Better Off Without Them

Ever since I was little, I fought tooth and nail to be the best. I had to have the very top spot in everything. Because of that, my father never liked me. He hated that I refused to just hand my things over to my stepsister. Yet after seven brutal rounds of interviews, when I finally landed the company's only overseas transfer, I froze. My boyfriend was in the middle of launching his startup and needed my support. Just as my cursor hovered over the decline button, bold red text flashed across my screen. [Don't be an idiot. Your boyfriend's already sleeping with your stepsister.] [To protect her, he's going to tell everyone you were the mistress.] [Your mom will end up dying of a heart attack in the psych ward because of the vicious rumors.] [You'll be locked away, stripped of everything you own. Five years from now, pregnant and with nowhere left to turn, you'll jump off the suspension bridge.] Every single word pierced straight through my heart like a dagger. The fog in my mind cleared in an instant. Since when did I, someone who fought so hard for everything she had, ever give up her dreams for a man? My stepsister was the daughter my father's college sweetheart brought back from abroad. Back then, he abandoned me and my mother without a second thought just to be with them. My mom suffered a complete mental breakdown and wasted away to skin and bones. I despised my father, and I despised that mother and daughter just as much. That was why I drove myself to become untouchable. I never dreamed the man I chose for myself would stab me in the back. I clicked on our pinned chat. Ethan had sent a message just two minutes ago. [Babe, still stuck in meetings. Going to be super late tonight.] This was the same guy who checked in with me over every little detail, who always answered my calls within three rings. How could he possibly... Before I could process it, the screen refreshed: [Don't believe it? Go see where he is right now.] Heart racing, I opened Instagram and checked my stepsister Daisy's profile. Her latest post was a selfie uploaded a minute ago, geotagged at a luxury rooftop restaurant downtown. Without a second thought, I grabbed my coat and bolted out the door. A cab dropped me off at the entrance. I moved to walk in, but security blocked my path. "Private event tonight, miss. Invitation only." While I was arguing with the guard, a voice—familiar yet distant—spoke up behind me. "Let her through. She's Daisy's sister." I turned my head. It was my father, whom I hadn't seen in years. He frowned at me, his tone dripping with heavy disappointment. "Ten years, and you've finally come to your senses. Guess life knocked that stubborn pride out of you." "It's your sister's engagement party tonight. As her older sister, you should at least offer your congratulations." Engagement party? I shoved past the guard and sprinted straight into the grand ballroom. Everywhere I looked, there were purple roses. The air smelled of delicate floral perfume. Handwritten love letters, custom gift boxes, and cards covered in romantic declarations were scattered across every table. A familiar melody softly began to play over the speakers. It was a little tune I had casually hummed on the beach years ago. Ethan had secretly recorded it back then. He told me that when we got married, that melody would play as I walked down the aisle. We had kept our relationship completely secret for seven whole years. Time after time, I had playfully begged him to tell people about us. He would always ruffle my hair with a warm smile and say, "Just wait a little longer. Once my company takes off, I'll give you the grandest wedding in the world." I was stupid enough to wait. And what I waited for was his engagement party to someone else. Under the spotlight, his eyes soft with adoration, Ethan gazed at Daisy and poured his heart out. "Happy birthday, my radiant little princess." "A year ago, on March nineteenth, we went surfing down south and got completely wiped out by the waves, laughing so hard our stomachs hurt." On that exact day, I had pulled an all-nighter alone at the office. After revising a project pitch more times than I could count, I finally earned my promotion to department manager. I excitedly texted him, saying my year-end bonus was doubling and I could save more for our future home. He simply texted back that he was swamped meeting potential investors and couldn't talk. "On December sixteenth, we went skiing in the mountains, took a nasty tumble into a deep snowdrift, and even though my whole body ached, I felt like the happiest man alive." In reality, on that exact day, my blood sugar plummeted and I passed out on the subway platform. A kind stranger helped me to the hospital. I sat there all alone, getting registered and hooked up to an IV drip. I didn't say a single word to him, terrified of burdening him while he worked. Turns out, he wasn't on a business trip at all. "So on August third, I proposed to you at the garden terrace." August third. My birthday. He had spent my birthday planning an extravagant surprise for another woman. My heart felt like it was being carved open piece by piece. Even drawing a breath brought a dull, sickening agony. Why of all people did it have to be Daisy? When I was fifteen, my father's long-lost flame, Claire, returned from abroad. After a single meeting, my father was dead set on walking out on my mother and me. Vases were smashed, mirrors were