At our wedding, his fake innocent sister-in-law wore a white dress and clung tightly to his arm, looking more like the bride than I did. “She’s been spoiled since childhood. What’s wrong with siblings being close? Just bear with it,” he said. Bear with it? You really think I love you that much? As I flipped through our wedding photos, my heart grew colder with each image. On our wedding day, Emma, my sister-in-law, wore a white low-cut Vivienne Westwood gown that celebrities wear on red carpets. She even decorated her hair with a white silk ribbon. In the group photo, Jack looked tall and handsome, while Emma clung to him like a delicate bird. He wore a golden tie, and she had a golden wrist corsage. We stood on either side of him, but she held his arm tightly, looking more like the bride than I did. As I recalled the wedding, more and more strange things surfaced. For instance, our wedding was planned rather hastily, but Emma, who was supposed to be studying abroad, immediately postponed her exams to attend our wedding. At the time, I was touched by their close sibling relationship and encouraged Jack to spend time with her. They indeed talked a lot. Every day after she returned, she was busy discussing various wedding details with Jack. For the hotel decorations, I preferred blue, but Emma said it was too plain. In the end, Jack changed it to gold, which Emma liked. Jack’s suit was originally from the same collection as my father’s, meant to complement each other. Emma didn’t like it and insisted on changing it to gray. When my father saw Jack’s suit on the day, his face darkened for a while. I had to console him. My husband and I took her along to choose rings. At first, I liked a large diamond ring worth $17,000, but Jack persuaded me, “Lily, a big ring won’t look good. Let’s choose another one. I think the one on Emma’s hand looks nice.” Emma was wearing a small, delicate diamond ring. The diamond wasn’t large, but it had a unique design. Hearing Jack say this, she whined loudly: “Brother! You can’t be biased. I chose this, and you can only buy it for your wife. I won’t allow it!” Yes, she called me “sister-in-law” when Jack was around. When he wasn’t, she called me “Lily.” In the end, Jack bought a pair of rings, one for me and one for Emma. When paying, Jack told me, “Lily, I only have enough money in my card for one ring. Can you cover the other one for now? I’ll pay you back when we get home. Emma has been spoiled since childhood, and I don’t want her to be upset.” I understood and happily continued shopping at other stores. He never paid me back. Although I didn’t care about those few thousand dollars, now that I think about it, his money went to buy a diamond ring for his sister. I bought my own ring. Also, while other friends gave us household items as wedding gifts, like bedding sets, decorations, and small appliances, her gift was specifically for Jack. I called my best friend, barely containing my anger. When she arrived, I was sitting next to the unopened gift box, staring at it with a ashen face. Katie comfortingly hugged me, then went to find scissors. We opened the gift box to find a pair of luxury brand underwear. “They’re both adults. Doesn’t she know better?” Katie trembled with anger. “I heard she was raised by Jack when she was little,” I laughed bitterly. “Sibling love?” “Do you remember the wedding game at the door?” Katie asked me. Katie told me that they had prepared many questions, from the hotel entrance to the bedroom door. The groom could take a step towards the bride for each correct answer, but had to give out red envelopes full of cash for wrong answers. The bridesmaids were on my side, asking questions about my hobbies, living habits, and who would manage the money after marriage. Then, she heard Emma ask: “Where does Emma like to go when she’s unhappy?” “Where does Emma like to hide her gifts?” “What were the three wishes brother promised Emma when he was 17?” The bridesmaids were stunned, but Jack answered all of them correctly. The wedding game between the bride and groom had turned into a game of truth or dare between these two, reminiscing about their past. Finally, at the bedroom door, Emma asked: “Last question! In the future, will brother love Emma more or Lily more?” Jack grinned stupidly, scratching his head: “I love you both!” All the bridesmaids were shocked, but they didn’t tell me about this incident, not wanting to upset me. After hearing this, I angrily threw the gift box off the bed.
