My Sister Wants To Marry The Man I Love

At two in the morning, my mother called me.

“Leigh, your sister just ate with a friend, and your brother-in-law insists on getting a divorce. You have to help her.”

Still half asleep, I forced my eyes open and said, “Mom, I bet my sister had fried rice in bed with that friend. She’s already been divorced nine times, every time for cheating. What man can handle that? I can’t help her.

The call ended, but less than five minutes later, the phone rang again.

“Your sister agreed to the divorce. She’s been so wronged. As her younger sister, send her a hundred thousand dollars to comfort her.”

My tired mind couldn’t even make sense of her words. I mumbled something like an agreement and hung up.

Not even half an hour later, the phone rang once more. “Leigh, your sister wants your husband now. You’re getting divorced tomorrow. She plans to marry Waylon Fisher.”

That woke me up completely. I laughed in anger. “Mom, that’s nonsense. Waylon has been my husband for three years. Our relationship is fine, and I just got pregnant. Divorce? Don’t even think about it!”

I thought that would be the end of it. Yet when I turned my phone on the next morning, the screen showed more than a hundred missed calls.

——

Realizing every one of them came from my mother, my heart dropped, and I quickly sat up in bed.

It made me think something awful had happened. In a rush, I called her right back.

“Mom, what—”

My mother’s cold laugh broke in before I could finish.

“Oh, still breathing, are you?”

“You couldn’t pick up the phone? Are you planning to drive me to my death?”

Once I heard her voice, strong and full of life, I finally relaxed and pressed my hand to my forehead.

“Mom, I have work early today. I turned off my phone last night. What’s so urgent?”

“Your sister is heartbroken from her divorce, and you dared to turn off your phone and sleep? Do you even have a heart?”

“Raising an ungrateful thing like you, I’d have been better off raising a dog. Over a hundred calls and not one answer. You think you’re important now? You think you can just ignore me?”

I let out a helpless breath. “Mom, I didn’t mean that. Reese’s divorce happened because she cheated. What does that have to do with me?”

That line seemed to hit her right in the chest. Her voice suddenly rose, loud enough to make my ears ache.

“How is it not your fault? You’re the bad luck that ruined this whole family! Your sister got divorced because of you!”

I froze for a couple of seconds.

That same tired feeling came over me again, and pain spread through my body.

Once again, it was all my fault. Everything was my fault.

Any time something made Reese upset, it became my fault.

When she left high school to be some man’s mistress and got beaten almost to death by his wife, it was my fault.

When she hung out with street kids, got drunk, raced cars, and had eight abortions, it was my fault.

After she grew up, she scammed her way through nine marriages, the shortest lasting less than a week, and every time she cheated and was caught, it was still my fault.

It felt like even my very existence, even my breathing, was a mistake.

After being shaped out of dirt for twenty-eight years, I finally couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“Mom, if you think I’m bad luck, then stop calling me. Just act like you only have one daughter….Reese.”

Right away, my mother’s voice went harsh.

“No! You’re my daughter! Why can’t I call you? You have to give me money, take me traveling, buy me gold and silver. And when I grow old, you’ll serve me day and night, handle everything I need. That’s your job as a bad luck, it’s your way to make up for your sins!”

I laughed out of anger. “I’m your daughter, fine, but isn’t my sister your daughter too?”