My Fiancé Loved My Sister

The fortune teller said I'd entered a great fortune cycle of fire, and that in this doubled-fire year, marrying now would bring the most luck of all.

My boyfriend, Clay Gilbert, heir to one of New York's elite families, was famous for spoiling the woman he loved.

The moment he heard the fortune teller's words, the urge to marry me took him over like a fever, like a man possessed.

On the day he proposed for the ninety-ninth time, the night sky burst open with fireworks.

Clay dropped to one knee, took my hand, and solemnly slid the ring onto my finger.

"My sweet girl, you've got a stubborn heart. You're always afraid I won't hold steady. But listen to me. No one in this world can take you from me, and no one can push me away."

"I love you. Marry me."

The castle was thirty meters high, built entirely of roses, made by his own hands over months.

Across the top it read: Odette Simmons, I love you.

I nodded, shy, and around us my friends were moved to tears.

Even my sister, the fake heiress Maud Henson, was crying with what looked like envy.

"Sis, if I hadn't helped you scheme back then, if I hadn't even picked out which dress you should wear on your dates, do you think Clay would have ever looked twice at you?"

"Seeing you this happy makes me want to fall in love too."

I was too caught up in my own joy to hear the second meaning buried in her words.

Not until just past midnight, when a strange call came through.

The caller ID showed, unmistakably, "me" — five years from now.

I picked up, brimming with happiness, and asked, "In the years ahead, are Clay and I really happy? How many kids do we have by now? If he ever dares raise his voice at our babies, you beat him up good for me!"

But on the other end, there was only a choked, long-suppressed weeping.

"Kids? I got pregnant nine times. Lost all nine. Not one of them lived."

"That fire fortune, that lucky cycle — it's all garbage."

"That fire didn't burn away anything but lies and calculation. It burned away the illusion and laid bare every filthy thing inside this marriage."

"If I could do it over, I'd die before I ever married Clay Gilbert."

……

In that instant, the smile froze solid on my face.

"Did Clay change his heart? Did he fall for someone else?"

The "me" on the other end let out a bleak, broken laugh that made my heart tremble.

"The lock screen on Clay's phone — it's that precious sister of yours. Maud Henson."

A ringing filled my head. My mind went blank, my breath coming fast and shallow.

Before I could ask anything more, a fierce argument erupted through the phone.

"Odette Simmons, you're truly ruthless! Maud is your own sister, and you pushed her down the stairs and broke her leg!"

That was Clay, five years from now, his voice cold to the bone, not a shred of love left in it for me.

"I'm tired. Let's get divorced. Stop tormenting me."

"Clay, I can't live like this anymore. If you'll just agree, I'll kowtow to you. You wanted me to apologize to Maud, right? I'll go do it right now!"

The me in the phone had been ground down into the dirt.

I stood frozen where I was, cold all over.

Was this really my future?

Why would Clay protect Maud?

And why would I turn into someone that wretched?

While I stood there, lost, the phone spoke again.

It was the "me" from five years on.

This time her voice was pure panic, ragged with a scream.

"Listen to me! Whatever you do, don't go to the bridal fitting! Don't even touch the dress! Stay as far away as you can!"

"Or my today becomes your tomorrow."

The line went dead.

I touched my face without thinking, and found it, somewhere along the way, already soaked with tears.

Clay came out of the bathroom, water sliding down the clean lines of his abs.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind, his lips just brushing the tip of my ear before he felt the tears covering my face.