.”
I turned to Daniel, tears blurring my vision. “You’re really doing this? With my own sister?”
Daniel finally sat up and sighed. “Look, Bella, I have been over you for a while. I didn’t know how to tell you without hurting you. Things between us just haven’t felt right.”
Vanessa laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “We’ve always been in love,” she said. “You were just too stupid to notice. Daniel has always been mine.”
My hands shook as I reached out for a chair to hold myself up. “Daniel, I loved you. I gave you everything. How can you do this to me?”
He shrugged. “You’re a nice girl, Bella. Sweet. But sweet isn’t enough. There were things missing, important things. Things a man needs. Your sister understood me, so I fell in love. You were never what I wanted.”
Vanessa laughed. An evil kind of laughter.
“He means you’re a boring Bella. I know how to satisfy him better than you ever could. That’s what he really means.” She picked up my basket of cookies and shoved it into my chest. “Now get out.”
He had told her about our intimate moments and now she was using it to taunt me. He was my first and I was not experienced. I thought back to the few weeks leading to today and suddenly realised why he had been so distant. I had baked his favourite cookies to surprise him today. Only to find him in bed with my sister.
“You’re my sister,” I whispered, completely broken. “How could you betray me like this?”
“I don’t want to repeat myself twice,” Vanessa said. “Get out. Daniel doesn’t love you. He’s mine now.”
“But he was mine. You knew he was mine. You knew…”
Vanessa slapped me. Hard. I gasped as I hit the floor, one hand on my burning cheek.
“You’re so dumb, Bella,” she said, looking at me with disgust. “He never wanted you. You were just someone he settled for. Open your eyes.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, then roughly shoved me out the bedroom door. I couldn’t even react. I was too stunned.
She threw the cookies after me. They scattered across the floor like trash.
Daniel walked out behind her. He pulled off the engagement ring and tossed it at me. It hit my chest and landed on the floor at my feet.
“Here. You can keep it,” he said, not even looking me in the eye. “The engagement is off. I can’t do this anymore.”
Vanessa walked over to him and kissed him again, this time slower. She smiled up at him like I had never existed.
“Get out of our house,” she said, wrapping her arms around him.
So I did.
I picked up what was left of my dignity and walked out the door, past the broken cookies and the ring I once dreamed about.
As I came downstairs, the housekeeper pretended she hadn’t been listening and kept wiping a piece of furniture.
I didn’t take a taxi. I couldn’t use my phone to book a ride.
I kept walking past the lavish condo, down to the streets. Then I reached a park.
And finally, I cried.
I cried from the heartbreak. From the emptiness in my life. From the sister I thought loved me, betraying me.
I didn’t know how long I cried.
I was heartbroken.