shattered, and cruel, venomous words were thrown like knives... Our happy little family was completely obliterated. My mother could never understand it. How could the man who brought her fresh flowers every day and swore to love her for eternity turn into a stranger overnight? Back then, she had defied her entire family to marry him when he didn't have a single dime to his name. How did she end up with such a humiliating betrayal? The unrelenting torment completely broke her sanity. During their most violent fight, she suddenly lunged forward and locked her hands around my throat. Her eyes bloodshot, glaring at my father, she shrieked like a maniac, "If you dare sign those papers, I'll choke your daughter to death!" My father didn't flinch. He tossed the divorce decree onto the table and walked out without looking back once. The instant the front door slammed shut, the suffocating grip on my neck vanished. My mother slumped weakly against the door, sliding down onto the icy floor, weeping uncontrollably. Completely broken, she cried and apologized to me over and over again. "Hannah, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I'm a terrible mother." I always thought I would never experience that brand of absolute despair again. Yet right before my eyes, soft romantic lighting bathed the two people embracing on stage. Daisy raised her delicate hand, tenderly cupping Ethan's cheek. She tilted her head slightly, her soft lips grazing the corner of his mouth. Watching this play out, I suddenly burst into dry, hollow laughter. "Then what was I to you?" Every guest in the room turned to stare directly at me. I stood frozen in the aisle, trembling from head to toe, my voice catching in my throat as I asked, "Was I your girlfriend of seven years, or just a stepping stone for you to climb to the top?"Ethan looked up, and sheer shock flashed across his face. His lips parted, as if wanting to ask how on earth I got in. Before he could utter a sound, my best friend, Chloe, stepped in front of Daisy. She pointed a finger right at my face and shrieked, "Hannah Vance! Have you lost your damn mind?" "Crashing an engagement party to make a scene? Have you no shame, you pathetic home-wrecker?!" When she went through a brutal breakup, she had begged me in tears to let her crash at my place. Terrified she would hurt herself, I stayed by her side day and night, bought her meals, and cursed out her toxic ex with her. And now, to suck up to Daisy, she was pointing at my nose and calling me a home-wrecker. Tyler, the underprivileged student I had funded through college for five years, stepped forward too, frowning in disapproval. "Hannah, just let the past stay in the past," he pleaded. "Don't ruin your own reputation over a petty grudge." Staring at the tall, clean-cut young man, a heavy weight crushed my chest. Years ago, he was scrawny as a twig, from a broken home, unable to scrape together even half his tuition. I paid out of pocket to put him through his senior year of high school and all four years of college. I stayed up late polishing his resume and called in personal favors just to land him an internship at a Fortune 500 firm. Now, he wore an expression of self-righteous concern, urging me to forgive the very people who destroyed my family. Smack! A stinging slap landed hard across my cheek. My father glared down at me with pure disgust. "Why are you still so impossible? You just have to ruin Daisy's big day, don't you?!" A burning pain flared across half my face, and my ears rang. The physical sting was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my chest. I was the one who was betrayed and discarded. Why was every single person standing on their side? The year my parents divorced, I moved back to our hometown with my mother and transferred to a new high school. Withdrawn and overly sensitive, I was the weird loner everyone avoided. Only Ethan ever went out of his way to talk to me. He chatted about gossip, the miserable weather, and endless piles of homework. Raised by a single grandmother, he was remarkably perceptive. He always noticed the exact second my mood plummeted and would do goofy things just to make me smile. He told me he despised cheaters more than anything because an affair tore his own family apart. He told me we weren't at fault, and that I shouldn't punish myself for other people's sins. Once, after school, a group of neighborhood punks cornered me in an alley. They taunted me about my mother being locked in a psych ward, calling me worthless trash. Ethan threw himself into the fight without hesitation, shoving me behind his back. Even when a brick cracked against his temple, soaking him in blood, he didn't take a single step backward. The scar from that day was still etched into his hairline. For countless nights, I would wake up gasping from the same recurring nightmare. In the dream, my parents squeezed my throat with red eyes, screaming that they were taking me to hell with them. I would wake up suffocating, terror and anguish flooding through my veins. No matter how late it was, Ethan would hold me and whisper softly that everything was going to be okay. Cradling my burning cheek, I slowly looked up at Ethan. He had once been my entire sense of security in this world. Could things ever be okay again? How was I supposed to survive this? Ethan's brow furrowed tightly, but his eyes darted away, refusing to meet mine. "I know your childhood was rough and you have