After the wedding, Jack and I were supposed to go on our honeymoon. Emma wanted to come along and mentioned it at the evening banquet. I firmly refused. She put down her bowl with a dark face, and Jack quickly tried to smooth things over, coaxing and persuading her. After a while, she cheered up. But she was an adult, not a three-year-old child. I thought the matter was settled, but at midnight on our wedding night, she came knocking on our door with red eyes. Seeing her like this, Jack gave me a look and took her outside to talk. I was exhausted and fell asleep waiting for Jack on the bed. The next morning when I woke up, Jack wasn’t there. Confused, I opened my phone and saw a message from Jack: “I’m comforting Emma. You sleep first.” Where did they go to comfort her all night? I called him: “Jack, did you forget we have a 10 AM flight? Don’t you want to go on our honeymoon?” Jack hesitated for a long time before asking: “Lily, can Emma come with us?” As if he could see my expression through the phone, he quickly added: “Emma travels every year, but this year she didn’t go because of our wedding. She’s quite upset. She also put a lot of effort into our wedding preparations and even broke up with her boyfriend to come back. I want to take her out to cheer her up.” All the unpleasant details from the wedding rushed to my mind, and I exploded over the phone: “Jack, are you out of your mind? This is our honeymoon. Do you know what a honeymoon is? If you want to go with her, then go. We don’t need to continue this marriage!” I threw my phone and lay on the couch, fuming. Soon after, Jack came back, patting my back and apologizing: “I’m sorry, Lily. I didn’t think it through. She’s been the most spoiled at home since childhood. When she cries, I don’t know what to do, so I said I’d take her along. I know I was wrong now. Let’s leave right away. I’ve packed your luggage for you.” Jack was always good at coaxing me. But now, seeing him coax me reminds me of how he coaxes Emma. It’s disgusting. But the flights and hotels were already booked, and it would be troublesome to change now. He apologized so sincerely and knew he was wrong. Under his act of playing dumb and making me laugh, I forgave him, and we boarded the honeymoon flight just in time. Before turning off my phone, I checked Emma’s Instagram. It was quiet and calm, so I assumed Jack had handled the situation. I asked him: “So, how did you explain not taking her along in the end?” Jack smiled sheepishly and said: “I promised her that when we get back, I’ll take her to Disneyland separately.” Separately? Disneyland? Seeing my suddenly dejected face, he asked confusedly: “What’s wrong, Lily? Are you unhappy again? But by then, we’ll have finished our honeymoon, right?” “…” Going out alone together, first with me, then with her, is that it? I started to doubt my choices. I drank orange juice and sulked the whole way, enduring for two hours until we finally arrived in Miami. The sea breeze finally improved my mood a little. Miami was my favorite city. When Jack and I were dating, he told me: “Lily, I want to take you to the seaside, to an island. We’ll hold hands and walk on the sand, and I’ll say my vows to you against the backdrop of the sunset over the ocean.” After all, it was my honeymoon. I shouldn’t let an unpleasant person ruin it. So when we got off the plane, I took the initiative to hold Jack’s hand. But he didn’t respond. I looked at him. He was staring at his phone with a furrowed brow: “Lily, we have to go back. Emma is in the hospital.” His expression was serious and anxious. I glanced at his phone, which showed his chat with Emma. “Brother, I’m in the hospital.” “Brother abandoned Emma.” Then there was a crying emoji and a picture of a medical record. Suppressing my anger, I asked Jack: “What’s wrong with her? Can your parents take care of her? Do you really have to go back?” Jack stared at the medical record for a long time before saying: “It’s asthma. Emma has had asthma since childhood. She has attacks during season changes and when she’s under stress…” “Asthma is a chronic condition. She’ll be fine staying in the hospital. We can visit her when we get back and bring her some gifts. What do you think?” Jack looked at me. That look made me feel like I was the evil supporting character in a novel. He said: “Lily, we’re married now, which means we’re family. Whatever opinions you had about Emma before, that’s in the past. If you really treated Emma like your own sister, would you say something like this?” I was speechless, never expecting him to say such a thing. I’m not an only child. I have an older brother and a younger sister. Especially my brother, who loves sports and is always getting injured. Once, he even broke his leg playing soccer and was hospitalized, but he never said we had to go back to see him. My sister is even more independent, doing her master’s degree in a big city, handling her own housing, medical care, internships, and studies. She often has minor illnesses, and I just send her some money and remind her to take care of herself. How come when it comes to Emma, it becomes a matter of me not accepting her or not treating her like family? Moreover, if I didn’t consider her family, would I have paid tens of thousands of dollars for her tuition and living expenses to study abroad? Even her frequent travels were funded by me. I remembered now that the phrase “not treating Emma like a real sister” had been mentioned by him several times before the wedding. It was always when she wanted to interfere with wedding details, and I disagreed. Like when she wanted to wear that dress that looked like a light wedding gown. At the time, Katie mentioned that standing next to the groom like that, unfamiliar guests might misunderstand. So I asked Jack: “Can Emma change that dress? It seems a bit eye-catching.” I don’t know how they communicated in their video call, but after a while, Jack came to me and said: “Emma chose that dress a long time ago, and it’s already been altered. If you ask her to change now, she won’t have a suitable dress to wear. Think about it, if it were your own sister, would you have the heart to let her not have a proper dress to wear?” I thought it made sense, so I didn’t say anything more. Now that I think about it, I was really stupid. My sister tried on more than a dozen dresses for my wedding, asking me each time: “Sis, is this dress too eye-catching? Does it match your wedding gown?” My real sister would always consider my feelings. Not expect me to always consider her feelings.
