My Mother Drugged Me to Crown My Brother

My Mother Drugged Me to Crown My Brother

Juniper Marlow · Completed · 5.2k Words

958
Hot
1.1k
Views
24
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

My mother only ever made the bedtime tea for me. Never my brother—just me, every night, because I was the gifted one, the daughter she "worried about."
The night before the scholarship exam, my one shot at college, she brought me a cup like always.
The next day I collapsed in the middle of the test. I'd never been sick a day in my life. I failed.
Don't worry, she said. We'll try again next year. And every single night, she kept making me that tea.
Second year, I went down again. Third year, again. Three times I sat that exam, three times my body quit at the worst possible moment.
The whole town started calling me the girl who faints. The genius who cracks. The family joke.
And my brother—who copied my homework and never read a book to the end—somehow walked away with everything.
I never understood why my body fell apart every time it mattered.
This was my last chance. For days I barely ate, terrified it would happen again.
Then, the night before the exam, my mother walked in with a cup of tea…

Chapter 1

My mother only ever made the bedtime tea for me. Never my brother—just me, every night, because I was the gifted one, the daughter she "worried about."

The night before the scholarship exam, my one shot at college, she brought me a cup like always.

The next day I collapsed in the middle of the test. I'd never been sick a day in my life. I failed.

Don't worry, she said. We'll try again next year. And every single night, she kept making me that tea.

Second year, I went down again. Third year, again. Three times I sat that exam, three times my body quit at the worst possible moment.

The whole town started calling me the girl who faints. The genius who cracks. The family joke.

And my brother—who copied my homework and never read a book to the end—somehow walked away with everything.

I never understood why my body fell apart every time it mattered.

This was my last chance. For days I barely ate, terrified it would happen again.

Then, the night before the exam, my mother walked in with a cup of tea…


I never understood why my body broke down every time I sat the Merritt exam.

The first year, I passed out halfway through the exam. One second I was working a problem, the next the room tilted and went dark. They carried me out on a stretcher with half the test still blank.

The second year I didn't even get that far. I sat down, the page started to swim, and then there was nothing.

By then the whole town knew me as the girl who fainted. Top of every practice test, every mock exam—and a wreck the moment it counted.

Tomorrow was my third try, and my last. That exam was the only way I'd ever afford college, and after two collapses, nobody but me still thought I'd make it.

My door opened.

"Still up, Sloane? I made you some tea. Drink it while it's hot and get to bed."

My mother came in with a steaming mug, smiling the soft, warm way she always did. She set it on my desk and smoothed the hair back from my face.

"You push yourself too hard. I don't care how you do tomorrow. I just want you healthy. Drink this, get some sleep, do your best. That's all I ask."

The tea smelled sweet, the way it always did. My mouth watered.

And something in me said, loud and certain: don't.

Both years, she'd brought me this same mug the night before. Both years I'd drunk every drop. Both times I'd woken in a hospital bed with the exam already over.

"What's taking so long?" My brother Cole leaned in the doorway, chewing gum. "She makes you tea every single night. You think that's free?" He smirked. "If I'd fainted twice I'd have quit and gotten a job by now. You could drink a gallon of that stuff and still choke."

"Cole." My mother's voice stayed soft. "That's no way to talk to your sister." Then she turned back to me, gentle again. "Don't listen to him. Go on, drink up. I'll wait and take the mug."

I looked at all that love in her face, and my stomach turned over.

I took the mug and made myself smile. "It's too hot. Let me cool it down first."

"It'll upset your stomach cold, and you've got the exam tomorrow." Her voice picked up an edge, and her eyes dropped to the mug in my hands. "Drink it. I'll wait."

Something cold went up my spine.

I raised the mug, then faked a cough into my sleeve. "Sorry—my stomach's a little off. Could you get me some warm water first? I'll drink it right after."

She frowned, weighing whether I was lying. Then she sighed. "You are so much work." And she went.

The second her steps faded down the hall, I moved.

