Chapter 1
While I was at work, my boyfriend sent me an image. I opened it without a second thought, only for a horror movie ghost face to fill the screen. My heart nearly stopped.
Before I could confront him, his voice message arrived.
"Mia was only having fun. Don't blame her."
I had heard those words more times than I could count. Mia Brooks was his adopted sister, and she loved taking pranks too far. She had hidden a fake mouse under my blanket, put mustard in my toothpaste, and mixed peppermint oil into my face wash.
Ethan Hayes knew I was terrified of mice. He knew I hated mustard and that the smell of peppermint oil made me nauseous. Yet every time, he said Mia was young and told me not to hold it against her.
The fright triggered another episode of my heart condition. I clutched my pounding chest and struggled to breathe.
If this was what it meant to be Ethan's girlfriend, I wanted no part of it.
I was done.
******
A coworker rushed me to the hospital. When Ethan called, I meant to decline it but tapped Answer by mistake.
Mia's voice came through first, thick with tears. "Nora, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. Ethan already yelled at me. Please forgive me."
Before I could say anything, Ethan cut in. "Nora, Mia knows she made a mistake. She's still young. Don't hold it against her."
There it was again, the same excuse I had heard countless times.
I remembered when Ethan and I first moved in together after college. I couldn't fall asleep unless I was holding something. Because Ethan often worked late, he bought me an enormous teddy bear.
One night, while he worked in the study as usual, I fell asleep hugging it. In the middle of the night, the bear suddenly let out a shrill, distorted laugh. I jolted awake with a scream.
When Ethan rushed in to comfort me, he said the same thing.
That was when I first learned that he had an adopted sister a few years younger than us. I knew Ethan would feel caught in the middle, so I tried my hardest to be understanding. Every time he asked me to forgive her, I said it was fine.
This time, I couldn't bring myself to say it again.
I ended the call.
Another voice message from Ethan arrived. When I played it, he sounded weary and faintly apologetic.
"Nora, don't be angry. Mia knows she was wrong."
I didn't reply.
A video followed. Mia faced the camera with a wounded expression.
"I'm sorry, Nora. I was wrong."
She bowed deeply, looking as though she genuinely regretted what she had done. But in the final second of the video, I heard Ethan comforting her.
"That's enough, Mia. Nora is just being oversensitive."
His sympathy wasn't for me. It was for Mia, who had been made to apologize.
I let out a slow breath. For the first time, I no longer wanted to be the accommodating girlfriend who swallowed every grievance.
I opened my work email. A transfer form had been sitting in my inbox for 2 days. With only hours left before the deadline, I accepted the reassignment.
With an IV in my hand, using my phone was awkward. When Ethan called again, I accidentally tapped Accept. Just then, a nurse came in to go over the doctor's instructions.
Ethan's voice sharpened with alarm. "Nora, are you in the hospital?"
