WINTER'S MATE: FATED ON ICE

He had even shown me the contract stating that if she didn’t pay, anything could happen to me to clear the debt.

I had refused to believe it at the time, because the older sister I grew up looking up to could never commit such a disgusting betrayal. That was the reason why I had forced myself to live in that cramped, run-down apartment for so many years—because a naive part of me kept believing that maybe one day she would return to us. But here she was standing in front of me now, detached or rather unremorseful.

Fuck! I could feel emotion rising in me, my throat bobbing as I felt my nose tingle. I wanted a reason why she had abandoned her own flesh and blood. "Why?" I demanded, my voice trembling. Why did she do that? Why?!

Sophia just stared down at her manicured nails. "Why what?"

"Why did you leave us? Why the hell are you showing up here now?" I screamed, my chest heaving rapidly as I sniffed back the fluid in my nose. "Why?"

My voice trembled violently, and for the first time in seven long years, I finally let myself break down. A single tear rolled down my cheek slowly—the tears I had sworn to myself I would never show again. Tears that I thought were signs of weakness, tears that I thought couldn’t solve anything, but here I was letting them go freely.

God! My vision became blurry as tears repeatedly streamed from my eyes. "Why..." I repeated, my voice dropping into a soft, broken whisper as I quickly used the back of my hand to swipe the wetness away harshly.

God, I didn’t want to cry in front of her. The last time I had ever allowed myself to cry was when Mia was only four months old and I was confused and terrified about what to feed her. I had nearly killed her three times from clumsiness and lack of knowledge, and if it hadn’t been for the boss I was working for at the time helping me figure out how to take care of a baby, Mia would have died from my mistakes. When everything was too much to handle and I thought of running away also and leaving her for adoption or when I thought of just killing her and me together because the world wasn’t kind to girls like me with children. Or when Josh dropped by, always continue with his threat until I overcome it. It was very hard the first year because no one wanted to hire an underage person.

The hateful scorn, the harsh judgment, the detestful look, and the whispers... But as I looked at Sophia’s face, I realized she wasn’t feeling an ounce of remorse or guilt for the trauma she had put us through.

I straightened my posture, glaring at her through my blurred vision. "Get out," I gritted out angrily. I didn’t want to think anymore; my head and eyes are throbbing, but how did she know this place? Did it mean she had been lingering around the city this entire time, just waiting for the perfect moment to show her face?

"My child is here," Sophia refuted, looking over at Mia with an expectant expression, clearly waiting for the girl to cave and come to her, but Mia just whipped her head away, ignoring her as she buried her face deep into the crook of Jude’s neck.

"Get out of this house and never let me see your face again!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, my finger pointing toward the open doorway. I could feel my body vibrating, shaking in anger, pain, or what?

Sophia rolled her eyes dramatically, letting out a sigh of annoyance. "You are always so emotional, Rosie, and you always overfeel everything.” She waved her hand dismissively. “What did I even do that was so terrible? I went out into the world to find goodness and a better life for us, and look at you now—you are doing perfectly fine. Can’t we just come together and be a family again? Why do you have to be so oversensitive and overreacting about the past?"

My sniffing paused as my eyes widened from the audacity of her words. "I’m oversensitive?" I pointed to myself in shock, blinking. “I’m doing too much right now?" I asked slowly as the anger boiled over in me. "Sophia, can you actually hear the fuck coming out of your mouth right now! You left your newborn daughter to your underage sister! You took out a loan in my name! I was almost assaulted because of you! I was almost sold into a red room because of your shittiness!" I screamed and then lowered my voice. "And dare to say I’m overreacting?" The word came out in a broken whisper.

Sophia just waved her hand dismissively, her nose wrinkled. "But you weren’t," she responded in a duh tone.

I stared at her, really staring at the monster. I should be grateful for the life I have now? Grateful for not being sold, for not being assaulted? As my brain processed, or rather comprehended, what she just implied, I raised my hand and slapped her hard across the face, the sound resounding.

"You are a bitch," I breathed out, shaking.

Sophia stumbled back a step, her hand flying up to touch her reddened cheek, a look of shock crossing her features. Maybe that was the real expression I’ve seen on her face.

I sniffed, raising my chin high as I stared at her. "Get out of here and never come back again." I turned my back to her, refusing to look at her for another second. "I will just think of it like I never had an older sister, just like I’ve already been doing for the last seven years of my life. And you can go ahead and forget about Mia, just like you did the day you walked out on her without ever looking back."

"I am your biological sister, Rosie, and you can’t just do that to me," Sophia argued from behind me, her voice dropping its nonchalant tone.

I let out a light hollow chuckle, staring at the floor as the wave of betrayal hit me all over again. "But where were you when I needed you the most, sister?" the last word forced out with detachment and disgust.

Without waiting for her reply, I turned on my heel and sprinted into the back master bedroom as tears streamed down my face with the thought that I successfully ruined Mia’s seventh birthday.

***

Finally meet Sophia in this version also