Jack still took the next flight, rushing back without stopping. Before leaving, he promised me that once he saw Emma was fine, he would come back to continue our honeymoon. I treated it as nonsense. I stayed in Miami because I like this city. I’m usually very busy with work, so I wanted to stay and play for a few more days now that I had the chance. Not to wait for this ridiculous honeymoon. When Katie heard that Jack had left me to go back and accompany Emma, her jaw nearly hit the floor: “Does he have any shame left?” I shrugged. “Does he know what he’s doing? Emma is clearly doing this on purpose. All she knows is how to cling to him and act coy. In a few days, she’ll probably be living with you two!” “You had so many great guys interested in you, why did you choose Jack? What were you thinking?” Seeing my expression, she wisely shut her mouth. Jack and I met through a friend’s introduction. At that time, I had just gone through a breakup and was single. Jack was very considerate and humorous. We got together quickly, and then naturally got engaged and married, all within less than a year. “At least she’ll be going back to school soon. Once she’s abroad, she shouldn’t be able to cause much trouble,” I said tiredly. “Are you deluding yourself, Lily? When she goes to school, does that mean she’ll never come back? And have you forgotten? She’s failed so many courses, she’s about to be expelled. She’s using your money to live it up and still causing you trouble. Can you really tolerate this?” Katie said irritably. “Maybe in a few years, she’ll have her own boyfriend and won’t be so clingy with Jack anymore,” I comforted myself. Katie opened Instagram and showed me a post. It was Jack and Emma, both wearing Mickey Mouse ears, posing together at Disneyland. Emma made a sweet heart sign at the camera. “To the best brother in the world.” The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. All my self-comforting words had just slapped me in the face. I couldn’t even find words to save face in front of Katie. Although I wasn’t intentionally waiting here for Jack to come back and continue our honeymoon, he had said he would come back to find me. Now, without a word, he had taken Emma, who was “hospitalized with asthma,” to Disneyland? Katie, seeing my expression, knew I was really angry this time: “We all advised you not to get the marriage certificate so quickly. You see, we weren’t wrong. Now you need to think carefully about whether you want to spend the rest of your life with someone who doesn’t put you first.” I opened my own phone and, sure enough, I couldn’t see this Disneyland post. It seems they didn’t handle it well, but rather agreed to hide their Instagram posts from me. “Lily, if you’re just trying to avoid Ryan, you really need to reconsider,” Katie said. The name “Ryan” made me shudder. “Don’t mention him,” I said. “Jack might not be a good person, but that doesn’t mean I have to choose Ryan. Can’t I just live my own life?” I sent Jack a message: “It’s over. Let’s go our separate ways. We don’t need to get the marriage certificate. We’re done.” After sending this message, my mind suddenly cleared. I wanted to settle down quickly and thought Jack was reliable, so I didn’t care about money issues. After all, my family is wealthy, we have multiple properties, and I can earn money myself. So, I paid for the marital home, the wedding, and all the big and small matters in his family. That’s why when we were buying rings, he so naturally asked me to pay. He was used to me being a cash cow for everything. I thought, we’re family now, no need to be so calculative. Now I see, how dare they keep asking me for money time and time again? So, I added another message: “I’ll send you an itemized bill. Once you’ve paid it back, we’re even.”
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “296309”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #现实主义Realistic #重生Reborn
Leave a Reply