One Night's Mistake With My Adopted Brother

Anna's P.O.V

Tears tracked a hot path down my cheeks, my shoulders trembling with the sobs. I shouldn't have gone to that club. This was all my fault and now my adopted brother who I'd loved since the day I met him at thirteen hated my guts.

I tried to cover my head with the sheets to hide my shame from the angry man in front of me but he simply ripped it off, leaving me naked and crying on his bed.

“Is this how you go about opening your legs and fucking anyone who's drunk?” His voice was like poisoned darts into my chest. I couldn't believe he thought the worst of me because of a mistake we made together. What’s worse, I had already given my virginity to him last night.

Shame burned me like raw acid and a bitter taste flooded my mouth. “Please give me the sheets, I want to go to my own room,” I whispered in a tiny voice as my throat choked with tears.

“No!” He gritted through clenched teeth, balling the sheets up in his fist and tossing them far across the room. “Since it was easy for you to shamelessly seduce me and open your legs. You are going to leave my room naked so everyone can see what a cheap whore you are. Do you think sleeping with me would separate me from Joanne??? Huh??”

I shrieked, shaking my head as the tears flew from my eyes. But Simon remained adamant, not budging as I pleaded for him to at least let me take my clothes.

“Get out.” His voice was cold as he bit out.

Eyes blurred over, I wrapped my arms around myself, bent at the waist, and ran out of his room.

My room was in the attic, two flights of stairs away from Simon's room. I could only pray I wouldn't run into anyone as I bolted up the stairs, naked, shivering, and crushed.

Thankfully, I only met a maid at the top of the stairs and let out a startled gasp which I ignored as I ran past her, locking myself in my room.

For the next two weeks, I refused to go to school or leave my room. At first, it was the crippling shame that kept me bedridden, and no matter what my mom said, I wouldn't come downstairs.

She would bring me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sending the maids back to clear the barely touched plates of food.

And then, the sickness began.

Rolling out of bed, I crawled along the wood board floors to my toilet just in time to empty the contents of my stomach in the bowl.

“Anna, why does your room smell like a damned abattoir?” A voice called out and I trembled, sitting upright, my back against the toilet bowl where I sat on the floor.

My sister's sneering face soon appeared at the doorway leading to my bathroom and I felt sick to my stomach. If she knew what I'd done, her usual harsh words thrown at me would be a present compared to what she’d do again.

The thought made my mouth water with bile and I threw up again but because of how empty my stomach was, no food came up, leaving me retching drily and sobbing until the wave pissed.

“Ugh, you look so disgusting.” Joanne wrinkled her nose as she moved into the bathroom. “Your mother needs to get you cleaned up and then off to the hospital.”

I shook my head immediately as I leaned up against the wall to raise myself from the floor. “No hospital. I'm fine. It's just a stomach bug.”

“Did I say I give a shit about whatever is wrong with you?” She applied a coat of lipstick over her already red lips, patting her perfect hair while standing in front of the mirror.

She didn’t even care that I was barely hanging on by a thread. Swallowing the bile that rose in my throat, I whispered. “Uhm, please Joanne. I need to shower. Can you step out for a bit?”

Her nose turned up in a sneer but surprisingly, she didn’t pick a fight with me and just slammed the bathroom door behind her.

Crawling my way into the shower cubicle, I switched on the hot water. As the water began petting down my back, my eyes stung.

Once again, I crumbled to the floor and began sobbing as the pain of rejection ripped me apart. Simon hadn't even said a word to me since that night. He hated me so much.

Finally, I exited the bathroom, swamped inside a huge cashmere robe that once belonged to my grandmother. It was my comfort clothes.

Joanne leaned against my vanity desk as I curled up on my side, wrapping my own arms around myself and drawing my knees up.

Usually, I wouldn’t be so comfortable with turning my back to my sister who hates the heck out of me, but I was really weak.

“Took you forever, slowpoke.” The spite in Joanne’s tone sent a fresh wave of nausea rolling through me and I shuffled around the bed, managing to turn to her.

“I’m kind of ill at the moment, Joanne.” I croaked in a voice hoarse from tears.

She sneered at me and for a moment, I wondered if she was going to drag me out of bed by my hair but instead a cruel glint entered her eyes. “You know I have some news to share…”

She trailed off and I sighed. Whatever it was. It couldn’t be good.

“What news?”

“You know, just the minor detail of Mom and Dad’s finalized divorce.” Her smile stretched wider, revealing her shark-like teeth.

Still, a stupid and pathetic hope flickered to life in my chest. “So…they are back together?”

Joanne looked at me as though I’d lost my mind and a wicked laughter spilled from her lips. “Together? Please, Anna. Haven’t you noticed? Dad’s been checked out of this disgusting place for months.” Her eyes held a malicious glee.

My stomach lurched where I lay shivering on the bed. “So…what about us?”

“Ah, yes, the real news.” She leaned back against the vanity desk, the designer logo on her purse catching the light. “Mom won custody.”

Relief washed over me and I couldn’t stop the rush of tears that stung my eyes. Mom. At least we’d be together. “That’s good, right?” My voice cracked with anxiety.

Joanne’s smile turned into a smirk. “Good for you, maybe. But guess what, sis? You get to stay here with your Simon and soak up Mom’s tears while I jet-set off with Dad.” Her eyes gleamed with a vindictive satisfaction. “First-class tickets baby. No more sharing a house with an ugly crybaby little sister.”

My blood ran cold and I didn’t know whether to smile or cry. Joanne had never been good to me, but with the dark turn my life took, god…I don’t wanna be here alone. “You’re leaving?” The question escaped my lips before I could stop it.

She shrugged. “Dad always hated this place. Besides, with his new job, we’re moving to the fucking city, and with actual success, unlike this suburban nightmare. Before you’re twenty, you’d be an ugly burnt-out single mother pushing prams in the local grocery store.”

My eyes and throat burned with emotions. The rest of her words were like daggers in my chest but when I didn’t say anything else in response, she swept out of my room, leaving the lingering scent of her perfume and an aching emptiness in my heart.

I curled up into a tight ball on my chest as tears streamed down my face. Joanne wouldn’t just be leaving, she was escaping into a life of luxury.

Dad was leaving me alone in the wreckage of a broken family and the silent hostility of a boy whose trust I’d inexplicably shattered.

The thought of facing Simon sent a fresh wave of dread crashing over me and I cried myself till the world went dark.