Chapter 8 - THE MAN I ALMOST MARRIED
Before Andrew, there had been Jason Miller.
We were engaged for four months.
Then an anonymous woman sent me screenshots showing Jason flirting online.
He told the woman he was “basically single.”
He complimented her photos.
He agreed to meet her for drinks.
I canceled the wedding.
For years, I considered discovering the truth before marriage one of the luckiest things that ever happened to me.
Now Kayla stood in my living room holding a notebook and shaking.
“No.”
I already knew.
My body knew before my mind accepted it.
“No, Kayla.”
Her eyes filled.
“The account was mine.”
The room disappeared around me.
“You were the woman?”
“I never met him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“Yes.”
Andrew stood but didn’t touch me.
He knew I needed space.
I stared at my sister.
“You catfished my fiancé?”
“I was trying to see what he would do.”
“Why?”
“Mom didn’t trust him.”
My eyes snapped toward the front door as though Mom might still be there.
“Mom knew?”
Kayla swallowed.
“She suggested it.”
Something inside me went completely still.
“You were what, sixteen?”
“Seventeen.”
“That makes this worse.”
“I thought I was helping you.”
“You lied to me.”
“Jason still responded.”
“I know!”
My voice echoed through the house.
That was the complicated part.
Jason had failed.
He chose to flirt.
He agreed to meet someone.
Our engagement probably did need to end.
But my sister had deliberately created the trap.
Then hidden her role for years.
“You don’t get to manufacture danger and then call yourself my rescuer.”
Kayla started crying harder.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you just tried it again with Andrew.”
She flinched.
I pointed at the notebook.
“What else is in there?”
Her hands shook.
“Names.”
“How many?”
She didn’t answer.
Andrew took a slow breath.
“Kayla.”
“Twenty-three.”
My stomach turned.
Twenty-three men.
Some strangers.
Some people she knew.
Some married.
Some dating.
Some apparently never even knew they were being tested.
“How many relationships did you interfere with?”
“Not all of them failed.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Five.”
I sat down.
Five relationships.
Five couples dragged into my sister’s private courtroom without their consent.
Then she handed me the notebook.
The pages were filled with names, dates, little marks.
PASSED.
FAILED.
SUSPICIOUS.
Andrew’s page contained almost nothing.
Three dates.
Two locations.
One sentence.
Avoids eye contact when uncomfortable. Probably loyal.
I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time.
Then I reached Jason’s page.
At the bottom, beneath the screenshots, was handwriting I recognized.
Not Kayla’s.
Mom’s.
Good. Amanda knows before it’s too late.
I closed the notebook.
Kayla whispered:
“There’s one more page you need to see.”
She flipped toward the back.
A name had been written there nine months earlier.
EVAN CARTER.
Her own boyfriend.
Beside it:
FAILED.
I looked at her.
“If Evan failed, why did you stay with him?”
Kayla’s face became strangely calm.
“Because Evan didn’t fail.”
She turned the page.
“He caught me testing him.”
May you like
And beneath his name, she had written:
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
