Brother takes sister from her husband after saving her life

Brother takes sister from her husband after saving her life

This story starts on a beautiful sunny autumn day, in mid November, two days before my twenty second birthday. My sister, Catherine Jaeger-Briggs, waited at the door wearing a sundress, as her husband, Karl Briggs, and I left for the day.

With the recession we were going through, things became tough, and Catherine and Karl moved in with me. I love my sister, and if she needed a place to stay, I would never turn her away, but normally I wouldn’t have wanted to have my sibling and in-law living with me. Between the recession and our parents passing six months ago, these weren’t normal times.

Our parents’ untimely passing was hard to bear. They were taken from us by a drunk driver. Having my sister and her husband move in helped me adapt. I was young to inherit my parents’ farm; it was much more responsibility than I wanted to deal with. And it was nice not having to go through all my parents’ things alone. Another income greatly helped cover all the bills as well; my income as a student, supplemented by hunting, wasn’t enough to cover the bills of the farm.

The arrangement worked out well for all of us. Karl and Catherine were trying to have children, and Catherine wanted to be a stay at home mom. I now owned this large farmhouse, and no one to fill it. It was far too much work to maintain on my own, all the while going to school.

I made it to the door before Karl, and Catherine leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Have a good day, Kurt.”

“Thanks. I only have one lab this morning. My other class got cancelled because the prof. is sick. I might go out hunting this afternoon instead.”

She smiled and was about to reply, but then her eyes shifted to behind me and the smile dropped off her face.

I turned to look and Karl walked up, not wearing his work uniform; instead he wore a leisure suit which might have been considered fashion in the sixties or seventies, not some fifty years later.

“Aren’t you going to work?” Catherine asked.

He shook his head. “Na, Dave is coverin’ for me at the store. I’m gonna head down to the track and see if I can’t win some money for us. There’s a horse racin’ today, it’s a sure thing.”

I rolled my eyes, and Catherine’s lips tightened in a scowl. Karl didn’t seem to notice though. He simply leaned in, kissing her cheek before sliding past me, and heading for his car.

Sis and I both watched after him as he drove off.

I knew Karl always provided for Catherine’s financial needs, in the strictest sense of the term. She told me they rarely went without food, though at times because of her gardening, which she learned from our mom. He always made sure they had a roof over their heads. They were able to get clothes when they needed them, but no one would consider my sister and brother-in-law rich. Were it not for his gambling to begin with, they might not have needed to move in with me at all.

I didn’t know what my sister saw in this guy, but he was her choice, not mine; so I supported my sister.