Twin Sisters Twin Divorces

My twin sister, Scarlett, and I married the twin brothers of the Sterling family. She married the older brother, Sebastian, a top lawyer. I married the younger, Julian, a brilliant surgeon.

My high-risk pregnancy had me on bed rest at the manor when I was kidnapped. From the manor's landline, my captors made a series of frantic calls to Julian, but every single one went straight to voicemail.

In a fit of desperation, one of them slammed a golf club into my abdomen. My baby was gone.

Finally, the kidnappers made one last call to Julian. This time, he answered. "Chloe just collapsed at a dinner party. I'm with her. Stop this pathetic cry for attention."

With no ransom coming, the kidnappers bound my hands and feet and threw me into the frigid indoor pool. Then, they vanished.

Just as I was about to suffocate, my sister, Scarlett, arrived and pulled me from the water. Seeing me bleeding profusely from the miscarriage, she frantically called Sebastian.

But all she heard was his cold dismissal. "I'm dealing with the PR crisis Chloe caused. Don't bother me."

She tried to call the police, but her phone was lost in the ensuing chaos. Left with no other choice, she was forced to drive me to the hospital herself.

On the way, a sudden blizzard hit, and a fallen tree blocked the mountain road. Our car skidded off the highway.

We were trapped in the car, freezing and waiting for death. Fortunately, a highway patrol cruiser found us just in time. We survived.

When we woke up in the hospital, the same thought screamed through both our minds: We had to get a divorce.

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1

When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed, every bone in my body screaming in protest.

The pain was a constant thrum, but the cramping in my lower abdomen was a sharp, hollow ache. An emptiness so profound I knew with chilling certainty: my baby was gone.

I picked up my phone and sent a message to Julian Sterling.

"The baby's gone."

I stared at the screen, waiting for a reply, but the phone remained dark. After a moment, I typed another line.

"Let's get a divorce."

Still nothing.

Hours later, his call finally came through.

I answered, expecting to hear his voice, but it was Chloe Davenport on the line.

"Avery, please don't be angry with Julian. There was an incident at the dinner party—I had a pregnancy scare. He was the only one I could call, so I begged him to stay."

"This is all my fault. But please, don't divorce him over it. He truly loves you; this would destroy him."

Before I could utter a word, Julian snatched the phone. His voice was laced with impatience. "Avery, how long are you going to pull this stunt? Using the baby and threatening divorce to get what you want?"

"Has your jealousy gotten this out of control? Chloe had a scare—it's a high-risk pregnancy."

"I'm staying with her. Can't you show a single ounce of compassion?"

His agitation grew with every word, his voice rising to a roar.

I was too stunned to speak as silent tears streamed down my cheeks.

"Julian, I'm not lying. Our baby is gone," I whispered, my throat tight with grief. "I was kidnapped at the manor. You didn't answer your phone, and I lost our child."

I was sobbing, desperate for him to believe me. His only response was a cold, dismissive laugh from the other end of the line.

"Avery, your lies are getting more ridiculous. This sounds like a script from a bad soap opera," he scoffed. "I went to the manor. Everything was fine. Stop playing the victim. I'm busy with Chloe."

"Don't bother me."

Then, in the background, I heard Chloe's soothing voice again. "Julian, don't be mad at Avery."

"She's probably just making it up for attention."

Julian snapped back, "Stop defending her. She's pretending the baby is dead just to get my attention!"

"What kind of mother would do something so monstrous?"

"She doesn't deserve your sympathy. Let her have her little drama! Let's see how long she keeps it up when no one's watching."

With that, he hung up.

I sat numbly on the bed as the phone slipped from my limp fingers, landing softly on the blanket.

My sister, Scarlett Callahan, rushed over from her bed in the same room and wrapped her arms around me.

"Avery, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I never should have let you get involved with Julian. I should have stopped you from marrying that bastard!" Scarlett cried, holding me tight, her tears scorching my skin.

She knew how much I had endured for this baby.

Conceiving him had been a long, arduous journey.

I was so terrified of losing him that I'd retreated to the remote manor to rest the moment I found out I was pregnant.

I spent my entire pregnancy there, doing everything in my power to protect him.

And in the end, I had lost him anyway.

The pain in my chest was unbearable, a physical weight, as if someone had reached inside and was crushing my heart into dust.

Julian had no idea that while he was coddling Chloe, I was being dragged away by kidnappers and beaten until I miscarried our child.

After countless unanswered calls to Julian from the manor's landline, the kidnappers had lost their patience. They grabbed a golf club and slammed it into my abdomen.

They roared in fury as they struck me.

"If the Sterlings hadn't destroyed my company with that hostile takeover, I wouldn't be drowning in debt!"

"If your husband doesn't send the money, you and your baby are going to die!"

For a fleeting moment, I actually felt relief. This was just about money. Julian had more than enough.

But after their brutal interrogation, they tried Julian one last time. He finally picked up.

"I told you not to bother me with this!"

"Chloe just collapsed and she's at risk of a miscarriage. I'm with her! If you have a shred of decency, you'll stop calling!"

When the kidnappers realized the ransom was never coming, they lost their minds. They beat me until I was unconscious.

"Julian ruined our lives! Now we're going to make him feel what it's like to lose his wife and child!"

They threw me into the freezing indoor swimming pool and left me to die.

If Scarlett hadn't found me, I would have died.

Just then, her phone rang, pulling me from the horrifying memory. It was her husband, the top lawyer Sebastian Sterling.

She answered, and the icy condescension in his voice struck us both.

"Scarlett, why are you helping your sister lie? Claiming the baby is gone and trying to pin it on Chloe? Don't you know she's pregnant? Why are you going after a pregnant woman?"

"And tell your sister marriage isn't a game!"

"And I already told you, I'm handling Chloe's legal issues. Why do you keep calling? You're disrupting my work. The two of you are being completely unreasonable!"

Scarlett was stunned. She tried to explain, but Sebastian had already hung up.

Fighting back her own tears, she took my hand, a silent offering of comfort. We looked at each other, our shared disappointment mirrored in each other's eyes.

I had been through hell, and Julian couldn't be bothered to hear a single word of it.

Perhaps this marriage was a mistake from the very beginning.

Julian and Sebastian had never truly loved us. The only person they had ever truly loved was Chloe.

Scarlett and I had entered their lives only after Chloe abandoned the twin brothers to marry a down-on-his-luck European nobleman. That's when they had married us.

But now Chloe was back, and everything had changed. They orbited her constantly, catering to her every whim.

Sebastian, the top lawyer, was personally handling her petty legal disputes, while Julian, one of the city's top surgeons, was personally crafting her diet plans.

For us, they had nothing but cold indifference.

Scarlett and I clung to each other and wept, our hearts aching with a pain born of regret.

"What's the point of a marriage like this?" she sobbed, a hot tear landing on the back of my hand.

Our marriages had been a cruel joke from the start.

And now, it was time for the punchline.