My Family Chose My Sister Over My Love And I Disappeared

Thanksgiving afternoon. For the fifth year in a row, I stayed behind at Nana's old house instead of joining the family, because Nana had another one of her episodes. I had just finished changing her diaper pad when I turned around and caught the supposedly severely demented old woman speaking clearly into her phone, sharp as if she were a different person entirely. "Diana, you and Richard just go enjoy Sienna and Ethan's wedding. Don't worry about a thing." "That silly girl is dumb as a rock. I've been faking it this long, and she hasn't caught on once." Diana is my mother. Sienna and Ethan. One is my little sister. The other is the boyfriend I've been long-distance with for five years. I waited until Nana was asleep, then took her phone. There was a seven-person family group chat that I wasn't in, and right now it was buzzing like Christmas Eve. Diana: 【Our two kids are finally getting married. Mom's so happy for you both.】 Richard: 【Dad booked the best available date at the church. Wishing you a lifetime together.】 Right after, my brother Julian Carter sent a Venmo transfer to the chat. $20,000. My best friend Madison Hale posted a photo of the preserved flower bouquet she'd made by hand. Ethan Vance, who had been whispering sweet nothings to me over the phone the night before, was now in that chat, making vows to another woman. Ethan: 【Thanks for all the well-wishes, everyone. I promise I'll love Sienna well.】 In that moment, I felt sorrier for myself than I ever had in my life. The year my parents divorced, Dad took Julian, the brother who topped every class at school. Mom took Sienna, the pretty one who always knew what to say and how to charm a room. I was the one they left behind, with a grandmother who could barely walk. Mom's phone wallpaper was a family photo with me cropped out. When Dad set up the Verizon family plan with five lines, he'd rather give the last slot to a neighbor than to me. For years I told myself it was because I wasn't good enough. So I ground through grad school, threw myself into work, and made sure Nana was taken care of down to the last detail. But looking at that group chat, I finally understood. It was never that I wasn't good enough. They had simply never loved me. ...... I called an Uber from the driveway and headed straight for New York. By the time I got to the hotel, the rehearsal was still underway. I picked an empty seat in the back corner and slipped into it without a word. On the platform, Sienna was in white. Ethan had his arm around her waist, smiling with a warmth so gentle it looked real. Dad, the man who had never cracked in front of anyone, kept dabbing at the corner of his eye with the back of his hand. Mom stood beside him, quietly crying. Madison was carefully touching up Sienna's lipstick. Julian had a camcorder on his shoulder, capturing every frame. Six people. All of them right where they were supposed to be. Everyone except me. The older woman seated beside me glanced over and gave my shoulder a friendly pat. "Sweetheart, are you a guest of the bride's?" I pulled the corners of my mouth up and nodded. "Distant cousin." She warmed to me instantly and kept going. "You probably don't know this, but those two have been through a lot to get here." "They did long-distance for half a year. The groom flew out every single weekend to see her. He's got a shoebox full of boarding passes." "Then she started really breaking down over it. So he turned down an offer in London. Just like that. That's no small sacrifice." "During Covid a couple of years back, she caught it. He walked straight into a quarantine zone to take care of her. Almost lost his own life doing it." "Last month, for her birthday, he rented out all of Six Flags. The whole park. Isn't that romantic?" "If my daughter married a man like that, I'd sleep easy at night." She kept going. I stopped hearing her. So that was it. Ethan hadn't turned down London because he needed to "think carefully about long-term prospects." He'd turned it down because the person he actually thought about, every day, was in New York. And the part that made my chest go cold. Eight years together. Five of them long-distance. And Ethan had never once come to Boston. He was always too busy. Flights were always too expensive. So I felt sorry for him and flew to New York, over and over. Off a night shift, straight onto a red-eye. First thing I did in his apartment was clear the takeout containers off his floor. He never once remembered my birthday. Last year I reminded him a full week ahead of time, and at 3 a.m. of the day, he still hadn't clocked it. I ended up crying and yelling before he finally sent me a bracelet. The same one he'd given me the year before. During that Covid lockdown, I spent forty-plus days alone in my rental in Boston. My pantry ran out. On his end, the PlayStation was blasting. "There's nothing I can do, babe. Just drink lots of water. Take care of yourself." My chest felt like it was packed with a soaked towel. I got up and made it to the restroom a second before the tears fell. I fixed the mascara I'd smudged, took a breath, and FaceTimed Ethan. It rang for a long time before his stiff face finally appeared on the screen. Behind him, I heard Madison hiss, "Quiet." I pretended not to. "Ethan, I thought you said you were working late. You don't exactly look like you're at the studio." He forced out a tired smile. "Don't even ask. Last-minute wedding shoot came in. I'm dead on my feet." I didn't answer. My eyes fixed on the groom's boutonnière he'd forgotten to take off. He kept talking as he turned the camera toward the ballroom. "See? They just finished setting up. We're not wrapped yet." I didn't call him out. I swallowed the sting climbing up my nose. "Okay. Got it." "Just drop me your location. I'll come spend Thanksgiving with you." He froze for a beat. The smile almost slipped. "No, no, don't. It's chaos here. I wouldn't even be able to look after you." Before he could finish, a familiar face leaned into the frame. It was his childhood friend Blake Morrison, grinning at the camera like nothing was off. "Hey, sis-in-law. Ethan's really slammed right now. I'm here with him. We'll catch up with you later, okay?" Before I could react, the call cut. A second later, Nana's phone buzzed in my pocket. Ethan had dropped a frantic voice message in the family group chat. Ethan: 【We've got a problem. Sloane just said she's coming to find me. Somebody figure out how to stall her.】