- 1 week ago
Rekindled love in error
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Short filmTranscript
00:02my stepbrother sebastian was drugged i undid my own clothes and dedicated my first time for
00:08my stepbrother i fantasized about this scene countless times i really wanted him his big
00:14manhood when i got pregnant parents pressured him to marry me the same day sebastian agreed
00:20he got a car incident he was an ice hockey star and billionaire i didn't care that he'd never
00:26skate again i still wanted to be his bride i thought he'd be grateful i thought we'd grow old
00:31together until our wedding night the estate caught fire i woke up choking and my first thought was to
00:37get him out instead he smashed a vase over my head it's you you destroyed me don't think i don't
00:45know
00:45you orchestrated that night did you this thirsty but i will never love you i love sienna forever
00:52now you can go to hell
01:00i woke up to sebastian's ragged breathing from the next room
01:03i opened my eyes familiar walls no wedding decorations no smoke i'd been reborn
01:13ellie get me some water i checked my watch i'd come back to the night he was drugged
01:23the memory hit me all at once the blood blurring my vision the fire eating through my skin it felt
01:29like it was happening again every instinct i had said run get as far from sebastian holt as possible
01:36i hadn't even grabbed my shoes when he appeared in my doorway
01:40sarah i already called sienna go pick her up now quickly i knew the drug tearing through him he needed
01:48release was sebastian reborn too obviously this time he called sarah because he didn't want to sleep with
01:54me grabbed my keys and slipped past him sideways walking fast for the door
02:01the address sebastian gave me was near the arena district an apartment building a few blocks from
02:06the practice facility so sebastian and sienna had been living together this early he said i destroyed
02:12his love life he wasn't wrong sienna spotted my car and yanked the door open dropping into the passenger
02:18seat she looked panicked i caught a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes
02:23how is he you'll see when you get there i didn't want to talk to her not because i was
02:30jealous
02:30because neither my mom nor i had ever trusted her sienna walsh had been a charity case my family
02:36sponsored through school at first my parents adored her she was driven brilliant dad and mom
02:42personally flew her out to chicago to start college i always thought her eyes looked calculating
02:47i told myself i was being paranoid then one night she called dad crying some drunk guy had cornered
02:54her outside a bar he rushed over and she threw herself against him the second he arrived arms
03:00around him face buried in his chest she was dressed very provocatively rubbing her breasts against dad's
03:07chest and her genitals were also rubbing wildly against dad's body dad froze with both hands in the
03:13air looking like he'd touched a live wire mom pulled up 30 seconds later and saw the whole thing
03:23sienna cried and said she thought of dad like a father she'd been so scared she hadn't thought
03:28my parents said all the right things but after that she was never invited to the house again and dad
03:34never dealt with her directly mom wasn't stingy she had her assistant wire sienna fifty thousand dollars
03:41the night before sienna was supposed to fly out she came to say goodbye and she walked right into
03:46sebastian he'd just gotten back from his graduate program in vancouver fresh off two seasons playing
03:52in the western hockey league first round draft pick already a name people said with a little extra weight
03:58the next day sienna returned every dollar and told mom she'd thought it over she was going to work
04:04first save up do things right sebastian was heading out the door when he heard her say it he looked
04:10at her
04:10plain clothes steady eyes and something in his expression shifted a month later sienna joined the
04:16holt organization personal executive assistant to sebastian i told him she wasn't what she looked like
04:23that getting close to him was a strategy ellie not everyone thinks about romance all day like you do
04:29less than a year later she had a key to her apartment i drove fast ellie being upset doesn't mean
04:37the rest of
04:38us want to die sienna walked into the building i stayed in the car and stared at the steering wheel
04:44i knew exactly what was happening up there i wasn't jealous in my last life my death had taken my
04:50parents
04:50down with me that was what finally made it clear what i felt for sebastian was poison to him just
04:57being
04:58loved by me cost him something ellie he's your brother whatever twisted thing you felt for him drove him to
