My Fiancé Chose His Dead Brother’s Wife

I woke up in the living room, feeling disoriented. The house was eerily empty. Skyler had left me on the floor all night without a care. Struggling to my feet, I made my way to the hospital on my own. It was during the IV drip that I received his message.

"When you're done with your little performance, make sure to tidy up the house. I'm on my way to pick up Blair and her daughter."

I closed WhatsApp and called my parents. "Mom, I’ve decided to come home," I told her.

After finishing the IV, the doctor, seeing my fever, refused to perform the termination procedure. By the time I got back home, it was near the afternoon.

As soon as I walked through the door, a toy came flying at me, hitting me squarely on the forehead. Looking up, I saw a little girl smirking at me, with Blair beside her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. She's just a child and doesn’t know any better. Please don't be upset with her," Blair said, feigning innocence. Despite her claims of illness, she looked perfectly healthy. Skyler had clearly been taking excellent care of her.

I rubbed my aching forehead, ignored her, and walked straight into the house.

"Genevieve! Where have you been all morning? I left clear instructions last night—were you just ignoring me?" Skyler's furious voice boomed from the other side of the room. His temper flared up at the slightest inconvenience.

Briefly glancing at him, I continued walking, unfazed. "If she wants to stay, she can clean up the room herself. I'm not your maid."

"Forget it, Skyler," Blair said softly, with a calculated pout, throwing herself into his arms as if she were about to cry. "Genevieve doesn’t like me. Maybe Thalia and I should just go home..."

Skyler, taken aback by my defiance, glared at me in disbelief.

"Genevieve, don't push it! Thirty minutes, or you'll regret it!"

Ignoring him, I turned and went to my room to pack my things. I hadn't planned on getting further entangled in their drama today.

But barely ten minutes passed before Blair and her daughter barged in.

"Feeling rough after being dumped by the man you love, aren't you, Genevieve?" Blair taunted, with a malicious glint in her eyes.

I ignored Blair and continued packing, but her constant needling was relentless.

"You're out of luck, Genevieve. Skyler's heart has always been with me, and he will be my husband and my daughter's father soon."

Her victorious sneer was infuriating.

"You really have no dignity staying here," she continued. "If I were you, I’d have disappeared long ago."

I paused my packing and looked up at her, amusement lacing my cold smile. "Unlike you, I can't be with two brothers at once. Quite the feat, Blair. Aren't you supposed to be dying of cancer? You look shockingly well."

Blair's face blanched at my accusation, panic flashing momentarily in her eyes. She was about to retort when the delicate sound of shattering porcelain cut through the tension like a knife.

I turned to see Grandfather’s treasured porcelain doll in pieces on the floor. Anger boiled over as I pushed Thalia, sending her stumbling to the ground in tears.

"Who told you to touch my things?" I shouted.

Blair rushed to her daughter's side, ready to lash out, but the footsteps approaching from the hallway signaled a shift. Her expression turned pitiful and desperate.

"Genevieve, I'm sorry on Thalia's behalf. Please forgive her, won't you?"

Her eyes brimmed with crocodile tears, morphing from a sneer to sorrowful fragility just as Skyler entered the room.

And then it happened.

Skyler slapped me across the face, and I fell to the ground, the shards of porcelain cutting into my skin as blood trickled down my arm.