Chapter 5 - We Were Never Sisters by Blood
Mia read the report twice.
Then she looked at me.
“So what are we?”
I shook my head.
“I don't know.”
Pastor Daniel finally told us the truth.
Twenty-nine years earlier, Mom had worked at a hospital.
A fire had broken out in the maternity wing.
Several babies were evacuated.
Two newborn girls were left without surviving parents.
One was me.
The other was Mia.
Mom had taken us home temporarily.
Then she fought to adopt both.
Our father initially refused.
He didn't want another child.
But Mom wouldn't separate us.
So she did something extraordinary.
She convinced him to adopt us both.
We grew up believing we were twins.
But we weren't.
We were two abandoned babies who had become sisters because Mom chose us.
Mia cried.
“She chose me?”
“Yes.”
“She didn't have to.”
“No.”
“Then why did she always act like Lila was special?”
Pastor Daniel smiled sadly.
“Because Lila was sick more often.”
I remembered.
Asthma.
Hospital visits.
Medication.
Mom had spent years worrying about me.
Mia had mistaken concern for favoritism.
“She loved you too,” he told Mia.
Mia shook her head.
“I wasted twenty-nine years being jealous of someone who wasn't even her biological daughter.”
I took her hand.
“You didn't know.”
“I should have.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“You're still defending me.”
“I'm not defending you.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Being your sister.”
She cried.
I cried too.
For the first time, the word sister meant something different.
Not blood.
Choice.
Then Richard called.
“Now you know.”
“What do you want?”
“To correct history.”
“You abandoned us.”
“No.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was forced to.”
“By Mom?”
“By your father.”
I froze.
“What?”
Richard explained that our father had discovered his financial crimes.
Instead of reporting him, he made a deal.
Richard would disappear.
In exchange, he would never return.
But Richard had spent decades plotting revenge.
“What does this have to do with us?”
“You have something that belongs to me.”
“What?”
“The company.”
My father's old company had been inherited by me.
It was worth millions.
Richard claimed he had legal rights to it.
But there was one problem.
He had forged documents.
We discovered everything.
He wasn't interested in money.
He wanted control.
And he had been manipulating Mia for years.
He had anonymously sent her messages.
He had encouraged her jealousy.
He had convinced her Mom favored me.
He had even arranged the anonymous delivery of the white wedding dress.
Mia stared at him during the confrontation.
“You used me.”
Richard smiled.
“You were easy to use.”
She slapped him.
The sound echoed.
“I am not your weapon.”
For the first time, Richard looked afraid.
The police arrived.
He was arrested.
But before they took him away, he looked at me.
“You think your mother was perfect?”
I said nothing.
He smiled.
May you like
“She wasn't.”
Then he was gone.