05:06another country he has me now let it go sebastian had known he'd known all along that i had feelings
05:13for him and he'd left for vancouver to get away from me if i'd known that sooner i wouldn't have
05:19last time watching him suffering and barely conscious i wouldn't have reached for my own buttons
05:24you're an adult now it's time to find someone right for you she was afraid i'd cling to sebastian
05:31i wouldn't not this time whatever i'd felt for him was gone
05:40sebastian came down in his sleeping clothes where were you last night the marks on his neck were
05:44obvious his voice was rough lazy i went to see my friend jess jess was my best friend sebastian had
05:51met her he still thought to check where i'd been maybe he'd made peace with things too maybe we could
05:56just be siblings again normal i almost let myself feel hopeful i know you look down on sienna's
06:02background i think she's not good enough but she's the woman i'm going to marry and you're
06:05going to treat her with respect when had i ever looked down on where she came from i must have
06:09shown
06:09the confusion on my face drop the act she put herself on the line fixing a mess you made she
06:14paid
06:14for your mistakes with everything she had what does that mean you're gonna tell me the drug wasn't from
06:19you sienna is a decent person she wanted to wait until our wedding night you took that from her
06:24i didn't i said it loud and clear yes i had feelings for sebastian for years but i would never
06:31have done something like that we had dinner out came home i drank the milk you left on my nightstand
06:35if it wasn't you who last time i never understood why sebastian didn't investigate i assumed he'd been
06:40compromised outside the house and was too ashamed to dig into it he thought it was me that's why he
06:45hated me so much enough to want my parents to burn with him enough to make sure our six-month
06:50-old
06:50baby never saw the world something bitter sat in my chest my eyes burned believe me or don't
06:55but it wasn't me sebastian's bedroom door opened sienna stepped out wearing his dress shirt looking
07:01like a startled rabbit sebastian is ellie angry at me his eyes were a clear warning
07:09ellie's not angry she's happy for us sebastian's right congratulations you two
07:15sienna saved sebastian i'll talk to mom and dad i'll make sure they agree to the wedding a flicker
07:20of triumph crossed sienna's face sebastian watched me like he was looking for the trap let him look
07:24he was willing to die for her even knowing what she was i wasn't going to let my parents carry
07:29any
07:30more risk because of me don't make things hard for his parents i know i'm not what the family expected
07:34i just want to be by his side sebastian pulled her close sienna showed me the look of someone who
07:39had
07:39already won ellie your brother kind of wrecked my shirt can i borrow something last month you didn't
07:45wear the dress i gave you you said you didn't like it why not give it to sienna he had
07:48given it to me
07:49for my birthday i hadn't worn it because i was saving it giving away something he gave me a small
07:54thing and i knew it i felt it anyway then i didn't sienna put on my dress and did a
07:58little spin asking
07:59sebastian if she looked beautiful ignoring me completely none of it touched me this time i just
08:04wanted my parents and me to be okay mom and dad got back from vacation after two weeks away
08:09the day they returned sebastian told them he was marrying sienna when i got home there were broken
08:14pieces of a teacup on the living room floor mom sat beside dad rubbing slow circles on his back
08:18her face was stone sebastian sat across from them expressionless mom dad i went straight to them and
08:26wrapped my arms around them both fighting my eyes their faces softened immediately but he was already
08:31ruffling my hair mom pulled me onto the couch you're grown and you're still doing this sebastian wants
08:36to marry his assistant what do you think ellie
08:43sebastian's eyes came to me too i think it's great sienna and sebastian are good together
08:49you really think that mom sebastian is 26 he gets to choose his own life we should support him
08:55whether you like sienna doesn't matter what matters is sebastian wants her after the wedding they can have
09:00their own space and i'll live with you two forever that softened their faces a little i caught
09:05sebastian's eye and gave him a small nod our whole lives mom dad after we're married sienna and i will
09:12take care of you both please sebastian knelt on the floor in front of them i pushed again from the
09:16other side they looked at each other then they gave in sebastian got his wedding this time the tragedy
09:21didn't have to happen i felt the tension drain out of my hands after mom and dad went to bed
