He Chose My Stepsister, I Left Him Forever Chapter 2

The next morning, I woke to the hum of a freight unit.

When I stepped out of the guest room, hover units were already moving Sasha's luggage into the main bedroom.

Adrian stood beside the daylight panel, adjusting the room's lighting to a warm yellow glow that was supposed to help patients recover.

That room was supposed to be my studio.

One entire wall opened to real sunlight, and at night, I could watch the stars through the glass.

Just yesterday, Adrian had told me that almost everyone in this century preferred digital art. Real paintings were rare. He said that with this studio, I could create something no one else in the world could make.

Now my paint cases, the ones I'd carried 200 years into the future, sat outside the door.

He didn't turn around as he adjusted the panel. "Sasha says she's always thought of your family as her own. Now that she's sick, she doesn't want to be away from you, so I brought her here. You don't mind, do you?"

"Adrian, where am I supposed to sleep?"

He pointed toward the storage room at the end of the hall. It didn't even have a window.

"Make do with that room for a while. Sasha needs the daylight, and she should be near me in case something happens at night."

I nodded and carried my paint cases into the storage room one by one without a word.

Sasha was already in what should have been my studio, sitting at my easel with a smile on her face.

"Sorry for taking your room, Thea. Adrian says there's hardly any demand for paintings anymore. It'd be a waste to leave such a nice room empty, so I might as well use it while I recover."

Her smile made my chest tighten.

I'd been afraid of Sasha for as long as I could remember.

When I was a child, my father remarried, and Sasha and her mother moved into our house. From the beginning, Sasha kept reminding everyone that she'd joined the family later and would never truly belong. She had a bedroom just like mine. My father paid the same tuition for both of us. Still, she would cry that no matter how well he treated her, she could never have the love he gave his real daughter.

Eventually, my father gave her more and more and me less and less.

Back then, I really did throw tantrums and run away a few times. Whenever I did, Sasha would tell him, "Dad, if you keep chasing after her, she'll only keep doing it. Just leave her alone, okay?"

Eventually, he stopped coming after me.

Adrian knew the whole story.

Yet all Sasha had to do was say she was sick and didn't want to be homeless, and Adrian gave her the room he'd promised me.

I reached over and took the brush from her hand.

She gave an awkward little laugh, but the smug look in her eyes gave her away. She knew she'd won.

I didn't want to argue with her. I lowered my head and started packing.

There wasn't much to pack.

Just the canvases and paints I'd brought from my own time.

Adrian watched me roll up the canvases one by one. Only then did he frown.

"Thea Calloway, what's this about now? Sasha's only using the room until she gets better. Then she'll move out."

I looked up at him.

For the first time, I looked at Adrian and saw a stranger.

There was no love in my eyes. No anger. Not even hurt.

Nothing.

"I'm not making a scene," I said calmly. "I'm just packing my things."

"Why are you packing?"

His expression immediately changed.

"You're not planning to live somewhere else, are you? Thea, if the Bureau finds you, they'll force you to return. You know how painful that is."

He was right about one thing.

Forced repatriation wouldn't erase my memories. Instead, it would sever the neural pathway that made me love Adrian. And I'd already agreed to the procedure.

Sasha let out a laugh. "You're not going to threaten to run away again, are you? This isn't your old life, Thea. You waited 200 years just to be with Adrian. There's no way you'd walk out on him now. If you don't want me living here, you could just say so."

Adrian's face darkened.

"Sasha just got her registration approved. She's at a critical stage in her treatment. Can't you make things a little easier for her?"

I looked at him, and suddenly, the whole thing felt ridiculous.

We'd been together for three years. I'd left my friends behind for him. I'd given up the career and reputation I'd spent years building. Then I'd slept beside him for 200 years just to follow him here.

Yet when I told him I was leaving, he thought I was only trying to make him chase after me.

Fine.

Maybe leaving like this would make it easier not to look back.

That night, I slept on the narrow couch in the storage room.

In the main bedroom next door, Sasha said she was scared of the surgery. Adrian comforted her again and again, promising he would stay by her side until she recovered.

I closed my eyes. My terminal lit up with another notice from the Bureau.

"Time remaining until targeted nerve excision and temporal return: 48 hours."