attachment issues," he said coldly. "Just stop clinging to me." "Daisy has always been the only one in my heart." Three breezy sentences. Just like that, I was painted as an unhinged, insecure psycho obsessed with chasing him. He weaponized my deepest, most agonizing trauma to validate his picture-perfect romance with Daisy. My father immediately stepped forward, announcing loudly to the entire room: "As of today, Ethan, as Daisy's fiancé, will officially step up as the successor to Vance Enterprises." "Starting tomorrow, he will take charge of our healthcare division." The moment the words left his mouth, four security guards grabbed me. Their grip was brutal, dragging me backward toward the exit. My elbows and knees slammed hard against the sharp marble pillars, tearing skin and drawing blood. Cruel whispers buzzed all around me like a swarm of wasps. "Causing a scene at an engagement just to steal someone else's man? Desperate." "She looked so quiet, too. Turns out she's totally unhinged. How humiliating." I don't even remember how I limped through the freezing rain to get back to our apartment. Ethan and I had spent six months picking out this place together as our future home. Our photo from the hot air balloon trip was still hanging on the wall. My architectural sketches were still piled neatly on the desk. The fridge was still covered in sticky notes he had written to me by hand... Every corner held proof that we had loved each other. Now, every trace of that tenderness felt like a thousand needles stabbing straight into my heart. All I wanted was to shove everything into a suitcase and run away as fast as I could. Suddenly, the lock clicked, and the front door swung open."Knew you'd be hiding here. Absolutely shameless." Chloe crossed her arms, looking me up and down with a sneer of pure contempt. "Feelings change, Hannah. What's the point of embarrassing yourself like this?" "Besides, Daisy is the heiress of Vance Enterprises. She beats you in wealth, looks, and status. Give it up." Tyler leaned against the entryway wall, cutting his eyes at me with an irritated scowl. "They're having their private engagement afterparty here in an hour." "If you don't pack your crap and get out, don't blame us when we call security to throw you out on the street." The way they looked at me made me feel like an ugly, pathetic circus act. Amid the chaos, Ethan secretly caught my wrist, his voice dropped to a hurried whisper. "Just calm down. I'll explain everything later." "Her family is my biggest investor..." Seeing him calculate his odds, trying to have it both ways, shattered whatever microscopic sliver of hope I had left. With burning eyes, I screamed with everything in my lungs: "Do you even know who she is?!" "Her mother is the reason my home was destroyed and my mother went insane!" "How... how could you do this to me?!" Ethan froze, stunned disbelief washing over his features. The next second, the elevator dinged, and Daisy stepped inside. The pearl necklace draped over her collarbone instantly caught my eye. That was my mother's heirloom necklace from her wedding day, given to me as my eighteenth birthday gift. Daisy linked her arm casually around Ethan's, her voice sweet and innocent. "I found it sitting in Ethan's dresser drawer. I thought it was pretty, so I just put it on." "Big sister, you're not going to be petty over a little piece of jewelry, are you?" It was a blatant, calculated humiliation. I snapped. I lunged forward and ripped the pearl necklace off her throat with all my strength. The string snapped, and pearls scattered across the floor, bouncing and rolling into every dark corner. Just like the devotion I had poured into him over the years—smashed to pieces, never to be gathered again. Daisy stood there frozen, her eyes wide with shock. She clearly never expected me to react with such vicious finality. Right then, my phone screen lit up. A notification confirmed that my overseas transfer was officially processed. I had locked it in during the very last minute of the deadline window. The day before my flight, I went to the psychiatric facility to see my mother. When I pushed the room door open, I found Daisy holding my mother's frail, bony hand, smiling sweetly. "Auntie, you're family to me too. I'll make sure to visit you often." The moment she turned and saw me, a smug, triumphant smirk flashed across her face. "I thought you were too busy throwing a temper tantrum to visit your own mother." I locked eyes with her, my nails digging deep into my palms. "Do you have any shame at all?" Daisy stood up languidly, leaning close to my ear to whisper mockingly, "What good is shame?" "Ever since I found out Ethan was your boyfriend, I decided he had to be mine." "After all, the guy you guarded like a treasure for seven years dropped everything the second I crooked my finger. It's hilarious." Shaking with rage, I raised my hand to slap the smug look off her face. Before my palm could even graze her skin, her knees buckled and she tumbled backward onto the floor. She curled up, clutching her face, tears streaming down like a helpless victim. "Hannah, I just came to check on your mom... why would you hit me?!" In the blink of an eye, a crushing grip clamped onto my wrist. Ethan shoved me aside with raw force. I lost my balance and slammed hard onto my knees. A sharp, searing pain shot up through my joints. He dropped down beside Daisy, gathering her protectively into his arms, brushing