Chapter 2

After the wedding, Jack and I were supposed to go on our honeymoon.

Emma wanted to come along and mentioned it at the evening banquet. I firmly refused.

She put down her bowl with a dark face, and Jack quickly tried to smooth things over, coaxing and persuading her.

After a while, she cheered up.

But she was an adult, not a three-year-old child.

I thought the matter was settled, but at midnight on our wedding night, she came knocking on our door with red eyes.

Seeing her like this, Jack gave me a look and took her outside to talk.

I was exhausted and fell asleep waiting for Jack on the bed.

The next morning when I woke up, Jack wasn't there.

Confused, I opened my phone and saw a message from Jack:

"I'm comforting Emma. You sleep first."

Where did they go to comfort her all night? I called him:

"Jack, did you forget we have a 10 AM flight? Don't you want to go on our honeymoon?"

Jack hesitated for a long time before asking:

"Lily, can Emma come with us?"

As if he could see my expression through the phone, he quickly added:

"Emma travels every year, but this year she didn't go because of our wedding. She's quite upset. She also put a lot of effort into our wedding preparations and even broke up with her boyfriend to come back. I want to take her out to cheer her up."

All the unpleasant details from the wedding rushed to my mind, and I exploded over the phone:

"Jack, are you out of your mind? This is our honeymoon. Do you know what a honeymoon is? If you want to go with her, then go. We don't need to continue this marriage!"

I threw my phone and lay on the couch, fuming. Soon after, Jack came back, patting my back and apologizing:

"I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't think it through. She's been the most spoiled at home since childhood. When she cries, I don't know what to do, so I said I'd take her along. I know I was wrong now. Let's leave right away. I've packed your luggage for you."

Jack was always good at coaxing me.

But now, seeing him coax me reminds me of how he coaxes Emma.

It's disgusting.

But the flights and hotels were already booked, and it would be troublesome to change now. He apologized so sincerely and knew he was wrong. Under his act of playing dumb and making me laugh, I forgave him, and we boarded the honeymoon flight just in time.

Before turning off my phone, I checked Emma's Instagram. It was quiet and calm, so I assumed Jack had handled the situation.

I asked him:

"So, how did you explain not taking her along in the end?"

Jack smiled sheepishly and said:

"I promised her that when we get back, I'll take her to Disneyland separately."

Separately? Disneyland?

Seeing my suddenly dejected face, he asked confusedly:

"What's wrong, Lily? Are you unhappy again? But by then, we'll have finished our honeymoon, right?"

"..."

Going out alone together, first with me, then with her, is that it?

I started to doubt my choices.

I drank orange juice and sulked the whole way, enduring for two hours until we finally arrived in Miami.

The sea breeze finally improved my mood a little. Miami was my favorite city.

When Jack and I were dating, he told me:

"Lily, I want to take you to the seaside, to an island. We'll hold hands and walk on the sand, and I'll say my vows to you against the backdrop of the sunset over the ocean."

After all, it was my honeymoon. I shouldn't let an unpleasant person ruin it.

So when we got off the plane, I took the initiative to hold Jack's hand.

But he didn't respond.

I looked at him. He was staring at his phone with a furrowed brow:

"Lily, we have to go back. Emma is in the hospital."

His expression was serious and anxious. I glanced at his phone, which showed his chat with Emma.

"Brother, I'm in the hospital."

"Brother abandoned Emma."

Then there was a crying emoji and a picture of a medical record.

Suppressing my anger, I asked Jack:

"What's wrong with her? Can your parents take care of her? Do you really have to go back?"

Jack stared at the medical record for a long time before saying:

"It's asthma. Emma has had asthma since childhood. She has attacks during season changes and when she's under stress..."

"Asthma is a chronic condition. She'll be fine staying in the hospital. We can visit her when we get back and bring her some gifts. What do you think?"

Jack looked at me.

That look made me feel like I was the evil supporting character in a novel.

He said:

"Lily, we're married now, which means we're family. Whatever opinions you had about Emma before, that's in the past. If you really treated Emma like your own sister, would you say something like this?"

I was speechless, never expecting him to say such a thing.

I'm not an only child. I have an older brother and a younger sister. Especially my brother, who loves sports and is always getting injured. Once, he even broke his leg playing soccer and was hospitalized, but he never said we had to go back to see him.

My sister is even more independent, doing her master's degree in a big city, handling her own housing, medical care, internships, and studies. She often has minor illnesses, and I just send her some money and remind her to take care of herself.

How come when it comes to Emma, it becomes a matter of me not accepting her or not treating her like family?

Moreover, if I didn't consider her family, would I have paid tens of thousands of dollars for her tuition and living expenses to study abroad? Even her frequent travels were funded by me.

I remembered now that the phrase "not treating Emma like a real sister" had been mentioned by him several times before the wedding.

It was always when she wanted to interfere with wedding details, and I disagreed.

Like when she wanted to wear that dress that looked like a light wedding gown. At the time, Katie mentioned that standing next to the groom like that, unfamiliar guests might misunderstand. So I asked Jack:

"Can Emma change that dress? It seems a bit eye-catching."

I don't know how they communicated in their video call, but after a while, Jack came to me and said:

"Emma chose that dress a long time ago, and it's already been altered. If you ask her to change now, she won't have a suitable dress to wear. Think about it, if it were your own sister, would you have the heart to let her not have a proper dress to wear?"

I thought it made sense, so I didn't say anything more.

Now that I think about it, I was really stupid.

My sister tried on more than a dozen dresses for my wedding, asking me each time: "Sis, is this dress too eye-catching? Does it match your wedding gown?"

My real sister would always consider my feelings.

Not expect me to always consider her feelings.