09:26i went
09:27up to my room i just opened my journal when the door swung open without a knock sebastian he glanced
09:32at
09:32the journal his face changed i barely stood up before his hand closed around my throat ellie
09:39write more of your disgusting thoughts about me
09:43what are you talking about
09:49sebastian picked up the journal you kept a whole diary full of this when you were in high school he'd
09:55read my diary i was furious and humiliated and i shoved his hand off me i grabbed the journal and
10:00threw it at him what do you want from me i helped you get what you wanted and it's still
10:04not enough
10:05i had feelings for you that was my mistake i don't anymore what else do you want
10:10you love looking at my private things go ahead but the guy i'm writing about isn't you
10:16you actually said yes to my brother you want to be my sister-in-law she was so loud two
10:21people at the
10:22next table looked over i reached up and covered her mouth i ran into him a few days ago we
10:28just my
10:28face was getting warm clicked okay but tell me everything he asked you out six months ago and
10:34you turned him down how did you end up here her brother grant walsh had asked me out six months
10:40before my rebirth at the time my whole heart was sebastian's i said no coming back and fixing what i'd
10:45gotten wrong didn't change sienna's behavior she was in my house every day marking her territory
10:51making sure i knew my place even after i stepped back completely she didn't stop i needed to get out
10:57of
10:57the house i went to a bar and had a few too many and when i was dizzy and trying
11:01to find the bathroom
11:03some guy cornered me in the hallway i was about to cry from panic when grant appeared out of nowhere
11:08and dropped the guy with one punch
11:12when grant pulled out a handkerchief to wipe my face i laughed out loud before i could stop myself
11:19grant who carries a handkerchief in this century what are you 80
11:24do you have any idea what this cost doesn't matter a napkin would have worked better he thought about
11:28it nodded and threw the expensive handkerchief in the trash
11:34ellie says it ellie gets it one handkerchief and suddenly we were talking every day whenever i was
11:39low i'd message him and he always had some ridiculous thing that landed exactly right after
11:44my rebirth the only time i felt like i could breathe was when i was talking to grant
11:48don't billionaires have better things to do than text all day because it's you
11:52i don't want you waiting even a minute i've basically had my phone in my hand for three
11:56weeks straight so this was what being loved felt like sebastian had never given me anything close
12:01this time around i wanted to know what it felt like for real i told grant yes i kept a
12:07journal
12:07lately the man in it was grant i didn't know if sebastian had read it this time when i got
12:11home
12:12the notebook was sitting neatly on my desk sebastian was gone for days good timing
12:17i used the space to tell mom and dad about grant the heir to the walsh family i held their
12:21hands
12:22and made them promise to stay with me always they patted my head and said yes like i was being
12:27adorable i didn't care they'd agreed and i was holding them to it that evening sebastian brought
12:31sienna home for dinner she was wearing something expensive enough to somehow look elegant mom and
12:36dad were polite nobody caused a scene after dinner we all settled in the living room sebastian
12:41sienna we're not standing in the way away of your wedding but there are things we need to say
12:46first sebastian's gaze kept drifting towards me throughout the evening it made my skin crawl
12:53sebastian's getting married ellie has a boyfriend to make sure there are no arguments down the road i
12:58want to be clear now married or moved out you each get half of what we leave behind that doesn't
13:02seem
13:02fair ellie's a daughter she'll marry out of the family splitting it evenly is just handing assets
13:07to strangers you're not even part of this family yet and you're already telling us how to run it
13:11isn't that a little early ellie's boyfriend isn't trying to get his hands on our money by dating
13:19her is he he pulled sienna a little closer i'd actually say this split is unfair too ellie's
13:25adopted i don't mind supporting her forever she can marry whoever she wants and stay in the house
13:30that's generous enough mom and dad's expressions went somewhere dangerous who told you ellie was
13:35adopted that's impossible ellie is the one who elisa is our biological daughter you're the one who
13:44were adopted mom and dad were among the first people from their small town to go to college
13:50they graduated moved to the city built something when it started to go well they came back for the
