My Fiancé Sides With My Adopted Sister I'm Not Marrying

I was born able to sense malice.

Whenever I face a threat, a rash breaks out on the back of my neck.

I used this ability to escape the traffickers who tried to kidnap me.

I also dodged plenty of ill-intentioned suitors.

So when choosing a husband, what I valued most was his character.

That's why I chose David Sanchez, who was gentle and kind.

The day before the wedding.

My adopted sister locked me in the storeroom of the old house.

When David rescued me, I couldn't help cursing her out a few times.

The next second, that familiar prickling suddenly crept up the back of my neck.

I whipped around to look at David beside me and blurted out a question.

"David, do you have feelings for Ebony?"

David hadn't expected me to suddenly ask that.

He came over and tried to take my hand. "Ava, what nonsense are you talking about? We're getting married tomorrow. How could I..."

But before his hand could even touch me, the rash on the back of my neck flared up again.

Dense and crawling, like countless tiny ants working along my skin and burrowing into the gaps between my bones.

I instinctively took a step back, avoiding his touch.

I stared straight at him and asked, "Are you sure you don't like her?"

Hearing me say that, Ebony, standing off to the side, forgot all about being upset.

She quickly stepped between me and David, wearing the look of someone gravely wronged, and said to me, "Sis, I was just playing a joke on you. If you're angry, take it out on me... don't be hard on David!"

I couldn't be bothered with Ebony. The rash on the back of my neck was like an alarm bell.

I could give David up to her, but only on the condition that he wouldn't hurt me.

I hadn't broken out in a rash this widespread in years.

Which meant it was easy to imagine just how much malice David held toward me.

So I stared at him and asked again, "Are you sure you don't have feelings for Ebony?"

David frowned.

His expression carried a hint of exasperation. "Ava, I know you've probably been under a lot of pressure these past few days preparing for the wedding, but no matter what, you can't joke about something like this! It hurts the bond between you sisters."

"Hurts the bond?" I repeated his words, my heart sinking bit by bit.

"I was locked in there for three hours, no phone signal. If I'd suddenly gotten sick, I could have died. Is that a prank? That's murder! And another thingEbony is twenty-three this year, not three! Is locking someone up really a joke you can just play?"

"All right, all right, you're... you're right about everything." David sighed and stepped forward to pull me toward him.

"Tomorrow is our big day. There's no need to make things this tense. Mom and Dad are still waiting at home. Here's an idea... after the wedding tomorrow, however you want to teach Ebony a lesson, I won't get in the way. Okay?"

The instant he leaned in close, the prickling on the back of my neck grew even fiercer.

My whole neck felt hot and swollen.

The last time this happened was when I was five, when traffickers tried to abduct me.

"Don't touch me!" I abruptly knocked his hand away.

David staggered from the force of it.

The usual gentleness on his face finally dropped away. "Ava Henson, what has gotten into you today? Are you determined to leave everyone with no way out of this?"

Seeing this, Ebony hurried forward and grabbed his arm. "David, don't be angry. It's only natural that she'd feel upset after being locked up for three hours. It's all my fault. I was being immature..." Then she turned to me and said, "Sis, I really do know I was wrong. I promise I won't joke around anymore. Don't stay mad at David. If you really can't let it go, then lock me up too. You're getting married tomorrow. There's no reason to fight because of me."

Watching Ebony put on that fake, innocent act, I suddenly laughed.

From the day Mom and Dad adopted her, she'd always been stirring up trouble.

But it had all been small-time.

In fact, even my constitution had grown immune to her.

After all, her petty malice was never enough to matter, and it couldn't hurt me.

But I never imagined she would set her sights on my fianc.

Or that she'd make him hold this much malice toward me.

Since that was how it was, I really couldn't keep her around.

After all, ever since I gained this constitution, what I've been best at is strangling threats in the cradle.

So I stared at her coldly and smiled. "Sure. Then let's do it your waygo in there yourself!"

The moment I finished speaking, Ebony froze.

She seemed not to have expected that I would actually lock her in there.

After a long pause, she finally came to her senses and said, "Ava... you... you really want to lock me in?"

"Wasn't it your idea? How did it turn into me wanting to lock you up?" I smiled, amused.

"One wordare you going in or not?"

When David saw I was serious, he flew into a rage. "Ava Henson! Haven't you made enough of a scene? Ebony already lowered her head and admitted she was wrongwhy won't you let up when you've got the upper hand?"

I reached up and touched the back of my neck, still burning hot, and couldn't help the corner of my mouth twisting. "How am I refusing to let up? She's the one who brought it upwhat does it have to do with me? What's the matter? Are you feeling sorry for her? Or... do you really have feelings for Ebony?"

"You!" I'd cornered him until he couldn't speak, so he started playing the emotional card.

"Ava, you're clearly so kind. How did you turn so aggressive now?"

"Then I'll be aggressive today!" I said, arms crossed, looking at him, the corner of my mouth curving up slightly.

"Let me put it plainlyif this anger of mine doesn't ease, then this wedding... isn't happening!"

The second I said it, David's expression changed.

"Ava Henson, don't be so willful!" His voice carried an edge of urgency.

"How can you say something like that so carelessly?"

"What's wrong with saying it? She made a mistakecan't she be punished for it?" I lifted my chin.

"Fine, enough talk. Either she goes in for three hours so I can vent, or I call my parents right now and cancel the wedding. Your choiceyou decide."

"Ava Henson, you've gone too far!" David's breathing suddenly turned heavy, and he glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

"You really think I'm afraid of you?"

