Part 3Married to My Parents Killer

For a split second, a flicker of hesitation crossed her face.

But before I could even process it, her voice, steady and firm, cut through the air.

“Yes.”

Looking into her unwavering eyes, I finally gave up the fight. I closed my own and gave a heavy, final nod.

The moment I agreed, Annelise was a whirlwind of efficiency, arranging the procedure with the hospital staff. The Prescott family clinic was nothing if not effective. An hour later, she was being wheeled into an operating room.

She was back in a private recovery room in less than thirty minutes.

My gaze fell to her flat stomach. My throat burned. Yesterday, there was a life in there. Now, there was nothing.

She noticed where I was looking. “Ethan, don’t be sad,” she said, her voice soft and consoling. “We’re still young. We’ll have another baby.”

My heart seized in my chest.

Will we?

Annelise, will we really?

Before I could speak, a cheerful voice cut in from the doorway.

“Hey, don’t look so down, Ethan! The baby’s gone, but you still have Annelise.”

It was Nate.

“Look at how much she cares about you,” he continued, strolling into the room. “Fresh out of surgery, and her first thought is to comfort you. What a wife.” He feigned a wince, rubbing his temple. “You know, I’ve been having these headaches lately. I think I’ll check in for a couple of days, get a full workup. We can keep each other company.”

I looked up at him, not missing the triumphant glint in his eyes.

I barely knew Nate. I knew he and the Prescott sisters had grown up together, the classic childhood friends. They’d lost touch when he went to college overseas while they stayed in the States.

I met Stella in college. It was immediate for me. I fell for her the first day I saw her and spent the next year trying to win her over. I knew from the start she had an ex, someone she’d broken up with because of the distance. But once we were together, Stella swore to me that Nate and his entire family were gone for good. That there was no chance they’d ever get back together. I believed her.

Our relationship grew serious. She introduced me to her family and friends, including her older, more reserved sister, Annelise.

And then came our wedding day. Stella got the call that Nate was back in the country, and she dropped me, dropped everything, to marry him instead. In that moment, I understood that in our four years together, she had never, for a single second, forgotten him.

What I didn’t know was that Nate wasn’t just Stella’s long-lost love.

In all the years Stella was waiting for Nate…

Annelise had been waiting for him, too.

I looked at him, standing there gloating, and my voice came out colder than I’d ever heard it.

“You should call me brother-in-law.”