Chapter 5 - MY STEPSISTER'S SECOND BETRAYAL
I did not invite Sloane inside.
She stood on Grandma’s porch in a cream sweater, looking like someone who had not slept.
Good.
Neither had I.
“Say it.”
“Can we sit down?”
“No.”
“Wren—”
“You were comfortable enough in my bed. You can be uncomfortable on my porch.”
She flinched.
I felt nothing.
That frightened me less now.
Sloane wrapped her arms around herself.
“Bennett’s firm is weeks from defaulting on its construction loans.”
“I know.”
“He needs Harbor Ridge.”
“I know.”
“His father’s company already owns most of the surrounding parcels.”
“I know.”
Her eyes lifted.
“Then you know why your land matters.”
“Access.”
“Yes.”
“What I don’t know is why you were helping him.”
She started crying.
I didn’t move.
“The affair started five months ago.”
Five months.
Not one bad night.
Not one drunken mistake.
Five months of lunches.
Messages.
Hotels.
My home.
“My question, Sloane.”
“I found out about the development first.”
“How?”
“I was helping Dad organize tax files.”
My stomach tightened.
She had seen correspondence between Bennett and my father.
“Bennett said you would make millions if you signed.”
“And you believed him?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
“I saw messages between him and his father.”
She took out her phone.
Screenshots.
Bennett:
Once the easement closes, Wren won’t have leverage anymore.
Robert Shaw:
Marriage makes this cleaner. Don’t overcomplicate it.
Another:
Keep her happy through closing.
I stopped reading.
Sloane whispered:
“I confronted him.”
“And then slept with him?”
Her face crumpled.
“I was angry.”
“Interesting problem-solving method.”
“He said he loved you but felt trapped.”
“Poor Bennett.”
“He said the wedding had become a transaction.”
“It had. His transaction.”
“I know that now.”
“No, Sloane. You knew enough then.”
She had no answer.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he kissed me.”
There it was.
Not coercion.
Not confusion.
Choice.
“He kissed you, and suddenly protecting me became inconvenient.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care.”
That shocked her.
Maybe it shocked me too.
Sloane had spent our entire childhood being forgiven because she was younger.
Because her mother married my father after mine died.
Because blending families was hard.
Because she was insecure.
Because I was “the strong one.”
I was tired of strength being treated like permission to hurt me.
“You asked Cass what would happen if I canceled.”
Sloane looked down.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Bennett said once you signed Friday, it wouldn’t matter if the wedding happened.”
I went still.
“He didn’t need to marry me?”
“Not legally. Not after the trust certification.”
“So why continue with the wedding?”
Her answer came quietly.
“Public image.”
Of course.
Bennett’s firm needed investors.
A canceled wedding six days before Harbor Ridge financing closed would raise questions.
I laughed.
Seven years reduced to optics.
Then Sloane pressed one hand against her stomach.
A tiny gesture.
Almost nothing.
But I was a nurse.
I noticed.
My eyes dropped.
She froze.
“No.”
“Wren—”
“No.”
Tears appeared immediately.
“How far?”
“Seven weeks.”
I stared at my stepsister.
Seven weeks.
The affair was five months old.
“Is it his?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
For one second, the world became perfectly silent.
Then I looked at her.
“Does Bennett know?”
Sloane shook her head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I found out yesterday morning.”
The morning before I came home.
Before 2:17.
Before the canceled wedding.
Sloane’s voice broke.
“I went to your house to tell him.”
She looked at me.
“And Wren… when I told him I might be pregnant, he said something I can’t forget.”
I waited.
“He said, ‘Not until after the land closes.’”
My stomach turned.
Sloane had thought the affair meant Bennett loved her.
I had thought seven years meant he loved me.
Apparently both of us had been measuring the wrong thing.
Then she whispered:
“And Dad knew Bennett needed the land.”
May you like
That hurt in an entirely different place.
Because according to Sloane, my father had already taken money from Bennett’s company.