I pulled out the empty bottle I'd hidden under my desk and poured the tea into it—fast, listening for her on the stairs—all of it but a thin film at the bottom of the mug. I capped it and buried it under the clothes in my backpack.

When she came back with the water, I was wiping my mouth, holding the empty mug out to her. "All done."

She studied the film at the bottom for a second. Then her shoulders loosened, and she smiled—really smiled this time.

"Good girl. Get some sleep." She paused in the doorway. "Tomorrow it'll all be over."

The door clicked shut. Her footsteps faded.

I sat there shaking. I dug the bottle back out, wrapped it in a shirt, and pushed it as deep into my bag as it would go.

Two years. Two collapses. A whole town certain something was wrong with me.

But this time I hadn't touched the tea.

This time, I told myself, nothing could go wrong.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine

Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine

2.9k Views · Ongoing · Sand Kastle
ARDEN: I always thought getting accepted into Elite Order Academy would finally make my family proud.
Perhaps then they would stop controlling my every move. Maybe my brothers would stop resenting me. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so invisible anymore.
No one believed I could do it—not even my mate, Alpha Jaxon Trevane.
The night I planned to tell him... I found him tangled in bed with my best friend.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I left everything behind and went to Elite alone.
But the academy isn’t the fairytale I dreamed about.
Beneath the grand halls and traditions, a brutal game is being played.
The four ruling Alphas of the North, South, East, and West fight for power, dominance... and now, for me.
A virgin. Untouched. Unclaimed. The prize they all want.
There’s the mate who shattered my heart and swears he’ll win me back.
The brilliant strategist who wants me as his Luna.
The dangerous playboy who promises no one will ever touch me but him.
And the cold, possessive Alpha who watches from the shadows—and would destroy anyone who dares to take me from him.
But in a place where love is a battlefield and lust is a weapon... falling in love might be the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Welcome to Elite Order Academy—where every desire has a price, and my body is the ultimate trophy.
Where The Ice Gives Way

Where The Ice Gives Way

157.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Charlotte Pierce is used to surviving in motion. New towns, new schools, the same old house on the edge of nowhere, and the same rule that keeps her standing. Keep her twin brother, Charlie safe. Keep his hockey dream alive. Keep her own needs quiet. She works too much, sleeps too little, and saves the one thing that still feels like hers for the middle of the night, when she can lace up her worn skates and carve freedom into dangerous frozen ice. Charlotte and Charlie shifted once, years ago, and never understood what it meant. They had no pack, no guidance and no protection. Just two twins clinging to each other and pretending the voice in their heads was stress, imagination, or loneliness. Then they move to Wellington.
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)

Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
GO ON YOUR KNEES, ALPHA.

GO ON YOUR KNEES, ALPHA.

1.6k Views · Completed · Jo Peters
He thought the worst thing he had ever done was losing me.

He was wrong.

Six years ago, Pete Leadsilver had everything an Alpha could want. Power, a respected pack and a future already written for him.

Then he met me.

What began as a game became a mistake I would spend years trying to survive. When I told him I was carrying his child, Pete chose not to believe me. He rejected me, humiliated me, and allowed the people around him to make sure I understood that there was no place for me in his world.

So I disappeared.

I took the secret of my pregnancy with me and built a life far away from the Alpha who had broken me.

Six years later, Pete finds me again. Only this time, he isn't the man with all the power. His pack is dying, his people are running out of time, and I may be the only person capable of saving them.

But I'm no longer the woman Pete remembers. And beside me is a little boy who carries far too much of Pete's face to be a coincidence.

Our reunion should have been about a cure, but instead, it becomes the beginning of a war neither of us saw coming.

Because Pete's greatest danger isn't outside his pack.

It's inside his own family.

Old resentment turns into manipulation. Loyalty becomes betrayal. And the people Pete trusts begin hiding secrets that threaten to destroy everything he's built.

Then someone comes for the people I love.

Suddenly, this is no longer about whether Pete can earn my forgiveness.

It's about whether he can keep me alive.

Whether he can protect the son he never knew existed.

Whether he can uncover the truth before the people closest to him destroy everything he has finally learned to value.

