DON’T CALL ME SISTER

CHAPTER ONE_Mom Wants to Remarry LILY POV I think people imagine grief as something loud. Like screaming. Like funerals. Like collapsing dramatically in the rain. But for me, grief always felt quieter than that. It lived in small things. In the empty chair across from me during breakfast. In the way my mom still paused near the coffee aisle because my dad used to complain about expensive brands. In the old blue sweater hanging in the back of her closet that neither of us had touched in years. Sometimes I wondered if we kept those little things alive because letting them go would feel too much like losing him all over again. The rain outside our apartment window had been falling since morning, soft and steady against the glass. I sat curled up on the couch with a blanket around my legs and a book resting open in my lap, even though I hadn’t read the same page for almost twenty minutes. Mom was nervous. I could always tell. She kept drying her hands on the kitchen towel even when they weren’t wet. That was her thing. When she was anxious, she cleaned things that were already clean. I looked up when she walked into the living room again. “Lily,” she said softly. The way she said my name made my stomach tighten a little. I closed my book slowly. “What happened?” For a second she just stood there looking at me, and suddenly I had the strange feeling that my life was about to change before she even opened her mouth. Then she sat beside me on the couch. Close enough that our shoulders touched. “I need to talk to you about something important.” That definitely wasn’t a good sign. I tried to joke anyway. “You sound like you’re about to tell me we’re secretly moving to another country.” A small laugh escaped her, but it disappeared quickly. And that nervous feeling in my chest got worse. Mom twisted the edge of the towel between her fingers before finally speaking. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” I blinked once. “What do you mean?” Her eyes softened immediately, almost apologetically. “His name is Elias Vale.” I knew that name. Everybody knew that name. Even if you didn’t care about rich people or business magazines or the kind of world that seemed too polished to belong to normal people, you still knew who Elias Vale was. I sat up straighter without meaning to. “The Elias Vale?” Mom gave a tiny nod. And suddenly I understood why she looked so nervous. “Oh.” That was all I could say at first. Just oh. Because my brain was still trying to catch up. Mom looked down at her hands before speaking again. “We’ve been seeing each other for almost a year.” A year. I tried not to look too shocked by that. Apparently I failed because she reached for my hand immediately. “I wanted to tell you earlier,” she said quickly. “I just... I didn’t know how.” I stared at our hands quietly. I wasn’t angry exactly. Just surprised. No, that wasn’t true either. It hurt a little. Not because she had lied to me. Because a part of me had never imagined her with anyone except my dad. Even after all these years. Even after death. And the worst part was that I immediately felt guilty for thinking that. Mom deserved happiness. I knew that. Nobody should spend the rest of their life alone just because tragedy happened to them once. Still, my chest felt strangely tight. “Do you love him?” I asked quietly. Her expression changed instantly. Softer. Warmer. And somehow that hurt too. Because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her look at someone like that. “Yes,” she admitted gently. The honesty in her voice made me look away for a second. Rain tapped softly against the window behind us. The apartment suddenly felt smaller than usual. “I know this is a lot,” Mom continued carefully. “And I’m not asking you to replace your father, Lily. Nobody could ever do that.” That sentence almost broke me a little. Because she understood anyway. Of course she did. I swallowed hard and nodded once. “I know.” Silence settled between us for a moment before she finally whispered the part that mattered most. “He asked me to marry him.” There it was. The real reason for the conversation. I stared down at the blanket in my lap while my thoughts tangled together painfully. Marriage. A new house probably. A new life. New people. The idea made me feel strangely unsteady. I thought about my father teaching me how to ride a bike when I was little. About the way he used to carry me to bed whenever I pretended to be asleep on the couch. About how unfair it felt that memories could stay so warm while people disappeared anyway. Then I looked at my mom again. Really looked at her. And suddenly I noticed something I hadn’t paid attention to before. She looked happy. Not just comfortable. Happy. The kind that reached her eyes naturally instead of looking forced. I realized then that I couldn’t remember the last time she looked this light. That mattered more than my fear did. Even if part of me still wanted to hold onto the life we already had. “You should marry him,” I said softly. Mom’s eyes widened slightly. “Really?” I nodded. Even though my chest still hurt a little. “You deserve to be happy too.” The way her face crumpled emotionally after that almost made me cry myself. She pulled me into a hug immediately, holding me tightly against her chest. “Thank you,” she whispered into my hair. I hugged her back slowly. And somewhere underneath the warmth of that moment, a quiet nervousness settled inside me. Because I could already feel it. Everything was about to change. Then Mom leaned back slightly before saying carefully, “There’s one more thing.” I laughed weakly. “There’s more?” A tiny smile appeared on her face. “He has a son.” Something about the way she said it made me still completely. “How old?” “Nineteen.” Older than me. I nodded slowly, trying to imagine what kind of person the son of Elias Vale would even be. Then Mom added softly, “You’ll probably be transferring schools too.” And just like that, my entire world tilted again.