13:55people they'd grown up with brought a few of the younger ones to chicago to give them a start
13:59sebastian's father was one of them the town was poor back then your mother ran out on you and your
14:05dad when you were small your father was a good driver and a good son he didn't want to leave
14:12your
14:12grandmother your grandmother didn't want to be the thing holding him back so she made the choice
14:19herself sebastian's face was blank with shock even i was hearing this for the first time
14:26your grandmother's last wish was for us to bring your father and you to the city we said yes you
14:31just started walking things didn't go the way anyone planned your father was killed in an accident
14:36within six months he was barely 25 he left you behind at not even two years old mom's voice was
14:41steady but her eyes weren't i was pregnant i looked at this tiny little boy alone in the world and
14:47we
14:47talked it over and we said yes to taking you in sebastian's expression kept shifting you're making this up
14:54you want to cut me out of the inheritance so you're inventing a story more disappointment
14:58settled into dad's face he looked at sebastian without the warmth that was usually there
15:08mom and dad aren't lying junior year of high school when you were in the hospital with that flu
15:12i noticed your blood type 2 matched i brought the chart to mom that's when she told me we don't
15:19share blood that was also when i started to love him completely every page of every journal his mood
15:25was my mood and there had been years all the years before the last month of his senior year when
15:30he was
15:31actually a good older brother when mom and dad were working he was the one taking care of me
15:37i spent more time with him than i did with either of my parents there was a stretch when i'd
15:43watched a
15:43horror movie and couldn't sleep alone i crawled into his room every night his classes were brutal
15:49but he would sit with me patient until i fell asleep in his bed then he'd take a blanket to
15:55the chair in
15:56the corner in the morning light with his eyes closed and his face relaxed every piece of him seemed to
16:02glow that version of sebastian fit every quiet dream i'd ever had i did his laundry without telling him
16:08straightened his room when he wasn't looking put a hot mug of something on his desk every night
16:12i thought i was hiding it i wasn't he saw it and how i looked at him and then that
16:17pink journal
16:17nailed it permanently into something shameful this is a lie you're making it up to give the estate to
16:24the girl you're actually related to sienna's voice had gone sharp she worked inside the holt organization
16:30she knew exactly what half the estate meant
16:39sebastian's expression was unreadable for a long moment this can't be real you're doing this together
16:45all of you if you don't believe us we can run a paternity test the results say you're not our
16:51blood
16:52i'll give you a starting season and step back just had to go to ellie dad was done the love
16:58he'd
16:58always shown sebastian wasn't in his voice anymore the reason sebastian had always been so certain i
17:03was the adopted one last time i had told mom to be honest with him about which one of us
17:07was by
17:08illogical i didn't want our already complicated dynamic made worse by him feeling obligated to me
17:14sienna's eyes were doing calculations sebastian understood what dad was saying do the test and it
17:19means choosing to fight ellie for what was left and cutting the cord on everything between our family
17:24and him he didn't take the test even with sienna pushing he just looked at me i looked back at
17:33him
17:33nothing moved inside me after that night sebastian barely came home without him taking up space in my
17:40head i felt lighter i didn't realize how much of my energy had been going toward managing that weight
17:49grant and i started spending more time together
17:53he kept showing up asking to formally meet my parents his future in-laws he called them completely
17:58straight-faced i walked in one afternoon and mom was making soup while dad sat at the kitchen counter
18:03she called me over to taste it i told her it was the best thing i'd ever had which made
18:09her glow
18:09mom can we buy another place she paused for sebastian for the wedding not exactly sebastian had
18:16pushed the wedding date out two years for reasons i couldn't figure out but even with him barely home
18:20sharing walls with him felt wrong especially with our rooms right next to each other i want you to
18:26get me a place mom pinched my nose already trying to escape you just grew up
18:37i'm not escaping i want you and dad to come with me
18:40give this house to sebastian part of it was the distance from sebastian part of it was that last
