The Day He Regretted Me Was the Day I Disappeared

Five weeks. That was how long I had been carrying our child—only for it to be taken from me in an instant when my husband’s adopted sister, Cassandra, shoved me off a cliff during a hiking trip.

I woke up in a hospital bed with my leg shattered, my ribs cracked, and my womb painfully empty. The doctor’s words landed like a sentence I could never appeal: there was no heartbeat anymore.

Marcus called it a tragic accident. I called it murder. I decided to press charges against Cassandra, determined to see her held accountable—until a message arrived that turned everything upside down: my younger sister, Nina, had been kidnapped.

Panic took over. I tried calling Marcus, but he never answered. With no other option, I forced myself home despite my condition. That was when I overheard something I was never meant to hear.

“If Aria finds out you were the one behind her sister’s kidnapping,” Marcus’s secretary said through the phone, her tone uneasy, “she’s going to break completely. She’s already unstable after losing the baby.”

I stopped just outside the door, my fingers tightening around my crutch.

“We won’t let her find out,” Marcus replied without hesitation, the faint clink of ice in his glass echoing through the room. “This is her fault anyway. She tried to send Cassandra to prison. She tried to destroy my adopted sister. No one attacks my family and gets away with it. If she doesn’t withdraw the case, Nina stays right where she is. That’s our leverage.”

I stumbled back a step, the rug muffling the sound of my crutch. It felt like I was falling off that cliff all over again, only this time there was no waking up.

“You’re really going through with that?”

A second voice cut in—soft, playful, and painfully familiar.

Cassandra sat comfortably on the edge of Marcus’s mahogany desk, swinging her legs as though nothing in the world could touch her. She looked flawless, untouched by guilt or consequence. Then the call ended.

“I’m really scared, Marcus,” she said with a small pout, leaning forward to play with his tie. “I didn’t mean to push her… well, maybe not that hard. She just gets under my skin. I can’t help it—I’m jealous.”

“Jealous?” Marcus let out a tired breath, leaning back in his chair.

“She’s your wife,” Cassandra replied, her voice softening into something almost seductive. “And I’m just your adopted sister. We may not be blood, but people still see us that way. I hate it. I want everyone to know what we really are… that we belong to each other.”

My stomach twisted violently, bile rising in my throat.

“Cassandra, listen,” Marcus said more gently now, his tone turning intimate. “We’ve talked about this. Not yet. It would destroy everything—our families would never accept it. You just need to wait.”

“I’m tired of waiting.” She suddenly got off the desk and climbed onto his lap.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming.

“What if I gave you something worth waiting for?” Cassandra whispered, her fingers tracing his jaw. “I want your child, Marcus. She couldn’t give you one. She was too weak. But I can.”

“Cassandra…”

“Make me pregnant,” she insisted, pressing herself closer against him. “Give me a baby.”

And then my husband—the man who had once held my hand while we mourned our lost child—gripped her hips and pulled her into a deep, consuming kiss.

Everything inside me tilted.

I didn’t scream. I simply turned away, tears spilling down my face, and dragged my broken body down the hallway toward the guest room.

I collapsed onto the bed the moment I reached it, burying my face into the pillows as sobs tore through my chest. At some point, exhaustion—or maybe the medication—pulled me under.

“Aria?”

A hand rested on my shoulder.

I jerked awake.

Marcus was standing over me, disheveled, his tie loosened—the same tie Cassandra had been playing with earlier. His expression was filled with concern so convincing it almost fooled me.

“You scared me,” he said softly, sitting beside me. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home? The hospital said you left against medical advice. You should be resting, sweetheart. Your leg…”

“My sister,” I whispered shakily. “Marcus… Nina was kidnapped.”

“I know,” he replied at once, his face tightening into something like concern. “I just got the report.”

“Please,” I cried, grabbing his shirt. “Bring her back to me.”

“We’re handling it,” he said calmly, wrapping his hand around mine. “I’ve deployed my best team. I won’t let anything happen to her. But you need rest. You’re not thinking clearly right now.”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

The same lips that had just promised another woman a child.

Time passed in a blur of half-sleep and dread. Night eventually fell, and chaos erupted downstairs.

“Aria!”

The door slammed open.

“Nina!” I scrambled up, checking her frantically. “Are you hurt?”

“I was so scared,” she sobbed into me. “They had guns… I thought I was going to die.”

Marcus walked in right after, looking satisfied. Behind him stood Cassandra, leaning against the doorway with a calm, almost amused expression.

“She saved me,” Nina said quickly, pulling back to point at her. “Sister Cassandra. She paid the ransom. She came with Marcus to the warehouse. They both saved me.”

I turned my gaze to Cassandra. She only inspected her nails, indifferent.

“It’s what family does,” she said lightly.

“Please,” Nina begged, turning back to me with pleading eyes. “Marcus told me everything. He said you’re still confused because of what happened… but you can’t send her to jail. She saved me. Please, just drop the case.”

Silence swallowed the room.

Marcus stood there watching me, one hand tucked into his pocket, silently daring me to resist. Cassandra’s lips curled faintly, waiting for me to break—waiting for the “unstable” wife to fall apart.

They had already cornered me. If I fought, Nina would suffer for it. They had made sure of that.

I looked at my husband. I looked at the woman who took my child from me. I looked at my sister, now trapped in their game.

Something inside me went still—cold, distant, and empty, like sinking beneath deep water.

“You’re right,” I said at last, meeting Cassandra’s eyes. “She did save you.”

A quiet smile formed on my lips, hollow and wrong.

“I’ll drop the charges,” I continued. Then I tilted my head slightly. “But… would you prefer I file for divorce instead?”