Chapter 2

Hearing her sobbing and twisting the story to Dax only made me angrier. I opened the family group text and explained everything that had just happened.

The group was just the four of us—Dax, me, and our parents. Dax had originally added Verity, but she had left the chat for some reason.

As soon as I sent the message, my mom responded. She wasn’t taking Verity’s side just because she was pregnant.

[Verity was wrong in this situation. I’ll talk to Dax and tell her to tone down her attitude.]

My dad chimed in:

[If Isla doesn’t want to get married, no one can force her. We can support her for life if need be. It’s no one else’s business.]

[Dax, take control of your wife. Just because she’s pregnant doesn’t mean she can cause problems.]

It was mostly my parents talking in the chat. Dax didn’t respond.

That afternoon, Dax came home from work, silent and looking exhausted. I could tell he had seen the group messages and wasn’t taking it well.

We had always been close growing up, barely ever fighting. This was the first real tension between us.

He quietly poured a bowl of soup and took it to Verity in the bedroom.

I’ll admit, maybe I was a bit too harsh this morning.

Feeling bad for Dax, I poured him a cup of tea, thinking maybe I should apologize to Verity.

Not because I was backing down, but because I didn’t want to make things harder for Dax.

After a long silence, Dax finally looked up at me, his eyes full of frustration. "Sis, do you hate Verity?"

I froze, completely taken aback.

He continued, "I know this is your house. If you don’t want us here, just say so. You didn’t need to treat Verity like that. She’s pregnant. Wasn’t kicking her out a bit much?"

I couldn’t believe it. Dax didn’t even ask why I kicked her out. He just took her word for it and blamed me.

I let out a bitter laugh.

"Do you even know the things she says about me behind your back? And you're taking her side without knowing the full story?"

Dax’s voice grew louder, more upset.

"She’s pregnant, Isla! Why can’t you just be the bigger person? If something goes wrong because of her stress, can you take responsibility? Her family’s not as well off as ours, but that doesn’t give you the right to look down on her. She’s someone’s daughter too, and she shouldn’t have to put up with this."

He sighed, trying to calm down, then added, "Maybe you should move back in with Mom and Dad for a while. After Verity has the baby, we’ll leave."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was my brother—polite, mature, and understanding since we were kids—and now he was saying these things?

When had I ever looked down on Verity or judged her for her family?

Verity was the one calling me an old maid, trying to claim the house my parents bought for me, and accusing me of mooching. I wasn’t going to let her trample all over my boundaries just because she was pregnant. She was the one at fault here.

As I looked at the table full of food I had prepared, I felt an unexpected wave of sadness.