The Sister-in-Law by Pamela Crane (great books for teens txt) 📗

about the baby. So what if it was unplanned? It’s part me, part her, and wholly perfect. I’m happy and in love and I’ve always wanted a family … even if it came a little unexpectedly.’

How blissfully, ignorantly romantic.

‘Are you sure she loves you back? I’m not trying to downplay your relationship, Lane, but women do that – trick men into marrying them by purposely getting pregnant. And you’ve got quite a nest egg saved up that could be pretty enticing to a young, single, jobless woman.’

Lane had always been a saver, ever since watching our father leave our mother penniless and broke. With a pretty good salary from working his way up at the hospital, not only did Lane earn a good income, but he loved to spoil others. Never himself, though.

In a way, his trusting nature was endearing. But it also made him blind to the manipulation that women were capable of. Hadn’t our mother’s own well-practiced manipulation tactics taught him to know better? I couldn’t help but feel the need to protect my brother, because he simply wouldn’t protect himself.

‘Why are you trying to stir things up?’ He shook his head with a disappointed droop. ‘Yes, Candace loves me. And she got pregnant after we both professed our love to each other and were already talking about marriage and children. Candace and I both wanted this, together, so please stop with the assumptions.’

‘I just think she’s using you. She’s a bad choice, Lane.’

Lane pushed up from his chair. ‘Just because Ben hurt you doesn’t mean Candace will hurt me.’

I felt the jab of his words hit my heart. He saw it etched on my face, because he immediately reached for me. I pulled back, out of reach, expanding the distance between us. I couldn’t handle his consolation, not after that dig.

‘Are you trying to compare Candace to Ben? How dare you! We spent a lifetime together. And we loved each other. And yes, Ben hurt me, but he also loved me despite what I did. I couldn’t forgive myself, and yet Ben did. That, Lane, is love.’ I didn’t know if I was trying to convince my brother or myself.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I know how much he loved you. That was wrong of me. I’m just being defensive because I want the same benefit of the doubt.’ He sat and reached out again, and this time I let him rest his hand on mine. ‘Forgive me for being an idiot brother?’

I shrugged. ‘Don’t I always?’

Of course I forgave his idiocy. I always did and I always would. Even when things got dark. Even when the sins were too numerous to count. We always forgave and always protected each other. He collected the needy, love-hungry people who fed on him then discarded him when they had their fill. I had always been there to pick up the pieces, just like he did for me. But with Lane slipping out of my grasp and into Candace’s, I could no longer protect him from himself.

Candace would never take care of him like I did, and as I felt myself getting pushed away, inch by foot by yard, I wanted to hold on tighter. Lane was all I had left. He needed me, just as I needed him. Candace would one day destroy him, and he might never bounce back. He hadn’t been hardened by love like I had; I didn’t know if he could survive the blow.

He smiled at me, the boyish lopsided grin that threw me back to when I was six years old and he was seven. Trevor Gist had pushed me to the ground for the second time that week, skinning my knees and elbows on the broken concrete of the playground. Lane watched it happen from a distance, then turned red with the injustice pumping through him, like a soldier at war. Running toward the other boy, he cried out as he slammed into Trevor’s back and tackled him to the ground, then beat the crap out of my bully. After, as Lane lent me his hand to help lift me up from the patch of gravel, he grinned and said, ‘I’ll take down any bully who touches you.’

That day Lane found his battle cry. Today, I found mine.

I’ll take down any woman who hurts you. Even if that woman was my sister-in-law.

Chapter 9

Harper

Ben would forever be in my heart and in my thoughts. But he wasn’t much use to me there. Daily I was losing pieces of myself while juggling everything alone. And daily I was failing at life. I hadn’t been able to find a job yet, not that I had spent much time looking. The past few days since moving in had been a flurry of chaos. My days were filled with cleaning the Hendricks Way house for rental, my evenings were spent helping the kids with homework and preparing dinner, and my nights were dedicated to handling Jackson’s night terrors, which were growing in regularity.

The terrors had started again two nights after we had moved in, his screams echoing down the hallway, frightening the entire house awake. Crying until his voice went raw, Jackson was inconsolable, stuck between wakefulness and sleep in a terrified limbo. I would never forget the very first time it happened, almost a year ago now. Panic had surged through me when I heard a loud bang followed by wailing. My initial thought was that he had fallen out of bed, but when I found him thrashing on the floor and couldn’t calm the crying, unable to shake him out of sleep, I realized it was something else. Our pediatrician explained the phenomenon and told us encouragingly that the terrors would stop on their own. Sure enough, one day they had suddenly ended, as though he was cured. I had never been so grateful for a full night’s sleep. At last, peace descended on our home – no more frantic wakings, no