What happened when you gave the wrong person a second chance

The Second Chance That Almost Cost Everything

My sister broke the one rule I had and almost unalived my family, then showed up at dinner with a glass of wine. When I asked why she won’t stop, she said, “He’s still breathing, isn’t he?”. That was 10 months ago.

Today, she was screaming my name through the Ring camera, begging me to stop.

My sister and I have always had an okay at best relationship. We never talked, but we never fought either.

We never shared clothes, never talked about boys, never did anything like that. Whenever it was just us two, the air was filled with awkward silence, which neither of us cared enough to break.

But that all changed when she turned 21 because the second she took her first sip of beer, everything changed. She went from drinking monthly to weekly to daily.

It felt crushing seeing her delve deeper and deeper.

And what was even worse was when she tried to drag me down with her. I never liked alcohol and wanted to stay away from it, but she bullied and coerced me into it.

On her 22nd birthday, she gave me a bottle of water that was actually straight vodka. And when I spat it out and started coughing, I looked up to see her recording my reaction and laughing.

I gave her one final chance after that. I told her if she tried to drag me into drinking again, I would cut her off.

Well, a month later, it was her and her boyfriend’s anniversary.

They invited me out with them, and my sister promised not to ask me to drink with her. Of course, she lied.

Throughout the whole night, she kept giving me extremely diluted drinks that I didn’t even realize had alcohol in them. Some vodka, whiskey, even rum.

I remember feeling a light buzz after my third drink, and the world started spinning. This was the first time I was intoxicated.

I clung to her asking what was wrong with me, but she just laughed, and because she was tipsy herself, admitted what she had done.

I don’t remember the specifics. All I remember is being enraged.

I called a cab on the spot, and once home, I sent her a voice note telling her I never want to see her again.

What’s even more insane is that she called me a week later blaming me for ruining her party because everyone looked at her like she was an eyehole after finding out why I left.

I didn’t even respond, just hung up. Life went on without her.

I soon met the love of my life. We got engaged, got married, my sister wasn’t invited, never even attempted to reach out.

But then, coincidentally, when I was pregnant, she sent me a message. She said she saw my Facebook post about having a baby with my husband on one of her friends accounts, and seeing it made her realize nothing is more important than family.

She apologized and begged for another chance. I was very reluctant, but eventually agreed.

We met up for coffee at a little brunch spot and even though she was nice and apologetic, she still had three glasses of wine, which let me know she was still drinking regularly.

I asked about it and she said alcohol was a part of her life she never wishes to give up, but she did promise that if let her back into my life, she’d never drag me into drinking again.

I thought long and hard about it and I agreed. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but everything actually went fine.

She respected my boundaries, never asked me to drink, and never got more than tipsy in front of me. But then last week, she came over to my house, and that was when I realized resuming contact with her was the worst thing I could have done.

This was the first time I’d let her come over after my baby’s birth. I had warned her that she wasn’t allowed to go near the baby if she drank and she told me that was no problem.

I still had a bad gut feeling about it. But the last year gave me good reason to trust her, so I pushed my worries away.

But then she came over with two bottles of wine. We all had a pleasant chat and even my husband had a glass.

I, however, did not drink. My sister almost finished the two entire bottles herself and was quite hammered.

Still, the evening was going okay, but then she asked to use the bathroom. I pointed her upstairs and after waiting a few minutes, I went to check on her to make sure she wasn’t getting sick.

But when I went up, she wasn’t in the bathroom. She was in our room sitting on our bed, wasted out of her mind, holding my baby.

The second she saw me, she panicked and quickly stood up to give him to me. But as she was standing up, she lost balance.

She fell and dropped my baby. He fell on the floor.

I screamed and went to check up on him. Thankfully, he hadn’t fallen from a notable height.

He was crying, but seemed to have no major injuries or anything, which I thank my lucky stars for. My sister got up and started apologizing, and I just called my husband.

I told him to hold our baby and dragged my sisters downstairs and outside to speak to her. I told her that I had one rule.

Under no circumstance could she get near the baby while drunk. And while drunk, she decided to hold him, then dropped him.

She kept apologizing, but I called her a taxi home, saying I never wanted to speak to her again.

That, however, turned out to be a mistake because, as it turned out, she had done more than just dropped my baby.

She had fed him the remainder of her wine bottle, and he was currently upstairs throwing up while my husband was crying and calling the hospital. The next few hours were a blur of panic.

The ambulance took us to the emergency room where doctors confirmed alcohol poisoning in my infant son.