18:45time this house was where we all died the walls still made me uneasy before mom could answer there
18:50was movement from the living room sebastian at dinner mom and dad seemed to have put the hard
18:56conversation behind them they kept putting food on my plate and sebastian's sebastian's eyes came to rest
19:01on me again like they'd been doing lately dad ellie just graduated she shouldn't just be sitting
19:07around she should come work at the company i was sure i'd heard wrong he couldn't stand to be in
19:12the
19:12same room as me why would he want me in his office every day before i could object dad nodded
19:16good you
19:18should get real experience now before life gets more complicated i don't want to i want to be useless
19:23dad can support me now and when i get married my husband can support me i deployed full effort puppy
19:29dad must have noticed something had shifted between me and sebastian he assumed it was the
19:33inheritance conversation and he'd been quietly trying to smooth things over between us
19:40at this rate no one's gonna want you and you'll end up depending on your brother for the rest of
19:44your life dad was joking sebastian inexplicably was not ellie's welcome to stay home i'll take care of
19:52her as long as she needs the way he was looking at me had something in it i didn't want
19:56to name it
19:57made my skin crawl after dinner mom and dad went for a walk i did my makeup a soft deliberate
20:03look
20:03and got ready to meet grant i hadn't even made it out of the hallway before sebastian caught my arm
20:08are you avoiding me did he seriously need to ask his eyes had an anger in them i couldn't account
20:14for
20:15do you actually want to see me if you didn't have those feelings for me i would have treated you
20:20like a real sister i held his gaze i don't have them anymore what i felt for you burned up
20:26in the fire
20:26last time his grip on my shoulders tightened sharp enough to hurt and then at those last two words
20:33his hands went still you were reborn too
20:39he let go
20:44so you're running from me going off to marry some random guy is that how little you think of yourself
20:49his expression was something i couldn't read angry maybe regretful and something under it that looked
20:54like it refused to accept what was happening what random guy at that he looked startled then
21:01briefly something like hope crossed his face the man in your journal this grant you made him up
21:09he'd seen the journal and apparently he'd decided from what i wrote that grant was some kind of street
21:14level con artist all i'd written about was how he'd helped me that night outside the bar and then the
21:19things we did together wandering through an outdoor market on the edge of the city going to a live show
21:24watching grant play drums at a venue downtown under the stage lights loose and confident with half the
21:30women in the crowd losing their minds i'd been one of them yelling myself hoarse apparently i had
21:34described a charming screw-up who preyed on rich girls he's a good person i pushed past sebastian
21:43and he's not some deadbeat there was heat in my voice now come work with me meet real men
21:52you'll see what you're walking away from then i remembered grant had mentioned our families were in
21:56the middle of closing a deal fine i was curious honestly private grant the one who dragged me to
22:05flea markets and crowds surfed at concerts i wanted to see what he looked like when he walked into a
22:10room in a suit and made an entire boardroom nervous ellie just stay close to me i'll look after you
22:16like a brother should i moved his hand off my arm something impatient rose in my chest
22:21that's okay i'll have my parents and my boyfriend for that sebastian went cold i felt it and i still
22:28walked out the door on the street i made a mental note to push harder on the new apartment idea
22:40grant was waiting outside in a casual jacket forehead creased in thought
22:45what are you thinking about wondering what else i can find for us to do he folded me against his
22:53side and i thought of something jess had said once she said her brother spent his early 20s being
22:58exactly what everyone expected reckless loud careless with money and people then their grandfather
23:04handed him the company and put him through two years of the most intensive reshaping of his entire
23:09personality the result was someone almost unrecognizable steady calculated kind of man who
23:14made a room fall quiet when he walked in she'd said it like a complaint i laughed and said i'd
23:18never
23:18want a man like that jess asked what i did want i said i wanted someone who'd still come out
23:23and play
23:23we were both laughing when grant walked in with a bowl of fruit and stood in the doorway looking
