He married her because I was the only one he couldn’t have, and Rosie was the closest thing to me.
Every horrible thought I had ever rejected
Ben took out a piece of paper and handed it to me.
“I made a promise, and I’ll keep it. Only… it’s much worse than you can imagine,” he said. “You’d better sit down.”
I picked up the newspaper with trembling fingers.
The first thing I noticed was the letterhead.
It came from my father’s law firm.
“It’s much worse than you can imagine.”
The next thing I noticed was the payment plan.
A six-digit sum.
Money that Ben would be paid if he married Rosie.
My parents’ signatures…
Ben’s signature.
The scream escaped me before I could suppress it.
I thought I understood perfectly what I was seeing, but I would soon discover that there was much more.
The payment plan.
Did you sell yourself to marry my sister?
“I know what it looks like, but let me explain…”
“Tell me WHAT, Ben?” My voice cracked against the wall. “You took my parents’ money to marry Rosie? She’s fighting for her life in there! And you were standing next to her at the altar with a check in your pocket?”
Ben slid down the wall.
Then he said something that took my breath away.
“What do you want me to explain, Ben?”
She was crying.
“I never cashed a single one,” he whispered. “Every check they sent me went into an account in Rosie’s name. Every penny. She’ll have it when she needs it. Every penny is hers.”
I wanted to believe him.
But something wasn’t right.
“So why sign it? Why put your name on something so disgusting?”
Something wasn’t right.
Ben looked down.
“Because I saw where they planned to send her… To a place called Willow Grove.”
That name meant nothing to me.
But the way he said it made my legs tremble.
I collapsed onto the tiles in front of him because my legs could no longer support me.
“Your mother showed me the leaflet. She said that they were adults now and that Rosie was becoming a burden that no one in the family wanted to continue to bear.”
“I saw where they planned to send her.”
“That’s not true. She’s not a burden, and I would have taken care of her if she had needed me to.”
“They didn’t want to tell you.” Her voice was so weak I had to lean forward. “Your mother said, ‘Cathy deserves a life of her own. We’re not going to tie her down to Rosie.’”
“Did he say that?”
“He offered me a deal to marry Rosie. Legal guardianship. I didn’t sign any of that; I signed because I love her. Because I want her to have the life she deserves.”
I looked down at the crumpled paper I had against my chest.
SEE NEXT PAGE >>>
To see the full cooking instructions, go to the next page or click the Open button (>) and don't forget to SHARE it with your friends on Facebook.
