My Sister Stole My Man and His Baby

1: 1

My sister's daughter was a handful, and yet she only ever wanted one person: my boyfriend.

Every time Sophia Harding came over, my niece, barely a year old, would cling to Drew Morton and refuse to let go.

And he never wavered. He'd soothe her for hours, changing diapers, feeding her, doing all of it without a second thought.

Everyone said I'd found myself a good man, that I'd never have to worry about raising kids someday.

But only I knew how wrong it felt.

Every time Drew and I got ready to go out on a date, my niece would wail and fuss until he couldn't leave.

The sunrise we'd planned to watch, gone. The amusement park, never happened. Even last week's concert, refunded because my niece wouldn't stop crying.

I'd told myself it was just coincidence. Until today, when I happened to see the messages on his phone.

"Don't celebrate my sister's birthday. I'm bringing Yoyo over later."

"Got it. Throwing a little tantrum again, are we? I've told you, you and our daughter are what matter most."

My hand shook around the phone, tears falling one after another onto the screen.

So it wasn't coincidence at all. It was deliberate. They'd even had a child behind my back, and I was the only one who didn't know.

I stared at the chat log for a long time.

Aside from those few messages, there was nothing else. Cleared out regularly, obviously.

The door swung open. It was Sophia, my niece in her arms.

Just as she opened it, Drew was stepping out of the bathroom, fresh from a shower. He hadn't even put a shirt on before he reached out and took the baby.

Maybe I'd just never let my mind go there. Before now, I'd never once thought there was anything strange about it.

Only now did I see it. The three of them looked like a family, and I was the outsider.

Right then, my niece hugged Drew and called out, "Daddy."

"Yoyo really does love me." Drew smiled and held her a little tighter.

That was when Sophia caught up and rushed to explain. "I've taught her so many times, but this kid just can't get it. All she's learned is 'Mommy' and 'Daddy.'"

"It's my fault for not being able to give her a whole family. Lucy Harding, please don't read into it."

I'd believed it before. I'd thought she was just too little, that she'd taken the man she saw most for her father.

But thinking about it now, if no one had taught her, why would the very first word she learned be "Daddy"?

Every time in the past, when Sophia asked Drew to look after the baby, it was this same script.

The child's so young, she has no father to care for her, and Drew's the only man in the house.

And I, aching for my sister raising a child all alone, believed it, again and again.

Just then, Drew spoke up. "If you know you couldn't give her a whole family, go find yourself a boyfriend. Stop getting in the way of me and Lucy all the time."

"With that body of yours, sick every other day, and you still came out in rain like this. Don't call me crying at midnight when your head starts pounding."

Sophia shot him a glare and snapped back, "If Yoyo didn't like you so much, you think I'd want to look at that face of yours?"

"You took my sister, fine, but now you can't even leave my daughter alone. Might as well just take everything."

I used to think Drew treated Sophia terribly, always the one smoothing things over when it got tense. But looking back now, there wasn't a single line of his that didn't carry concern for her.

They bickered on, not the slightest bit aware of me standing right there.

Several minutes passed before Drew seemed to remember it was my birthday. "Lucy, I can't get away over here again. Why don't we just do your birthday at home?"

He decided everything for me, just like that, without a thought for the fact that I'd booked the restaurant a month in advance, invited all my close friends, started doing my makeup the moment I woke up. And now, because he said we weren't going, we weren't going.

Before I could even answer, Drew turned to Sophia and said, with deliberate irritation, "This is all your fault. Now Lucy can't even have her birthday."

I gave a little laugh. "Then don't take the baby. Would a little while really make a difference?"

Drew paused. In the past, when something like this came up, I'd always pout at him, unhappy, then cave on my own. Not this.

He frowned. "Don't be like that. Your sister has it hard raising a child alone, you need to be understanding. I'll make up your birthday next time. Same thing, isn't it?"

Seeing this, Sophia's eyes brimmed with tears. "It's all my fault, I'm useless, I can't even manage Yoyo. You spend time with Lucy. I'll handle her myself."

And with that she reached to take Yoyo back from Drew's arms, but he held on and wouldn't let her, and they tugged back and forth so long the two of them nearly ended up in each other's arms.

I didn't want to watch this farce any longer. I turned and walked out of that whole miserable scene.

2: 2

I took a cab to the restaurant I'd booked, and the whole way there I kept asking myself: when had it started between her and Drew?

The first time I brought Drew home to meet my sister was three years ago.