Along the way, we'll lose people we thought would always stand beside us, I'll be forced to confront wounds I've spent six years trying to bury, and the family we're slowly building will be tested in ways neither of us could have imagined.

Because sometimes love isn't the hardest thing to find. Sometimes it's the hardest thing to survive.

Pete once believed power meant never needing anyone and I once believed surviving him meant leaving him behind.

We were both wrong.

Because some bonds refuse to die, some betrayals cut deeper than rejection and some people don't come back into your life to give you a second chance.

They come back to show you exactly what you almost lost.

Pete Leadsilver lost me once.

This time, he'll have to fight to keep the family he never knew he needed.
Mission: Steal the Male Lead

Mission: Steal the Male Lead

864 Views · Ongoing · Tintedverry
Morwenna de Lacy awakens inside the bestselling romance novel she hates most—and discovers she has become the villainess fiancée destined to die before the story even reaches its midpoint. Her only hope for survival lies in the mysterious Audience Satisfaction System, which assigns increasingly impossible missions: make the cold Duke Corwin Winterveil fall in love, outshine the beloved heroine, and avoid every death flag written into the original plot. In a glittering empire of noble scandals, royal engagements, magical aristocrats, and ancient gods, one wrong move could cost her everything.

But the more Morwenna changes the story, the stranger the world becomes. The heroine seems to know the future, unseen spectators begin commenting on her life, and the gods watching from above grow obsessed with the drama unfolding before them. Trapped in a story where fate has already decided the ending, Morwenna must choose whether to follow the script or rewrite it entirely. But if the world itself was never meant to belong to its characters, can she steal the male lead before fate steals her freedom first?
The Spy Who Left

The Spy Who Left

2.1k Views · Completed · Orion Vale
"She's naive. A pretty little socialite who got lucky marrying above her station."
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
Accardi

Accardi

1.3m Views · Completed · Allison Franklin
“I thought we discussed this earlier, Weakness? I warned you. His death is on your hands.”
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.


Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
Letters to a Dark Prince

Letters to a Dark Prince

884 Views · Ongoing · nightbloom06
Mara Kim has never belonged anywhere… until someone decided she did.
Thrown into Isteros Academy—a world of old money, blood money, and cruel social games—she's an outsider by birth and an afterthought by design. Her sister Solyn is the school's untouchable queen and Mara is her favorite target.
Everyone expects Atreus to treat his fiancée’s scholarship sister like everyone else does—as if she doesn’t matter.
Instead, his dorm room sits directly across from hers, close enough that she can see his light go out at night. Some nights, he climbs the old maintenance trellis just to check on her. He teaches her chess. He shows up exactly when something's gone wrong—and never once asks to be thanked for it.
"Don't fall in love with one piece," he warns her, over a board neither of them treats like a game anymore. "It punishes the person who only sees half of it."
Mara doesn't understand why the boy who's supposed to make her life harder keeps quietly making it easier—not until she realizes the anonymous stranger she's been writing to every week already has a name.
His.
He doesn't know he's writing to her, either.
By the time they find out, it's too late to stop what's already happening. Far too dangerous for anyone to find out.
In an empty studio, in the middle of a rainstorm, she asks him: 'Am I the kind of girl who kisses a boy engaged to my sister?'
He doesn't answer.
So she asks: 'What are we?’
He told her not to fall in love with one piece.
She fell anyway.
And he was never far behind.
The rejected white luna

The rejected white luna

9.1k Views · Completed · gabrielgladys37
Aria was the daughter of the Alpha of the Silver moon pack born into a life of strength and legacy but instead of respect, she is overlooked by the members of her own pack due to her weak wolf. She had always wanted to have a mate just like everyone else but on the night of the mating ceremony, her dreams came crashing down when her own mate rejects her publicly choosing another.Aria is left humiliated but something inside her refuses to stay broken. As tension rises and unseen forces begin to shift, Aria starts to realize there may be more to her than anyone ever believed and when Aria stumbled on another pack and found out he is her second chance mate. Aria is stunned especially when she finds out who he is. what happens when Aria finds out that her second chance mate who she thought loves her was working for the Lycan king? And somehow finds herself in his kingdom? Would she be weighed down by betrayal? Or would she come out strong? What happens when she found out her fated mate who had rejected her wants her back? Would she go to him ? Or forgive her second chance mate?
The Legacy Game

The Legacy Game

1.8k Views · Ongoing · Quill Pen
At Corvain Academy, power isn't earned in the classroom—it is inherited in secret.