23:28completely at a loss i looked at him now sideways grant have you been doing all this the markets the
23:35shows the driving around at midnight because you thought that's what i wanted he hesitated
23:40you don't like it i knew it i felt something turn over slowly in my chest
23:48when i loved sebastian without him knowing i'd asked him once carefully what kind of girl he was drawn to
23:54he said quiet steady for years after that i made myself smaller around him he thought it was maturity
23:59it wasn't grant had taken me bungee jumping scuba diving and to a racetrack and somewhere in all of
24:05that i'd remembered something about myself that i'd always loved the feeling of my heart going too
24:10fast grant was five years older than me and somehow loved exactly the way i did like someone who'd never
24:15been told to tone it down just be yourself you don't have to keep up with me grant held on
24:26i was scared you'd think i was too old or boring or insufferable his voice had this quality like a
24:34complaint but soft and it made me laugh before i could help it i'm going to need to do a
24:38full
24:38inspection for the insufferability levels grant laughed and tried to get away from my hands and
24:44i thought this is what it feels like being loved back sebastian had never given me a single second of
24:50this wanting someone who doesn't want you is the whole problem i thought that was always the original
24:55sin
24:59i started at the company and immediately understood why sienna had been on edge since the moment i
25:04walked in she'd been sebastian's assistant on paper in practice she was running the floor like she'd
25:08already signed a prenup i came in as a junior associate on the projects team and i pushed hard
25:14to keep my name out of any introduction dad was supportive he thought starting at the bottom built real
25:19judgment sienna treated my arrival like an occupation three separate attempts to make things difficult
25:24in the first two weeks and i ignored all of them mostly i kept to my desk and avoided the
25:29executive
25:29floor entirely it held up for two weeks then the day came when grant was scheduled to walk into the
25:34building for a deal meeting i ran into sienna in the break room while i was waiting
25:41sienna i'm not here to take anything from you not sebastian not your standing in this company i'm here
25:47because dad wanted me to come that's it no one else was around i said it plainly i don't believe
25:53you
25:57she looked at me like i'd said something in a language she'd decided not to speak i picked up my
26:01coffee that's your choice all i could think about was the look on grant's face when he realized i was
26:06already here then she grabbed my arm there was a brief sharp struggle and then sienna threw the
26:11contents of her mug against her own wrist and forearm the sound she made was loud enough to pull in
26:15most
26:16of the floor ellie you act like you support us to our faces and then you follow your brother here
26:21and now this her voice carried people were filing in from every direction i know you hate me
26:28but scalding me isn't gonna make me walk away from sebastian the employees around us were wide-eyed
26:33already running the math on the drama she's his sister that's wait so this is a whole thing
26:39management is going to be stuck in the middle of a family war who does he side with when he
26:43shows up
26:44either way he loses the noise closed in like walls my eyes were burning i have a boyfriend
26:52i said it loud sure you've got a fake boyfriend to make your brother jealous we've all seen that
26:59move you chased him to his own company and now you're playing innocent i slapped her
27:07it was reflex the second my hand connected i knew i'd handed her exactly what she wanted
27:13she just everyone saw that that's sebastian's old sister hitting his fiancee because she's in love
27:20with her own i raised my hand again sebastian came around the corner grant was beside him grant
27:26walked straight to me he was in a fitted suit the version of him that closed nine figure deals and
27:31put entire front offices on the back foot sharp clean the kind of presence that made a room recalibrate
27:37itself but i knew he wouldn't turn that sharpness on me i grabbed his hand without looking at
27:43sebastian sienna look at him that's my boyfriend he's better looking than sebastian he has more
27:49money than sebastian and he actually loves me back and i love him
27:56grant's expression went from anger to something that looked a little like trying not to smile
28:00he stood up straighter you think i don't know what you're doing you don't want me near this company
28:05on one side you're scared i'll get too close to sebastian on the other you're scared i'll use my
