The Radio Secret – My Sister In Love with My Fiance Chapter 02
Logan and I had bought our two–year home two years prior. I’d left the place unfinished when I flew to
Germany a year ago for a medical exchange program with the hospital.
Before signing the mortgage papers, I’d insisted on a three–bedroom layout–one room would always be reserved just for Calista.
I’d been overseas while the contractors finished renovations. Calista stayed in her campus dorm during the week and crashed at our place every weekend.
When I flew home, the living room, even our master bedroom, was piled high with every stuffed animal
Calista loved. Logan brushed it off, saying she had tons of junk and left her things scattered everywhere, and I’d never questioned it.
Now I saw the truth. All my belongings fit neatly inside
a single suitcase, while Calista’s stuff filled an entire spare bedroom from wall to wall.
She looked far more like the woman of this house than I ever had.
I finished folding her clothes and turned to leave, when my gaze landed on the desk drawer.
Calista had kept a journal ever since we were little kids. I knew I shouldn’t pry, but I couldn’t stop myself from pulling it open.
The first entry dated back to the very day she’d met Logan.
[Rosie brought her new boyfriend over today. I’m so
happy she’s finally moved on from all the garbage her ex put her through.]
[She’s found someone to love her. All I want is for her to be happy forever.]
My throat burned hot with tears. My first boyfriend’s
betrayal had left me convinced love was nothing but a lie. Then Logan walked into my life.
He’d chased me for three full years–from med school all the way to the hospital’s grueling clinical wards.
He’d fought his own parents tooth and nail, turning down the cushioned career path they’d mapped out for
him just to stick by my side through the hardest hospital shifts.
He’d told me time and again he wanted nothing more than a chance to take care of me.
[Rosie is leaving for Germany soon. I hate seeing her go.]
[She asked Logan to keep an eye on me while she’s
gone. I’m not some kid who needs constant supervision!]
[I told that guy from my class to leave me alone, but he just won’t back off!]
[Logan showed up today and chased him off. He’s amazing.]
I flipped through page after page, learning everything I’d missed during my year abroad: Calista had been relentlessly harassed by a male classmate at school.
[This is what it feels like to have a man stand up for you. It’s nothing like any guy I’ve met before–no
wonder Rosie fell for him.]
[I think… I might be starting to like Logan.]
She’d slashed a thick X through the word “like.”
[No, no. He belongs to my sister. I have no right to want him.]
Every page that followed was filled with her endless, torturous inner conflict.
[He said he has feelings for me too. He pulled me into a hug, and all I can think about is how badly I want to feel
his arms around me again.]
[Rosie still has six months left overseas, I’ll steal just six months of him for myself. When she comes home,
I’ll give him back to her.]
I’d worked nonstop the entire year I spent in Germany, buried under endless projects and research. Looking
back now, I realized how distant both of them had grown those final six months.
Logan stopped complaining about me prioritizing my
career over our relationship. Calista no longer blew up my phone every day, begging to know when I’d come home. Back then, I’d written it off as distance dulling our longing for each other.
[Rosie is cutting her trip short and coming home early. My little stolen dream’s over.]
[I’m such a selfish person. I wish she never had to come back.]
I’d pulled all–nighter after all–nighter, surviving on less than four hours of sleep each night, rushing to
wrap my research project a full month early so I could surprise them both with my return.
I’d imagined them overjoyed to see me–but the second we met at the airport, something felt irreparably off.
Calista still ran straight into my arms, Logan still handed me a bouquet of flowers, but by the time we’d grabbed our luggage, they walked ahead, shoulders aligned like a couple who’d practiced it for months. I followed half a pace behind, my suitcase wheels humming over tile.
[Logan said he’s going to confess everything to Rosie. I can’t let him do that.]
[Mom and Dad died when we were little–I was only
ten, and Calista was just three. We got sent to an orphanage right after. A couple wanted to adopt me not long after.]
[They wouldn’t take me, not with my congenital heart defect–they saw me as dead weight. So Rosie turned
down the chance at a new family to stay with me.]
[She dropped out of after–school activities to work odd jobs and save up for her heart surgery. My alive only
because of her. I can’t be the one to break her heart.]
Once I was home, we’d sat down to pick a wedding date, and Logan kept trailing off mid–sentence every
time we talked about it.
“You just got back from overseas, wedding planning’s
exhausting. Why don’t we push it back a few months so you can rest?”
I’d thought he was just looking out for me, and my
heart had swelled with gratitude.
“My parents‘ death anniversary is only a month away.
I want to get married before then–so I can tell them
I’ve finally found my happy ending.”
Logan went quiet instantly. Calista shot straight up
from the couch. “Let’s lock the wedding date for next month.”
“I’ll handle every single detail for you–venues, wedding dress, guest list. You won’t have to lift a finger.”
She’d planned the entire wedding top to bottom, and I’d felt so proud watching her step up and grow into such a reliable young woman.
I’d thought I had everything I could ever ask for: a
fiancé who loved me wholeheartedly, a sister who lived
only for me. I’d truly believed I was the luckiest woman alive.
But all that happiness shattered the night before our wedding.
I flipped to the journal’s final page.
[I’ll step back and let Rosie marry Logan. But it hurts more than I can put into words.]
I blinked, and fat tears dropped straight onto the notebook’s paper. I rushed to wipe them away, but the ink beneath still blurred into faint smudges.
There was no erasing it, no fixing any of this.
I sat on the edge of the bed for thirty minutes, then pulled out my phone and dialed Dr. Kelly.
“Dr. Kelly, can you put my name down for the hospital’s Doctors Without Borders program?”
Dr. Kelly sounded utterly shocked, “Rosie, what happened? Today’s supposed to be your wedding day.”
I didn’t have the energy to explain everything, just asked her to submit my application immediately.
Someone had to leave this tangle. It would be me.