Then came the phone call I’d genuinely prayed for, for years. “I’m going to be a mom,” Annie whispered into the phone. “We’re having twins.”
I dropped straight to the floor of my own apartment, laughing and sobbing simultaneously. My entire life, people had confidently insisted Annie would never live anything resembling a normal life. Now she was going to become a mother herself. I should have known, somehow, that joy that enormous could never travel entirely alone.
The pregnancy itself turned genuinely difficult. At thirty-four weeks, Annie was rushed suddenly to the hospital. The doctors’ initial prognosis sounded grim. The waiting room clock ticked steadily past midnight while I stared hard at the double doors they’d wheeled her through, silently willing them to swing open with genuinely good news.
Levi sat beside me the entire time, his knee bouncing nonstop with nervous energy. “She’s going to be okay,” I whispered, more to steady myself than actually to comfort him. “Annie is genuinely strong.”
Levi pressed both palms hard against his own eyes. I heard a sound escape him somewhere between a sob and an actual prayer.
Then a doctor finally pushed through the double doors. Levi lurched straight up onto his feet. The doctor’s own face told me the truth before his mouth ever actually managed the words.
“She’s lost a significant amount of blood. We’ve stabilized both babies, but Annie is crashing. We’re doing genuinely everything we can, but you two need to prepare yourselves.”
The doctor disappeared back through the doors immediately. Levi stood frozen in place, swaying slightly on his feet.
I placed one hand flat against his back. My best friend. My own brother, in every way that genuinely mattered. “Levi, look at me directly. Annie chose you because you make her feel genuinely safe. Give her that exact same strength right now.”
“My promise,” he whispered, barely audible.
Before I could even ask what he actually meant by that, he turned toward me fully. His eyes held something I genuinely couldn’t name yet. “I need to talk to you,” he said. “Away from here, somewhere private.”
He led me down the corridor into a small alcove tucked near the stairwell. “I made Annie a promise,” Levi said. “Right before they took her back for surgery. She told me, ‘If I don’t wake up, you tell my sister everything.'”
“Tell me what, exactly?”
Levi reached slowly inside his jacket. “It’s time for you to finally understand why I really married her.”
I grabbed the wall hard, steadying myself. “Please. Don’t ruin four entire years of watching my sister smile, purely because of something you’re about to tell me.”
“You genuinely think I want to be standing in this hallway telling you any of this, while she’s fighting for her life right through that door?”
Every horrible thought I’d ever pushed carefully away came flooding straight back at once. He’d done it purely for money. He’d married her because I was the one he genuinely couldn’t have, and Annie was simply the closest he could actually get to me.
Levi pulled a folded piece of paper free and held it out toward me. “I made a promise, and I intend to keep it fully. Just — it’s considerably worse than you’re currently imagining,” he said quietly. “You’d genuinely better sit down first.”
I took the paper with badly shaking fingers. The very first thing I noticed was the letterhead printed across the top. It came from my own father’s law firm. The next thing I noticed was an attached payment schedule. A genuine six-figure sum. Money to be paid directly to Levi, specifically for marrying Annie. My parents’ signatures sat there. Levi’s own signature sat right beside them.
The scream tore straight out of me before I could stop it. I genuinely believed I understood exactly what I was looking at. I would soon discover there was considerably more to the whole story.
“You sold yourself to marry my own sister?”
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“I know exactly what it looks like right now, but let me actually explain—”
“Explain what, Levi?” My own voice cracked hard against the surrounding walls. “That you took actual money from my parents to marry Annie? She’s fighting for her life in that room right now! And you stood beside her at the altar carrying a check in your own pocket?”
Chapter 3 – The Place Called Willow GroveLevi slid slowly down the wall until he sat on the floor. Then he said something that genuinely stole the breath straight out of my lungs. He was crying openly now. “I never actually cashed a single one,” he whispered. “Every check they ever sent went straight into an account opened under Annie’s own name instead. Every single dollar. She’ll have all of it, whenever she genuinely needs it. Every penny belongs entirely to her.”
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