“Uncle Efan!” Lisa finally burst out.
“Is dis your girlfriend? The one you said is super smart and pretty?”
That was the first time I saw Ethan blush bright red.
“Lisa, honey, what did we say about keeping secrets?” Mandy reminded her.
“But Mom!” Lisa protested, “Uncle Efan really did say she’s the prettiest girl he’s ever seen! ‘Cept for you and Grandma, of course!”
That evening, I watched Ethan help his mom with the dishes while simultaneously listening to Lisa’s elaborate story about her kindergarten adventures.
I couldn’t stop smiling while watching what a beautiful bond Ethan shared with his family.
He’d drop everything to help Maureen with home repairs or take Lisa for ice cream when Mandy needed a break from her life as a single mom.
At that point, I realized I’d hit the jackpot. I knew I could never find a guy like Ethan anywhere else.
As time passed, I also developed a special bond with Mandy.
“You know what’s funny?” she told me one afternoon while we watched Ethan pushing Lisa on the swing set. “I’ve never seen my brother so complete.
He’s always been our protector, our rock. But with you, he gets to just be himself.”
“You think he’ll stay happy with me?” I asked.
Mandy’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What do you mean, Zara?
Is that even a question? He couldn’t find a better woman to spend his life with. You two complement each other perfectly.”
When Ethan proposed six months later, it felt like everything was falling perfectly into place.
We threw ourselves into wedding planning, and everyone got involved. Lisa was especially excited about being our flower girl.
“Can I wear a princess dress?” she’d ask repeatedly. “With lots and lots of sparkles?”
“The sparkliest dress in the whole world,” I promised.
“You’ll outshine everyone.”
“Even you, Auntie Zara?” she’d ask.
“Especially me, sweetheart.”
Soon, we found the perfect venue for our big day. It was a charming old barn converted into an event space. Maureen helped with the catering arrangements, while Mandy became my unofficial wedding planner.
Everything was perfect until that horrible day, nine months before our wedding.
It was a Saturday afternoon, and Ethan and I were having lunch at my place.
Suddenly, his phone rang, and he put it on speaker like we always did with family calls.
“Hey, Mom,” he said cheerfully, picking up his fork.
The tremor in Maureen’s voice made us both freeze. “Ethan, y-you need to come to the hospital right away. It’s… it’s Mandy.
There’s been an accident.”
Ethan looked at me, and what I saw in his eyes was something I still can’t put into words. I just know that I had never seen someone’s world collapse in real time before that day.
The twenty-minute drive to the hospital felt like hours. Maureen was already there when we arrived.
The doctor’s words still haunt me: “We did everything we could… But the accident was too severe.”
My heart broke as I watched Ethan collapse on the ground.
“No, please, no,” he kept repeating.
“She can’t… Lisa needs her. Mom needs her. I need her.”
I held him while he sobbed.
I felt completely helpless, but the hardest part was yet to come. I had no idea how we’d tell Lisa about this.
The following weeks were devastating.
Ethan barely functioned, and watching Lisa try to understand why Mommy wasn’t coming home shattered my heart daily.
“When’s Mommy coming back?” she’d ask during bedtime. “She always comes back to kiss me goodnight.”
Ethan would hug her tight.
“Mommy can’t come back, sweetheart. But she’s watching over you from heaven, and she loves you so, so much. And you have me, Grandma, and Auntie Zara.
We’ll always be here for you.”
Ethan buried his pain while trying to be there for Maureen and Lisa, but I knew this wasn’t healthy. I knew it would eventually lead him to a breakdown.
“I think you should go to therapy, Ethan,” I told him one day.
“Therapy? But I’m fine, honey,” he replied, masking his pain.
“I don’t need it. Trust me.”
It took me months to convince him to try therapy, but he quit after only a few sessions. Instead, he threw himself into helping Maureen care for Lisa.
Slowly and painfully, we all began to heal.
Our wedding day was beautiful but bittersweet.
Lisa looked absolutely magical in her sparkly dress, throwing rose petals down the aisle with such serious concentration that it brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
I almost cried when Ethan danced with both Maureen and Lisa during the father-daughter dance.
After the ceremony, we took a fifteen-day honeymoon while Maureen and Lisa stayed at our place to watch our dogs.
Everything felt perfect when we returned home, which is why that night caught me so completely off guard.
I woke up around midnight to cold sheets beside me.
Where’s Ethan? I thought before I heard muffled voices coming from outside.
I followed them and soon found myself outside our living room. My heart pounded as I listened.
“Mom,” Ethan’s voice was strained.
“I don’t think I can do it.”
“You shut up!” The harshness in Maureen’s voice made me jump. I’d never heard her speak like that before. “Be a man and do it… DO IT FOR YOUR SISTER!”
My hands trembled as I pressed closer to the wall.
“She’s my…” Ethan’s voice cracked.
“Mom, it’s never the same.”
There was a brief pause before Ethan continued.
“Mom, Zara and I are not planning on having children. We want to have great careers and travel as much as possible when the time comes. We’re happy with the dogs for now, but that’s all we’ve decided.
I can’t risk my marriage. We’ve only been married two weeks.”
“I think you can risk your relationship,” Maureen said firmly. “Lisa is your blood.
She’s the only part left of your sister. You cannot run from the truth.”
What’s this about? I thought.
I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I stepped into the room and asked, “What truth?”
Ethan and Maureen looked at me like they’d seen a ghost.
“I’m tired,” Maureen announced abruptly, standing up. “I need to go to bed.”
She hurried past me without answering my question.
“Ethan,” I said, looking straight into his eyes. “Please tell me what’s going on.
What’s all this about?”
He sighed deeply, taking my hands in his. “Mom’s sick, Zara. Really sick.
She’s been hiding it from everyone, but her condition is deteriorating fast. The tremors in her hands, and the memory lapses we’ve noticed… it’s not just age.”
Suddenly, so many little moments clicked into place.
Maureen’s shaking hands while teaching Lisa to sew her teddy bear’s sweater, the confusion when she couldn’t remember where she’d parked at the grocery store, and the way she sometimes paused mid-sentence, searching for words.