28:12share of the family assets to have a say in how this place runs i glanced at sebastian my mouth
28:17pulled into something cold this is the woman you chose for her you were willing sienna hadn't
28:24processed what was happening she turned and pressed herself against sebastian ellie hates me she burned me
28:29she hit me sebastian i know i'm not good enough for you but i took a step forward i knew
28:36sebastian loved her
28:37i knew my parents genuinely loved sebastian and that i'd spent the last several months trying to make
28:43everyone happy by letting him have what he wanted i'd been wrong with sienna involved there was no version of
28:50this
28:50family that didn't eventually come apart sebastian i didn't go after her check the footage
28:57one of the watching employees spoke up the break room camera's been down maintenance hasn't gotten
29:03to it yet but the building's ai unit it was stationed right outside the break room even without a full
29:08video record it should have picked up audio should tell you pretty clearly you started it
29:14people noticed the unit standing just outside the break room door it blinked its camera eyes at the
29:20crowd and offered a small mechanical smile looks like my girlfriend has excellent taste in tech this
29:26model uploads all audio and visual data to cloud storage automatically permanent record you can pull
29:33anything going back as far as you want the color drained out of sienna's face something close to panic
29:39my stomach tightened jake pull it sebastian said no expression sebastian you don't believe me pull
29:48everything on file related to mrs walsh while you're at it sebastian didn't answer her i stepped in right
29:53behind him all of it everything that unit has ever recorded near her you think money gives you the right
29:59to invade my privacy sebastian your sister is humiliating me sebastian's face was working through something
30:05complicated this model is male presenting and has never recorded anyone in a private space grant said
30:11in the tone of someone reading off a spec sheet just public areas the absolute deadpan delivery made me
30:16bite down on a laugh he pressed my hand quietly the fallout from sienna spreading what she'd spread
30:21about me meant i handed in my notice that same afternoon when i went up to sebastian's office to leave
30:26my resignation he watched me with an expression i couldn't name so grant walsh is actually grant walsh
30:34yes so you can relax i'm not chasing you i'm not fighting you for the inheritance and if you want
30:39to marry sienna i'm not stopping you my voice was polite distant i'd never talked to him like that before
30:44sebastian i hope we both get to be happy this time
30:54grant came to the house for dinner on the same day jake delivered the footage results i didn't ask what
30:59was on it but my walking away had cut off whatever sienna had been building toward and that felt like
31:04enough mom and dad took to grant immediately dad especially they spent most of dinner talking about
31:09business and by the time dessert came out they were finishing each other's sentences after grant left
31:14mom pulled me into her room since sebastian and sienna got together i've been worried about you
31:18my chest tightened did mom remember too she saw my face and smoothed my hair back
31:23you think i don't know why your father and i pushed back so hard on the wedding
31:28we had our own reasons but you handled it so well and now look at you i exhaled slowly
31:34she didn't know neither of them knew that was good sebastian wouldn't make the same mistakes twice
31:40and our family would be okay the night before grants and my engagement party sebastian came home
31:46late i thought it was mom when he knocked i didn't lock the door he came in and pulled me
31:51against him
31:51and the smell of whiskey hit me immediately ellie i was wrong don't get engaged to someone else
31:58be with me i pushed against him as hard as i could and kept my voice low you've lost your
32:02mind
32:03marry me we stay a family all four of us isn't that what you always wanted
32:12you don't love me so what is this i couldn't get free i do i just didn't know it until
32:19it was too
32:19late he stepped back and held my shoulders looking at me directly i don't love you anymore the red in
32:25the corners of his eyes was visible now i don't buy that years don't just disappear sebastian
32:30i told you whatever i felt for you was incinerated in that fire in our last life both his hands
32:37were
32:37trembling his eyes were wet i was wrong i'll say it to anyone i'll get on my knees in front
32:43of mom
32:43and dad i'll spend the rest of my life making it right just come back standing there watching him
32:48i felt something almost like grief not for him but for the version of me who would have fallen apart