When scholarship student Chris Linds stumbles onto a mystery someone has killed to protect, she becomes the next target. The only person standing between her and death is Ashen Ford, the academy's cold, untouchable Student Council President—and heir to one of Corvain's founding families.

As anonymous invitations summon twelve students into the legendary Legacy Game, alliances fracture, secrets surface, and every challenge brings another deadly truth to light. But the greatest secret isn't who will win.

It's why one winner vanished without a trace... and why someone will do anything to make sure history repeats itself.
Mated To My Nemesis

Mated To My Nemesis

1.1k Views · Completed · Sharon Smallwood
"He knew my last name before he ever knew what I looked like. It wasn't until it was too late to turn back that I found out why."
Agnes Tremaine arrived in Melbourne with a camera but no backstory in this world. She was meant to document one season. She never realized she was already the blueprint — that the connections, the open doors, and the meticulous arrangements were all built specifically for her, tailored and designed to use her.
Ace had a nine-year revenge in the making. A journalist had destroyed his sister's life and left no fingerprints. Now the man's daughter was standing in his garage with a camera, and Ace had been the one to open the door.
His wolf chooses a mate he never wanted and couldn't shake — not in the paddock, not on the track, not even at 200mph where nothing else had ever followed him before.
For the first time in his life, he couldn't have it all.
Moonfire: Betrayed By The Alpha

Moonfire: Betrayed By The Alpha

8.3k Views · Completed · Rose Livingston
“Without my protection and your title as my Luna, it won’t be long before you come crawling back, begging me to take you in again.”

Alpha Caden Blackwell believed those words would break me. That after three years of marriage marked by silence, humiliation, and quiet rejection, I would fear a life without him.

I did once.

As the Luna of the Shadowcrest Pack, I gave everything to a man my wolf recognized as her mate, enduring whispers, cold stares, and a pack that never truly accepted me. I stayed because I believed love required endurance. Because I believed patience would one day be rewarded.

That belief shattered the night Caden welcomed his former lover back into our home, along with a child he claimed as his heir. It ended the moment his choices nearly cost me my life and the life of one of my unborn pups. Leaving was no longer a matter of pride. It was survival.

Caden does not know the woman who walked away. He still sees the Luna who waited, who forgave, who loved without limits. He does not see Nova Ashton, a woman capable of rebuilding her identity and claiming a future on her own terms.

I will never crawl back.
THE CHRONO WITCH: BENDING TIME TO SAVE HIM

THE CHRONO WITCH: BENDING TIME TO SAVE HIM

1.8k Views · Ongoing · Kwindumas
Kayla Faye has spent years waiting for the right moment to tell her childhood best friend how she truly feels. She waited through tenth grade when he started avoiding her. She waited through eleventh grade when he left for college without saying goodbye. She even waited until the day before her graduation, convincing herself she was finally ready.

What she wasn't ready for was finding out Zayn Ponteris had been dead the entire time.

The grief shatters something inside her. And before anyone can stop it, Kayla does something no sorceress should be able to do—she travels back in time.

Suddenly she's fifteen again, standing at their end of year formal, with Zayn alive and right in front of her, completely unaware that in another timeline she watched his parents mourn him.

This time, Kayla is determined to save him. Except nothing goes according to plan.

Zayn has a girlfriend. And the closer Kayla gets to changing his fate, the more she realizes her powers are bigger and more dangerous than she ever imagined.

The supernatural world is closing in. The clock is running out. And the one person standing between Kayla and everything hunting her is the same boy she keeps bending time to protect.

Kayla has no idea what's in store for her.

Because when you bend time, fate bends back.