When my stepsister shoved me into the pool at my own engagement party, soaking my champagne dress and my dignity, I didn’t cry or hide. I grabbed the microphone and announced one simple rule that turned her “innocent accident” into the most satisfying karma of the night. My name’s Megan, and I’m 30 years old.
A few weeks ago, I got engaged to Colin, the man I want to spend forever with.
The kind of love that doesn’t need proving, that just exists quietly and powerfully between two people who’ve chosen each other completely. But let me back up because you need to understand why what happened at my engagement party cut so deep.
To begin with, my childhood wasn’t easy. My mom died when I was five.
I don’t have many memories of her, just flashes — her laugh, the way she smelled like lavender, and how the house felt warm when she was in it.
After she was gone, everything turned gray and silent. My dad tried, but grief swallowed him whole for years. When I was eight, he remarried.
That’s when Kira, my new stepsister, walked into my life.
She was four years younger. From day one, we orbited each other like magnets that couldn’t quite connect.
We weren’t exactly enemies. But there was always a current running beneath everything we did, an unspoken competition I never asked for.
Kira couldn’t stand not being the star of every moment.
If I brought home an A on a test, she’d cry until someone noticed her B+. If I picked up the piano, suddenly she needed lessons too, and hers had to be with the best teacher. If I got a new backpack, she’d pout until my stepmom bought her something shinier.
And because I was older, because I was supposed to be “mature,” I always had to give in.
I always had to share, compromise, and let her have the spotlight. I told myself it was just kid stuff.
We’d grow out of it. And honestly, as adults, things seemed calmer.
We could sit at family dinners without tension.
We’d even joke around sometimes. I genuinely believed we’d left that childish rivalry in the past. I was so, so wrong.
Kira just learned to hide it better.
***
A few days before my engagement party, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror, smoothing my hands over the dress I’d chosen. It was this gorgeous champagne color that caught the light like liquid gold, elegant and understated in all the right ways.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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