Chapter 1 betrayal cuts deeper when……
~Haven.
They say betrayal cuts deeper when it comes from your own family.
….
That evening, the evening breeze was colder than usual, as if the day was trying to tell me something… warn me.
I’d just arrived in Los Angeles; my body was still trying to get used to the place.
Everything felt strange… unappealing.
Maybe it’s just the change in weather, I concluded. Or maybe my mind is only messing with me.
It must all feel strange because I don’t want to be here.
Days ago, I’d been shut away by my father after I informed him about the man I’d seen and would love to get married to.
“I’d prefer my daughter to learn and be informed instead. You shouldn’t waste your time as a housewife. You should travel to LA and study instead,”
he said.
His words hurt me more than I thought they would. His refusal to let me marry Walter Blake made me feel small and insignificant, like my choices didn’t matter at all.
Sigh.
For me, rejection isn’t a new thing. One way or the other, everything gets taken away from me, and miraculously it ends up in the hands of my sister, Hannah.
It sits perfectly there, like she owned it.
And every time I tried to speak, Dad would look at me and shake his head. “You know your sister is sick, Haven. It’s the least you can do.”
Hannah’s sickness was a constant reminder, a tool used to keep me in place—obedient and “understanding.” I was expected to be the selfless identical twin, the one who stepped aside.
Father would say, “She’s your sister, Haven. She wanted it too. You should be considerate.”
Slowly, I’d grown to hate Hannah.
Every child would. But now? Hannah and I are on good terms. Everything seems perfect.
She’d promised to help me secure my place in Walter’s heart while I was away, and I held onto that hope like my life depended on it.
Maybe… I shouldn’t have.
It was barely a few minutes after I’d stepped away from the balcony into the kitchen to make dinner for myself.
I slid into an apron after tying my hair into a bun.
While I was at it, my eyes caught my reflection on the kitchen counter. My beautiful, brown-eyed self was staring right back at me.
I was sure. Even though Walter didn’t say anything to me at the supermarket, he must have fallen in love with me.
A smile slipped through my lips as I turned to wash my hands.
My hands were still slippery from the soap when my phone buzzed with a notification. I stopped midway, rushing to wipe my hands with a napkin instead.
“It must be Hannah. Maybe she has some information on Walter.”
With that smile still hanging on my face, I took a pause, nervously. What did Walter say?
I picked up my phone and punched in my passcode.
The smile on my face faded the moment I realized it wasn’t actually a message from Hannah.
It was about a post Dad made.
“Ohhh,” I whispered.
At first, I was about to ignore it. I wasn’t ready to read any of Dad’s long articles about the company and how he holds her in high esteem. But only a few seconds passed, and all the top bloggers reposted it.
It all started to look funny when my name was mentioned under each post.
“Congratulations, Haven Sutherland. I’m sure you must be happy your sister Hannah’s getting married. The thought of her walking down the aisle makes me want to burst. When’s yours? I want to feel the same way with you too. We all do.”
The comment said. And it wasn’t until then that I found the need to read what the post was actually about.
My breath caught.
Married?
Hannah?
How?
I swallowed hard… and finally opened the post.
I read:
“I, Damein Sutherland, announce to the general public that my beloved daughter, Hannah Sutherland, will be getting married in a short while.
It gladdens my heart that one of my daughters, Hannah, has finally found the man she wants to spend the rest of our lives with.
As a father, when Hannah came to me saying she wanted to get married, what I felt wasn’t happiness. It was a kind of joy that brought tears to one’s face.”
It was at that point that I wished I couldn’t read. I wished I was illiterate and didn’t know what those words meant.
I read further, clenching tightly onto my phone.
“Then I asked, who’s the man worthy enough of my beautiful daughter? Then, with a smile on her beautiful face, she revealed Walter Blake.
And so, I announce to you all: Walter Blake and Hannah Sutherland are officially getting married. Congratulations to me, to my beloved daughter, and of course, to Sutherland Group.”
Walter Blake.
Beloved daughter.
Getting married.
It gladdens my heart.
I felt my whole body shiver.
What I felt wasn’t fear. It wasn’t anger. It was something different—something I could not explain.
With tears streaming down my face, the images replayed in my head. Images of when I’d told him about the same man and how much it would help Sutherland Group.
But the disgust on his face was unmatched. He’d refused and sent me here to study instead.
Only to flow with happiness when the same situation happened with Hannah.
Hannah’s promise to “tell Walter Blake about me while I was away.”
I had no idea it meant something else. I’d concluded it meant she would secure my place in his heart. Little did I know it meant her telling Walter Blake about me with his ring resting perfectly on her finger.
“Ahhh,” I gasped.
I wanted to scream, but my voice didn’t let me. I felt silenced. Tossed aside.
I wasn’t sent to LA to study. I was sent here not to cause trouble while Hannah got married to the man of my dreams.
Truly, they say betrayal cuts deeper when it comes from your own family.