I'd just graduated. That first meeting hadn't gone well.

Sophia had been hurt before by a worthless man, and her ex happened to look a little like Drew, so she dumped every bit of that old resentment onto him.

Drew spent months working at it before she finally softened and agreed to let us date.

Two years ago, Sophia suddenly went out of state on her own. She said she needed to clear her head. When she came back, she was already pregnant.

I asked her whose it was. She wouldn't say, only that it was some worthless man.

I thought she'd gotten tangled up with her ex again. I even wanted to go confront the man for her, but she stopped me.

She said she didn't want me getting mixed up in her business. It never once crossed my mind that it was because the baby was Drew's.

Little details started coming into focus.

Drew was a tech lead. He rarely traveled for work. But in the two years Sophia was gone, he went on so many "business trips."

So it had all been there to see the whole time. I was just too much of a fool to see it.

By the time I got to the restaurant, my friends were already waiting.

They looked surprised that I'd come alone.

After all, I'd told them long ago that I'd hidden a ring inside my birthday cake, to see how Drew would react.

If he wouldn't propose to me, I'd do it myself.

Facing their questions and puzzled looks, I just shook my head. "No proposal."

That was when Sophia called.

The moment I picked up, there she was on the screen, carrying Yoyo out of the house.

"Lucy, I really didn't mean to ruin your birthday. I'm leaving now. Drew will come be with you soon."

It was raining outside. Sophia had no umbrella, holding Yoyo tight against her, her hair already soaked, her bangs plastered wet to her forehead.

Drew came running up behind her, held an umbrella over her, and snatched the phone.

"Lucy, do you have any conscience at all? You pushed your sister to this over a birthday. You know she came out of having Yoyo with health problems, that she can't take the cold!"

The words had barely left his mouth when Sophia collapsed against him, and Drew shouted at her in a panic, "Sophia! Wake up, I'm taking you to the hospital."

Before the video cut off, all I saw was Drew draping his own coat over Sophia and pulling her into his arms.

My friends beside me saw it too, and they understood without another word. No one asked me anything more.

On my twenty-fifth birthday, I watched the two people closest to me betray me at the same time.

3: 3

That night I didn't go home. I checked into a hotel instead.

I lay awake until it was very late, my mind running through all the little things from before.

At first Sophia hadn't liked Drew, but later, every time they met, he went out of his way to win her over.

When he brought me flowers, he'd buy her a bouquet too. He'd pick me up after work, then drive Sophia home as well.

Once, when we made hot pot at home, Drew handled the ingredients. Only when the pot was going did I notice he'd set up a light broth base.

Sophia couldn't take anything spicy. I couldn't eat without it.

After Sophia had my niece, she looked for a new job. She sent out applications all day and didn't land a single interview, so Drew stayed up late fixing her rsum for her, draft after draft, and dealt with the HR people on her behalf.

The whole time, he never gave Sophia a pleasant face about it.

"So annoying. Could you cause a little less trouble? My Lucy never makes anyone worry about this stuff."

Sophia couldn't be bothered to argue. "You're free labor. Would be a waste not to use you."

"You think I want to help you? I'm only doing it so Lucy won't worry. You're honestly such a pain."

He called it a pain with his mouth, but the things he did, again and again, had long gone past anything a sister's boyfriend should do.

I always thought they loved to bicker, that they couldn't stand each other, and I kept stepping in to smooth things over. I never once saw that the two of them had already grown this close.

The day Sophia gave birth, Drew deliberately pushed back an important meeting at his company to come to the hospital.

He said childbirth was a big deal, that he was afraid I couldn't handle it all alone. But waiting outside the delivery room, the worry in his eyes was even greater than mine.

Thinking about it now, it was all so obvious.

The next morning I woke up and saw Sophia's post. It was a photo of her getting an IV at the hospital.

The caption read: Sick, but at least I've got free labor on hand to order around.

A couple of mutual friends who didn't know the truth commented, "Your boyfriend?" Sophia didn't reply to any of it.

By the time I refreshed, the post was already gone from my feed.

I got up and went to the office, and without a second thought I submitted my transfer request.

My boss had wanted to promote me to a position out of state, but I'd been hesitating because of Drew. I wanted to marry him soon and build a home, so I'd kept turning it down.

Now what reason was there to refuse?

When I got home from work, the living room was empty and the bedroom door stood ajar.

As I reached the doorway, I heard Drew and Sophia talking inside.

"Drew, thank goodness I have you looking after me. I don't know what I'd do otherwise."