32:53at the sight of this i'll sign everything over to you every asset every share i'll spend what's left
32:59my life earning it back from zero i couldn't tell if he was drunk or broken or both i put
33:03everything
33:04i had into shoving him back sebastian mom and dad don't know anything about our last life don't blow
33:10that up i'm asking you to let this go he moved toward me again i said it steady and quiet
33:16do you
33:16want to lose the last thing we have because that's what this does he stopped the pain on his face
33:22was
33:22real i didn't look away from it sebastian i love grant the way i used to love you and he
33:29loves me
33:29back be happy for me i'll be happy for you too when you find someone who's actually right for you
33:35i said each word slowly sebastian's face went white by degrees then he left sebastian was one of the
33:41proudest people i'd ever known that retreat that night he would never put himself through it again
33:46i was sure of that what was done was done last time's pain was last time's holding on to it
33:52meant letting it keep costing me things i chose to let the light in and i believed standing there
33:58in the quiet after he left that we would both find our way to something good
34:04i was going to lose ellie completely even if she still called me her brother coming back the second
34:10time i fought to hold on to what i'd thrown away in the end i was just a joke the
34:13footage jake pulled
34:14told me everything about why my parents could never warm to sienna she'd been using the office
34:18landline to call her mother talking about my dad being old talking about my mom watching too closely
34:23talking about me like i was a lock she'd already figured out how to open she was disgusting she'd
34:29gone after my father first then pivoted to me and i fell for every bit of it how did i
34:33ever convince
34:34myself ellie had drugged me ellie was the most straightforward person i'd ever known the drug came
34:39from sienna she'd slipped it to me over dinner then she'd fixed herself up and fed me a story about
34:44saving herself for our wedding night and i believed her because i needed to believe something she
34:48needed into the whole family fast so she took a shortcut last time when ellie stood in my doorway
34:53looking uncertain and reached for her own buttons i still had some part of my brain left i knew what
34:59i
34:59was doing but she was so disarming and i was so weak and i did something i've never forgiven myself
35:03for then i buried the guilt under outrage and called it her fault and blamed it on her on my
35:09parents
35:10on everyone except the person who'd actually set the whole thing in motion i came back thinking i'd
35:15corrected it i'd made it worse i watched ellie pull away from me inch by inch no more dropping by
35:22to
35:22share something funny no more mug of something hot appearing on my desk no more of any of it
35:29i heard her on the phone with grant once telling him that after they were married she was going to
35:33watch him eat every meal to make sure he finished it the jealousy that hit me was so irrational i
35:38scared
35:38myself i spent every day with sienna i thought about ellie constantly when sienna went after ellie in
35:44that break room i had already decided whatever the footage showed i was done with sienna and i was
35:49going to ellie's side i was going to protect her then grant walked in and stood next to her
35:53and i understood that i had already lost the only thing i'd ever actually wanted ellie didn't ask me
35:59what the footage contained she already knew more or less she'd always protected me from my own
36:04embarrassments even now knowing everything i'd done she left the company and cut off the last
36:10route sienna had to get wah tea she wanted ellie thought the sacrifice was worth it she was always
36:16worth more than i deserved the night before her engagement with the whiskey making me brave enough
36:20to be an idiot one last time i held her and asked her to stay she pushed me out the
36:25door i went back to
36:27my apartment and put into motion the thing i'd been building for weeks sienna and her mother had been
36:31getting greedy i'd laid the groundwork carefully by morning both of them were in a position they
36:36weren't getting out of easily i hated them but i was the one who'd let them in that was on
36:40me
36:42ellie didn't blame me my parents didn't blame me that almost made it harder without her this second
36:47life was going to be darker than the first that was the cost i was paying it was fair i
36:53wasn't going
36:53to get married i was going to build what my parents had built make it bigger and look at me
36:58it was fine that was my penance i'd chosen it and i meant it
37:03you
37:06you
37:06you
37:06you
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