Page 13 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

Sia

Sia had never imagined becoming a stepmother to her sister’s children. The word itself felt heavy. It carried pain that she didn’t want, along with the stories where someone intruded, replaced, and rearranged what wasn’t theirs.

And yet every morning she woke in Dian’s house with her girls’ laughter drifting down the hallways. Lives she was terrified of mishandling.

These were her sister’s girls. Sometimes that truth wrapped around her like comfort. Other times it squeezed her lungs until she could barely breathe.

Was she honoring Dian by loving them or was she just trespassing?

She lay awake at night and stared at the ceiling while she wondered if stepping fully into their lives meant stepping on a memory that deserved to remain untouched.

Still, when Stella padded down the hallway at two in the morning, tearful and shaking from a nightmare, Sia never hesitated. She got up and took care of the little girl.

Sometimes she had to step into a quiet room or out onto the balcony and force herself to breathe. It was a lot, and while she had always loved being the fun aunt, she hadn’t carried the full weight of childcare. Being with the girls all day every day was a beast all its own.

The responsibility of actually raising the girls was not something an aunt normally worried about. And while she was only their stepmother, the duties were the same as if she were actually their mother.

Which she totally accepted that she was not. She had been clear about that from the beginning.

“I’m not here to replace your mom,” she’d told the girls one afternoon at the kitchen table, the words careful and plain. “No one could do that. I’m just… here.”

Celeste’s chair had scraped softly against the tile as she leaned back with her arms crossed tight over her chest. “My friends say people always say that,” she said. Her voice was soft, but her eyes were sharp. “And then they do it anyway. Like their words don't mean anything.”

“I’m not sure who these ‘people’ are,” Sia held her gaze as she made air quotes with her fingers, “but you are free to hold me to my word.”

Luna kept her gaze on the tabletop. “What if we like having you here?” she asked quietly. “Is that… bad? I know you’re not Mama, but I like you being around all the time.”

Sia’s chest tightened. “No, it’s not bad, sweetheart. It just means your heart’s big enough for more love.”

Celeste’s mouth pouted before she jumped up and stormed off to her room. Sia started to follow but changed her mind. If she forced herself upon the girl on the cusp of becoming a young lady, she would lose her. She knew that Celeste needed her own time to catch her breath before she moved forward. At least she hoped that giving space worked that way.

But Celeste’s rebellious nature didn’t get better with time. Instead, it sharpened. It didn’t take Sia long to realize that Celeste noticed everything.

She discouraged Stella from reaching for Sia’s hand instead of Lucas’s when they crossed a parking lot. She chastised Luna for asking Sia to check her schoolwork. She gave pushback at every simple act.

“You don’t have to do that,” Celeste commented one night as Sia tucked Stella into bed.

“Do what?”

“Act like a mother.”

Sia straightened slowly. “I’m putting her to bed, which means I’m acting like someone who cares about your sister.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“No,” Sia said gently. “It isn’t.”

Celeste’s jaw flexed. “They’re forgetting because of you.”

Sia stilled. “Forgetting what?”

“Her.” Celeste’s voice cracked. “Luna laughs more. Stella asks for you when she wakes up. What if one day they don’t need our mother anymore?”

Sia stepped closer. “Needing me doesn’t erase her.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re right, but you need to remember that she was my sister just like she was your mother, so I want to do everything I can to keep her memory alive.” Sia resisted the urge to point out that she had known Dian far longer than the girls had.