"Oh, right, Lucy's been gone all day. Should we check on her?"

Drew's voice came through the door, impatient.

"She can go wherever she wants. Better if she doesn't come back. Just looking at her irritates me."

Then he noticed me, and the anger in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"Where did you go? Do you have any idea your sister ran a fever of a hundred and two yesterday? Throwing a tantrum over something this small. Lucy, you've really outdone yourself. You are apologizing to her today."

Sophia tugged at his sleeve from the side. "All right, all right, don't be angry. I'm fine."

"Lucy's still young, she doesn't know better. Don't be so hard on her."

I'd been gone a full day and night, and the first thing out of him wasn't worry. It was that I should apologize to my sister.

I stood in the doorway without moving. Drew grabbed my wrist and yanked me over, and my knee slammed into the corner of the bed.

It bruised, but I didn't feel the pain.

"Apologize? What exactly did I do wrong?" I forced down the anger and asked.

Hearing that, the fury in his voice only grew.

"It's just a birthday, isn't it? You went out on your own on purpose, just to make me and your sister feel guilty, didn't you?"

Sophia jumped in to smooth it over. "Stop fighting, Drew. Lucy didn't mean it."

I couldn't hold back anymore. "Just a birthday? You make it sound so easy, Drew. You have no idea how long I planned for it. You just call it off like it's nothing, like it's some kind of joke. Oh, I forgot. You were busy with your wife and kid. How would you have time for me."

"From now on you don't need to be part of my birthday ever again. We're breaking up. You three can go be a happy little family."

Drew froze at first, then flushed with humiliation and rage.

"Lucy, are you sick in the head? What are you even saying? You're jealous of your own sister and a child now?"

"Fine, breakup it is. You'd better never show your face in front of me again."

4: 4

The words were barely out before Drew wrenched the door open and stormed off, as if he were the one who'd been grievously wronged.

Sophia called after him a few times, then turned back to lay into me. "How could you think that about me and him? Don't you know how much I used to hate him? If it weren't for you I wouldn't want to see him for even a day. He helped out with Yoyo a few times and this is the fit you throw?"

"Wouldn't want to see him? Were you smiling when you said that? If you like him, fine, he's all yours. Better hurry and chase after him, earn some points, keep the safety net going for you and your daughter." I couldn't be bothered to explain anything more.

"You" She was so furious she couldn't get a word out for a long moment, then spun around and went out too.

I packed up everything of mine in the apartment, threw out every single thing connected to Drew, and dragged my suitcase to the door.

On my way down, I saw Drew and Sophia standing a little way off.

Sophia sounded worried. "She really does seem angry. Maybe you should go back and smooth things over?"

Drew said, unbothered, "No need. I did all that on purpose for her benefit. Acting worn me out. Every time I get angry, she's back apologizing within three days, guaranteed."

"But she seemed to catch on to something. She won't find out about us, will she?"

"No chance. She didn't even know that time in the bathroom."

"And every time you came over right when Yoyo was about to cry from needing a diaper change, I'd change her and she'd stop crying right away. Lucy never noticed. She always thought Yoyo just took to me."

"When she's not around, I teach Yoyo to call me Daddy every single day. Yoyo does it right in front of her and she doesn't suspect a thing. She's easy to fool. It'd take a miracle for her to figure it out."

Sophia flushed at that and laughed, swatting him.

"I just want to be with you more."

A wave of nausea rose up in me, and all those little details came into sharper and sharper focus.

Last week Sophia said there was no hot water at her place and came over to shower.

Drew had been in the living room watching TV. I ran to the supermarket, and when I got back he was gone, then reappeared saying only that he'd stepped out for a cigarette.

And my niece only liked him, partly because they shared blood, and partly because it was an illusion the two of them had deliberately built.

After a moment Sophia went on. "But whenever I think about how you two are going to get married eventually, it makes me so sad."

Drew smiled and pinched her nose. "Silly. Aren't I marrying her for your sake anyway?"

"Once I marry Lucy, we won't have kids. Yoyo is the only child I need. She'll probably even think I'm being considerate of her."

"By then she'll have no choice but to treat Yoyo as her own. Lucy earns a lot. Everything she makes will go toward Yoyo, and this apartment we're living in is hers too. So you won't have to work hard at all."

Hearing that, Sophia threw her arms around Drew, happy, and he bent down and kissed her.

But what he didn't know was that I would never turn back, and I would never again be their cash cow to bleed dry.