Chapter 1 The Two-timing Tornado

Morgan's POV

My friend Penny dropped me off at my apartment, giving me a tired smile. "Get some beauty sleep, Morgan. You have the appearance of having been pulled through a hedge by the wrong end." I snorted, saluting her with a mock salute as she teared off in an obscenely large SUV that likely drank gas like a frat boy during happy hour. I watched until her monstrosity of a car disappeared around the corner, then trudged toward my building, snowflakes settling into my hair as if they'd paid rent.

I was excited and bubbling to surprise my boyfriend, Ethan. I'd been on a business trip that was longer than the line at the DMV, and I couldn't wait to see his stupid, handsome face. I'd been fantasizing about him nonstop, all while crushing my sales goals and pretty much saving my company's entire Asian arm. I was 50 percent proud, 50 percent elated and 500 percent prepared to face plant into my bed for like three days.

When I arrived at my building I wondered how Ethan might take my unplanned return. I'd attempted to call him from the cab at the airport, but the calls dropped faster than my New Year's resolutions. A flutter of discomfort pinched my stomach as I ascended the stairs to our second-floor apartment. I inserted the key in the lock but when I turned it, the door opened freely. My heart does a bit of gymnastics routine. This wasn't right. We always locked the door - Ethan was almost paranoid about it.

I cracked the door open with the stealth of a cat burglar, senses on high alert. The apartment was dim, the curtains drawn against the winter afternoon. The TV flickered with some action movie, soft music from the Bluetooth speaker and the smell of takeout filled the air. But no Ethan in sight.

"Ethan. Honey, I am home, I called dramatically, back from the war. Silence was all I got in response. My heart raced with nervousness as I crept deeper and deeper inside, my eyes adjusting to the darkness around me, almost as if I was roaming a cave.

I picked up a baseball bat we had stored on the wall by the front door (Ethan's idea - he'd watched too many home invasion movies) and tried again. "Ethan, your queen has returned from conquest." Still nothing. It was full of space but not space, as if someone had quantum-physics-ed the apartment.

I slowly walked toward our bedroom my knuckles white on the bat. But as I got nearer, I heard noises that didn't require a detective's badge to interpret - rhythmic creaking and moans that definitely weren't from someone putting together IKEA furniture.

My heart now going full on pole-dancing routine in my chest, I tiptoed to the door and threw it open with the dramatic flourish of a telenovela star. What I saw caused my internal organs to do a synchronized dive into my shoes. Ethan was in bed with someone else, their bodies, her breasts, jiggling in MY Egyptian cotton sheets I'd forked over MY bonus money to decorate MY bed.

"Oh Ethan, right there... Don't you dare stop!"

"I'm... So close... There... Can't just... Hit... Pause... Now..." I grunted back as he continued his rhythmic movements as though I was the invisible woman.

The passionate score dropped to background noise as I held my chest, feeling like someone had reached inside and was using my heart as a stress ball.

"Ethan, you two-timing tornado!"

"Holy shit!"

Ethan squealed and also sort of Levitated off the other man and turned to me firing eyes wider than dinner plates. "Babe, that's not what your eyes are seeing right now. I-"

But I couldn't stand to look at his lying face. My eyes went to the woman in my bed, and I felt my knees buckle. It was my sister, Kylie.

"Kylie!"

She pulled the sheet up to her chin, her face turning redder than a baboon's ass.

"One, how could you two stab me in the back with such Olympic precision?" I screamed, as though I had been struck by an emotional freight train.

I picked up the first thing I could reach - an ugly lamp Ethan's mother had given us - and threw it in his direction. He ducked with impressive reflexes for someone who had criticized basic yoga. The lamp fucking exploded against the wall, just like my trust.

"Cupcake, can you just take a deep breath," Ethan tried to come to me, hands raised as if surrendering to the police.

I stepped back, my eyes almost shooting laser beams. "Deep breaths? Should I meditate while you give me the story of how you found yourself naked with my sister? Was it an accident? "Oh, did you trip and fall on my bed naked?

"You were fucking around with this backstabbing snake! I spat, venom dripping from the words.

Ethan was about to say something when Kylie jumped up, swaddling herself in MY sheet as if it were couture.

"Morgan, you don't even think about calling me a snake!" it snapped suddenly finding its voice.

I looked at her with enough heat to melt steel. "Oh, sorry, should I say 'slimy, duplicitous reptile'? You're my sister! "You're supposed to be giving me skin care tips, not sleeping with my boyfriend!"

Kylie moved closer, her face twisting ugly. "You don't know everything, Morgan. It's complicated."

I barked out a laugh, which came out like a seal having a breakdown. "Complicated? What's complicated? The only thing complex right here is how to fit both your corpses in one suitcase!

Kylie slitted her eyes, but before she could open her mouth to whatever ludicrous excuse she had come up with, Ethan interjected. "Sugar, I-

I cut through his words like a hot knife through oil. "Why, Ethan? What kind of cosmic excuse might you have for this betrayal?"

Ethan's gaze fell to the ground, suddenly interested in the pattern on my carpet. "I... I don't know, Morgan. It just happened."

I laughed again, tears carving mascara rivers down my cheeks. "Just happened? What, like the weather? 'Slight chance of thunderstorms, and sleeping with your girlfriend's sister today, folks!' "

"You were always off gallivanting to save the corporate world, honey... I really tried to behave, sweet pea... But I have needs. "He was so blubbering, his eyes were fluttering around as if he were a guilty child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"It's been so cold recently ... I wanted warmth with this cold weather..."

I folded my arms, and my eyebrows nearly hit my hairline. "Oh, sure, Ethan. "What did you need warmth for in this weather?" I teased, my tone with more attitude than an incel subreddit. "And it was broken, the thermostat? And then all the blankets just burst into flames? What about the sweaters I got you for Christmas, you total walnut?"

Ethan's face turned fire hydrant red as he stammered for words. "Babe, you know I'm not talking about that kind of heat. ... I'm talking about human connection..."

I interrupted him with a roar that must have startled the neighbors. "GET OUT!!! "

Ethan's mouth unhinged like he was trying out for a fish documentary, his eyes big with fear. He appeared to shrink physically, his shoulders hunching as if he were trying to disappear. He looked at Kylie, then back at me, then rushed to pick up his clothes that had been strewn all over the floor. The way he moved, it struck me like a skittish squirrel trying to recall where it hid its nuts.

I held my ground, arms still folded, rage emanating from me like a nuclear reactor. It made me want to throw something other than lamps to see them together.

"Just get out! And don't you dare take anything that I paid for. The clothes had been charged to my credit card. So get out of this apartment with your partner in crime this minute!"

Ethan's mouth practically dropped open in disbelief. Yes, I was throwing him out in his underwear." I stood my ground despite his pathetic begging. Damn winter - let him freeze like my heart just did.

Just then, a sharp rap on my door shattered the tension, and I thought, Who else was going to join this circus of horrors...