The Runaway Sister

As the youngest daughter of the Costellos, I had always lived in my sister’s shadow.

That was until five years ago, when she betrayed the family and ran off with a street thug.

I took her place and completed the wedding with Elio Ross. Over the years, he loved and indulged me, but we never got a marriage license.

He always said family matters kept him busy, and that, with or without it, I was his wife in his and the family’s eyes.

I believed him. Until today…

I watched as Elio walked out of the church with my sister Alyssa, who had been missing for five years, both of them wearing the family rings that symbolized their union.

At the church entrance, three black SUVs opened their doors simultaneously, and my three brothers stepped out in tailored suits.

“The ceremony’s done? We’ve already booked Antonio’s to celebrate Alyssa’s return.”

They climbed into the cars, expressing their joy, while no one noticed my pale, shattered face across the street.

Later that night, under the guise of apology, my sister let a venomous spider bite me. “A substitute is always a substitute. Now that I’m back, it’s time for you to die.”

I screamed for help. However, my husband and my three brothers only rushed to hold my sister, who had pretended she had fallen, without a glance at me, writhing from the poison.

They called in every specialist from the hospital, only to tend to my sister’s scraped knee.

That was the moment my heart truly broke.

After being dragged back from death’s door by the doctors, I made my decision. I picked up the phone and called the International Private Island Exchange.

“That isolated, uninhabited island… I’ll take it.”

After being discharged from the hospital, I returned home to hear laughter pour into my ears the moment I opened the door.

All the prominent members of the family were there, and the air was filled with the scent of expensive perfume.

Elio and my three brothers gathered around Alyssa to celebrate her birthday.

In the center of the crowd, Alyssa was smiling brightly. There was no sign of weakness on her face, nothing that suggested she had needed the combined efforts of every top specialist in the hospital to save her life, let alone any trace of cancer.

When they saw me come back, the tenderness on the four men’s faces disappeared.

The way they looked at me turned cold again, just like it had been five years ago. It was as if the extreme affection I’d received during the time Alyssa was gone had never existed.

Now that Alyssa was back, the dream shattered.

“Didn’t you say you were about to die? Aren’t you perfectly fine?” Marcus, my eldest brother, looked at me coldly, as if he were judging a stranger.

My second brother, Sam, frowned impatiently. “In Alyssa’s final days, couldn’t you at least behave a little better?”

Jonah, my third brother, even scolded me. “Talking about