Chapter 4

I didn't go to the hotel we had booked.

Instead, I sat in the airport lounge and booked the earliest flight back home.

My phone vibrated. It was my dad.

"Clara, did you meet up with Julian?"

I choked back a sob. "I'm calling off the wedding."

My dad asked cautiously, "Did you two have a fight?"

I wiped my nose. "He's cheating on me. With Vivian."

The line went dead silent for so long I thought the call had dropped.

"Clara, don't take it too hard,"

When my dad's voice returned, he sounded almost... relieved.

"You can't force these things."

"You know how Vivian is. She’s had a hard life since she was a kid, and she's always had a strong personality."

"If they fell for each other, it just means they were meant to be."

I froze. My fingers tightened around the phone.

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

I shook with rage, my voice turning sharp. "Meant to be? Vivian seduced my fiancé! That's called being a shameless home-wrecker!"

My dad's tone turned accusatory, as if I were the one in the wrong.

"Clara, don't be so selfish. Since they love each other, why can't you just bless them and step aside?"

My temples throbbed violently.

I couldn't believe these words were coming from the father who had spoiled me my entire life.

"She stole my fiancé, and I'm the selfish one for not giving him to her?"

"Dad! I'm your biological daughter! Vivian is just an outsider we adopted!"

My dad sighed, his voice dripping with forced helplessness.

"Silly girl. How could Vivian be an outsider?"

"She's your older half-sister."

The noisy chatter of the airport seemed to fade into absolute silence.

But my dad kept twisting the knife.

"Vivian’s mother was my first love. After we broke up, she kept the pregnancy a secret and raised Vivian alone."

"The year you 'accidentally' got lost at seven years old? I planned that. I needed you to find Vivian and beg your mother to adopt her."

"She suffered so much in her childhood. Just let her have this one."

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

So that was it.

No wonder Vivian was my dad's favorite the moment she stepped into our house.

No wonder every time we argued, I was always the one who got scolded.

No wonder after my mom passed away, my dad treated Vivian like she was his entire world.

"Clara? Are you listening? Just let this go. Don't make a scene and make our family look bad."

I swallowed the metallic taste of blood in my mouth before finding my voice.

"You and Vivian... you really are father and daughter."

"One is a cheating bastard, and the other is a husband-stealing whore!"

I slammed the phone down and canceled my flight home.

While waiting for an Uber, my phone chimed with an Instagram notification.

Vivian had just posted.

It was a photo of a man cutting a steak for her.

The caption read:

[It feels so good to finally love each other out in the open.]

The likes below the photo included my dad, Julian,

and all of our mutual friends from our social circle.

They were all leaving comments, wishing the "happy couple" the best.

So, everyone knew about their affair.

Only I, the stupid fool, had been celebrating my "perfect" life of friendship and love.

I turned off my phone, completely unable to sleep.

The moment I closed my eyes, memories of Julian’s "love" filled my head.

Last month, when I had a fever, he ran out in the pouring rain at midnight to buy me stomach medicine.

He had come back soaked to the skin, but the medicine was kept dry in his jacket.

But as I replayed the scene in my mind,

I remembered the bag didn't just have stomach medicine. It was mostly filled with Ibuprofen for menstrual cramps.

Vivian had laughed when she saw it.

"Clara, Julian is so sweet. He bought every medicine you could possibly need."

Back then, my heart had melted, and I had handed the Ibuprofen to her.

"Here, you can use these too!"

Vivian had taken them and fallen silent.

I thought she was just jealous of my attentive boyfriend,

so I told her that when she found a boyfriend, he would treat her like a princess too.

Vivian had just stroked my hair with a bitter smile.

"Clara, even if I love someone, we can never be together in this lifetime."

I asked her why.

She just clutched the box of Ibuprofen and refused to answer.

I didn't get it then. I just thought she was being dramatic.

But now I understood. The man Vivian loved was Julian.

And the "casual hookups" she always talked about had only ever been one person.