I smiled. "So... you're choosing to break off the engagement, is that it?" I pulled out my phone at once.

"Don't! Don't do anything rash!" Seeing this, David hurried to stop me.

"We've already told all our relatives and friends, we've already paid the hotel deposit. You just say it's off and it's offhow is my family supposed to hold its head up?"

"That's your family's business. What does it have to do with me..." I made as if to dial.

"Besides, this wedding was your Sanchez family marrying up in the first place"

"Enough!" David roared.

"I don't care anymore!" Then he turned to look at Ebony, huddled off to the side, on the verge of tears.

"Ebony, you really were in the wrong on this... just... just put up with it for now, and let your sister vent..."

Ebony's eyes went round, and tears spilled down at once.

She still wanted to keep milking sympathy, but seeing the coldness in my eyes

in the end she bit her lip and shuffled into the storeroom door, dragging every step.

Watching Ebony look so pitiful, glancing back at every step,

David was so heartbroken he was nearly in tears, but for the sake of the wedding going off smoothly, he forced his anger down and asked me with a smile that never reached his eyes, "Ava... you should be over it now, right?"

"More or less." I gave a cold laugh.

I hadn't expected David to be so good at putting on an act.

If the rash on the back of my neck weren't so swollen it was almost blistering, I might really have believed him.

I left him with one line"For the next three hours, you stay here and keep her company. Remember! Three hours, not a minute less! If it's short, don't blame me for turning on you!"then turned and went back to the villa.

David's malice toward me definitely didn't come out of nowhere.

In the whole year I've been dating him, I never once broke out in a rash.

And the very first time the malice showed itself, it was this strong.

I had to investigate this properly.

Was he being used by Ebony, or had he learned my secret and been putting on an act from the very day he first approached me?

After we got back to the villa, I called Oliver the butler straight up to me.

He'd been with my dad for decadesreliable and tight-lipped.

I told him everything that had just happened.

And I asked him to look into David Sanchez and Ebony Henson's movements over the past three months.

Oliver didn't ask any questions. He just turned and left.

In less than an hour, he came back with a stack of photos and documents.

"Miss, your hunch really was right. Those two animals really are up to something" Oliver said, seething, and set the evidence he'd dug up on the table.

I took a deep breath and glanced at the photo on top.

It was dated two months ago.

A photo of David out on a date with Ebony, wearing the beige trench coat I'd bought him.

Farther down, it was all their hotel booking records.

And that wasn't even the half of it.

What shocked me most was David's medical diagnosis.

It turned out he'd suffered from severe manic disorder since childhood and had never once stopped taking his prescription meds.

That was when I understood why I'd never sensed any malice from him before.

It was all because his emotions had been suppressed by the medication.

Until today.

I'd cursed Ebony out in public, and his emotions slipped out of control.

That was what finally let me sense the malice.

He hadn't gotten close to me because he liked me at all.

He was after the Henson family's fortune.

As for Ebony.

I didn't even have to think about ither goal was obviously the same as David's.

That was why the two of them had gotten together so early, in it together like a pair of crooks.

Once I had it all figured out, I grabbed the photos and went to the living room.

My dad was reading the paper, and my mom was knitting a sweater.

When they saw me come in, they both looked up and smiled.

They asked whether I was nervous, since I was getting married tomorrow.

They even asked what I wanted as a wedding gift.

Looking at my parents' gentle faces, my nose stung.

I knew I couldn't keep hiding it.

So I steeled myself.

I threw Oliver's investigation photos down on the table and told them everything about my condition, too.

"Dad, Mom, I can't go through with this wedding. David and Ebony have been together for a long time now. He even wants to hurt mehe's after our family's money!"

My dad set down the newspaper, picked up the photos, and flipped through them one by one, his face growing darker with each look.

In the end he was so angry his hands were shaking.

My mom had been smiling, but after she saw them, the knitting needles slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor.

This how could Ebony do something like this? No wonder shes been asking me about our familys company lately. So thats why

My dad sighed and told me something I had never known.

Ava, the truth is, Ebony isnt an orphan. Her father used to be my finance manager. Ten years ago he embezzled thirty million dollars in company funds, and I had him put away. At the time he cried and begged me to look after his daughter. I figured, after all his years with me, I went soft for a moment and adopted her. But I never expected she really is just like her father, an ingrate! Im sorry its all my fault. Im the one who brought the wolf into our home.

After my dad finished, the questions in my heart were finally answered.

Id always wondered why Ebony liked to play pranks on me. So this was the reason.

My mom wiped her tears and gripped my hand. Ava, thank goodness you have this ability and caught it in time, or our family really would have been finished. Wait, Ill call right now, cancel the wedding, and throw that bitch Ebony out!

No rush. My dad raised a hand to stop her, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

These two animals plotted against Stan Hensons daughter. Theres no way Im letting them off that easily. Better to play along with their scheme and turn it against them at the wedding tomorrow, and ruin them completely!

I smiled. I hadnt expected my dad to be thinking the same thing I was.

I gave him a thumbs-up and said, Dad, you really do think of everything! Well do it your way, then!

After that, the three of us started working out a plan.

My dad would handle contacting the media.

My mom would gather David Sanchezs medical records, going all the way back to his childhood.

As for me

My job was to keep David and Ebony calm.

I went to the warehouse and let Ebony out ahead of schedule.

I said some nice, high-sounding things, then made an excuse and went back to my room.

And I waited quietly for tomorrows good show.