Six months ago, I was planning a wedding. Then my mother died in a car accident, and at 25, I became guardian to my ten-year-old twin sisters, Lily and Maya.<\/p>\n
My fianc\u00e9e, Jenna, moved in and seemed like a blessing. She packed lunches, braided hair, wiped away tears. I thought she loved them.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, I came home early and overheard her in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not wasting my 20s raising someone else\u2019s kids,\u201d she said coldly. \u201cOnce James adopts them, they\u2019re legally his problem. I\u2019ll make their lives miserable until he gives in.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wanted the house, the insurance money\u2014everything. And she was pressuring the girls to say they wanted foster care.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t confront her. I planned.<\/p>\n
I told her I agreed about giving the girls up\u2014and suggested we move the wedding up. She was thrilled. She booked a grand ceremony.<\/p>\n
At the reception, in front of everyone, I played footage from the nanny cams my mom had installed years ago. Jenna\u2019s voice filled the ballroom\u2014cruel, calculating, undeniable.<\/p>\n
Gasps. Silence. Then the truth.<\/p>\n
I called off the wedding. Filed a restraining order days later.<\/p>\n
A week after that, Lily and Maya\u2019s adoption was finalized.<\/p>\n
That night, we made spaghetti and lit a candle for Mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew you\u2019d choose us,\u201d Lily whispered.<\/p>\n
They were right.<\/p>\n
And I would choose them every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six months ago, I was planning a wedding. Then my mother died in a car accident, and at 25, I became guardian to my ten-year-old twin sisters, Lily and Maya. My fianc\u00e9e, Jenna, moved in and seemed like a blessing. She packed lunches, braided hair, wiped away tears. I thought she loved them. I was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4366,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364\/revisions\/4366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}