her cheek with frantic tenderness. When he looked up at me, his eyes burned with pure revulsion and fury. "Hannah Vance, you're a lunatic! Insanity really does run in your family!" "Daisy is carrying my child!" "If anything happens to her or the baby, I will destroy you!" He scooped Daisy into his arms and stormed out of the ward without looking back. Watching the scene unfold from the hospital bed, my mother suffered a catastrophic breakdown. "Mistress! I hate mistresses!" "You ruined someone's family! You filthy whore!" She lunged out of bed, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt, screaming and thrashing. She was so frantic that even two orderlies could barely hold her down. Her eyes were completely unfocused as she flailed wildly, her slaps raining down on my face, stinging and sharp. "Sedatives! She needs a sedative right now or she'll hurt herself!" The doctor rushed in, yelling that they had to administer an emergency shot immediately. However, that specific clinical sedative was strictly controlled, and only hospitals affiliated with Vance Healthcare had the clearance to release an emergency dispatch.Backed into a corner, I dialed Ethan's number over and over. Once, twice, a dozen times... Every single dial tone felt like a slow blade slicing across my skin. Finally, he picked up. His voice was thick with impatient irritation. "Make it quick. I'm waiting on Daisy's prenatal ultrasound." My voice shook so hard I could barely form words as I sobbed into the receiver, "Ethan, please, I'm begging you... authorize an emergency sedative for the psych ward. My mom is crashing." "Please. I was wrong, okay? I'm sorry... just please..." He let out a cold, mocking scoff. "Using your mother for sympathy points again? How many times are you going to pull this stunt?" "She was perfectly fine five minutes ago. Isn't this act getting a little old?" Over the line, Daisy's smug, sing-song voice chimed in: "If she really knows she was wrong, tell her to get on her knees and apologize." I gritted my teeth until they felt like cracking, my pride screaming at me not to bend. Behind me, my mother's shrieks grew louder and more frantic. A nurse burst out of the room, her face pale as a ghost. "We're losing control! If we don't get that sedative, she's going to kill herself!" On one side was my shattered pride; on the other was my only family in this world. My knees began to buckle against my will. Daisy's mocking chuckle drifted through the phone again. "Weren't you acting so tough a minute ago?" "Just kneeling isn't enough. Bow your head to the floor, or it doesn't count." Ethan's voice came through, casual yet lethal: "Otherwise, Daisy won't let this go." I closed my eyes in defeat, lowering my body, my knees inches from the cold floor... Thud! A heavy, sickening crash echoed from behind me. My mother had broken free of the orderlies and tumbled off the high hospital bed. The back of her head slammed violently against the sharp metal edge of the nightstand, and a dark pool of crimson bloomed instantly across the white tiles. The medical team swarmed the room, frantically lifting her onto an emergency stretcher. Drifting into unconsciousness, my mother began to mumble brokenly. "I'm sorry... Mommy went crazy again..." "It's all my fault... I'm so useless..." Before the ambulance could even reach the trauma center, the cardiac monitor flatlined with a long, piercing tone. Her faint heartbeat stopped entirely. The very last thread tethering me to this world was cleanly severed. At the funeral home, my mother's longtime friend, Mrs. Parker, handed me a sealed envelope. She placed a gentle, trembling hand on my shoulder, her voice hoarse with grief. "Your mother gave me this letter a long time ago." "Her mind came and went, but on her clearest day, she made me swear I would give this to you." "She said you should only open it when you've hit absolute rock bottom and have nowhere left to go." "Sweetheart... take it, and live a good life." With trembling hands, I took the thin envelope, though it felt heavy enough to crush me. The airport terminal was packed with travelers, but none of the noise reached me. With two minutes left until final boarding, I stared at the text thread filled with my desperate, unanswered pleas. I typed out the message I had drafted hours ago and hit send: [Ethan, we're done. Don't ever look for me again.] Nobody knew that an hour before that text came through, Ethan had just finished lunch with Daisy. Rubbing his throbbing temples, he noted that I hadn't contacted him for a full twenty-four hours. Being that stubborn was bad for her, he thought. Once she cooled off, she would naturally fall back in line. He coldly instructed his assistant, "Send two doses of the sedative over to the psychiatric ward. Make sure they use them." Immediately after, he sat through a grueling three-hour international video conference. The moment the meeting ended and he picked up his phone, he saw a string of frantic missed calls from his assistant. He dialed back, exhaustion weighing down his voice. The assistant picked up on the very first ring, his tone panicked to the point of tears. "Mr. Miller, something terrible has happened!" "The clinic reported that the patient passed away yesterday! And..." Ethan's stomach dropped violently. "And what?! Spit it out!" The assistant broke down, voice cracking: "The flight Ms. Vance was on... an emergency alert just went out. The plane went down!"