He Chose My Sister, So I Left Him With Nothing novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: The Surprise
At her lakeside engagement party, Nadine's family plays Chelsea's ultrasound on a giant screen and Dustin kisses Chelsea; Nadine strikes her own fireworks show, drops the ring in Chelsea's champagne and walks out, then finds the town's contract signed with Dustin as owner.
My fiancé kissed my pregnant sister on a twenty-foot screen in front of everyone I knew.
Then my mother turned around in her chair and asked me to step aside.
An hour before that, I was sitting in the front row of my own engagement party.
The pavilion sat right on the water at Larch Lake. White chairs, white lanterns, a hundred and twenty guests.
I had paid for every one of those chairs.
"Give me your phone," Dustin said, smiling down at me. "It's a surprise. You'll ruin it."
"My phone runs the show, Dustin."
"Patty can wait ten minutes. Hand it over."
I gave it to him.
Out on the barge, Patty was sitting on a cooler beside three hundred shells I had built for tonight.
I'd designed the whole thing for us. Ten minutes of blue and gold, set to the song we danced to on our first date.
It would fire when my phone said so.
My mother stood up and took the microphone.
"Twenty-one years ago, we took in a little girl nobody wanted."
People made soft noises behind me.
"She was eight. She hid food in her pillowcase. She didn't talk for a month."
My face went hot.
"We gave up a lot for her," my father said, leaning toward the mic. "Vacations. Savings. We never once complained."
"And look at her now," Mom said. "Her own business. A good man. We sacrificed everything, and it was worth it."
Everyone clapped.
I clapped too, because what else do you do.
The lights went down.
The screen lit up with photos. Me at eight, missing a tooth. Me at my high school graduation. Me and Dustin on the dock last summer.
Then a black-and-white image filled the whole screen.
A tiny curled shape. A heartbeat flickering.
"Baby Shepard," the caption read. "Due November."
People gasped and started cheering.
My aunt grabbed my shoulder from behind. "Nadine! Oh my God, honey!"
I wasn't pregnant.
I turned to look for Dustin.
He wasn't beside me.
He was standing next to the screen, and my little sister Chelsea was standing next to him.
She had one hand on her stomach.
She was wearing white.
Dustin cupped her face and kissed her, long and slow, while the heartbeat flickered behind them.
The cheering died one voice at a time.
Somebody's glass hit the floor.
Chelsea pulled back, laughing and teary. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, we didn't know how else to tell everybody."
My mother turned around in the front row and took my hand.
"Sweetheart. Don't make a scene."
"Mom."
"Your sister is four months along. That baby needs its father."
"He's my fiancé."
"You're strong. You've always been the strong one." She squeezed my fingers. "Chelsea isn't like you. She needs this."
My father nodded at me, very serious.
"After everything we've done for you, Nadine, this is the least you can do."
A hundred and twenty people were watching me.
Waiting for me to cry.
Dustin walked over with his hands up.
"Babe. Let's be adults. You and I both know this wasn't working."
"We picked the cake on Tuesday."
"Come on. You're married to that shop." He glanced at the guests and dropped his voice. "We'll keep it friendly. Nothing has to change at work."
He held out his hand.
"Now give me your phone back so we can do the fireworks. It'll be nice for Chelsea."
He was holding my phone.
I took it out of his hand.
Then I stood up and walked to the end of the dock.
Nobody stopped me.
Across the water, the yard lights were on at Moss Brothers, the only other fireworks shop on the lake.
Hayes Moss had lost the town's contract to me two years running.
He'd laugh himself sick if he could see me now.
I clicked the radio on my belt.
"Patty. It's me."
The radio crackled. "Kid, what the hell is going on up there? I can hear people screaming."
"Strike the show. Every shell. Pack it up and take the barge back to the shop."
There was a pause.
"The whole show?"
"There's nothing to celebrate."
"Copy that," Patty said. "I'm on it."
Out on the water, her flashlight started moving down the racks.
When I turned around, Chelsea was in front of me with a flute of champagne in her hand.
Sparkling cider, probably. She thought of everything.
"Nadine, please don't hate me. I didn't plan to fall in love."
I looked at her hand.
Then I looked at mine.
The ring was a cushion-cut diamond in white gold.
Dustin had put it on the company card. I'd paid that bill myself.
I worked it off my finger and dropped it into her glass.
It sank to the bottom with a little click.
"Congratulations," I said. "Have it sized."
I walked up the lawn, past the cake, past my mother calling my name.
I didn't cry.
My truck was parked behind the pavilion with my work boots on the passenger seat.
I sat down behind the wheel and let my hands shake for a minute.
Then I opened my email, because the shop doesn't stop for anything.
There were forty new messages.
The fourth one was from the Larch Lake town clerk.
"Congratulations! Your signed Labor Day contract is attached. We look forward to a wonderful show."
Our biggest job of the year. Sixty-four thousand dollars.
I opened the attachment.
On the line for Blue Hour Fireworks, where my name should have been, it said "Dustin Shepard, Owner."
The line under it said "Chelsea Buckley, Partner."
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