:Flashback- Three Years Ago:

When Nerissa asked me to accompany her on a trip, I said no. About ten to twenty times, but I eventually caved in when she said she wanted to make up for every bad blood between us. Honestly, the two-day trip had been kind of nice. But on our way back, something happened. I was driving. I’m not sure how the accident happened.

But I know it happened, and I was found with only minor injuries. Nerissa though? The car had been too wrecked, and with no other sign of her… well, she was pronounced dead. My parents had been sad, but initially, they were alright and slightly glad that I was okay.

The next night, though, that was when I realized what my place was. Despite being their biological daughter, Nerissa is the one they truly love.

That night, the house was too quiet. The kind of quiet that made my skin crawl, that made my stomach twist in a way I couldn’t explain. I didn’t know then that silence could be a warning. I didn’t know that by morning, nothing in my life would ever be the same again.

I woke up to my mother screaming.

My heart pounded as I stumbled out of bed, still groggy, my legs weak beneath me as I rushed toward the noise. The scent of coffee from downstairs mixed with something sharp, something bitter. Fear.

When I reached the living room, my father was holding a piece of paper in his hands, his knuckles turning white as he gripped it tightly. My mother was sobbing into her hands. The moment they saw me, their grief twisted into something uglier.

Hatred.

My father’s eyes were wild, his face red with fury as he crumpled the note in his fist and threw it at me. It hit my chest before fluttering to the floor.

“Read it,” he ordered, his voice shaking.

I bent down, my hands trembling as I unfolded the paper. My stomach dropped the moment I read the words written in Nerissa’s delicate handwriting.

/No matter how hard I try, Auri will always hate me. She’s better at everything, so she rubs that in my face. She never fails to remind me that I’m adopted. I’m hoping this trip will bring us closer, but she turned me down so many times, it’s clear she doesn’t want me. I wish I could die so she can have her parents all to herself. I just want her to like me, but as it seems, I’ll always be the lackey to my better sister./

I inhaled sharply, my breath catching in my throat. The words blurred as my vision swam, my mind struggling to process what I was reading.

No. No, she wouldn’t… she wouldn’t write such a thing. Those words made no sense to me. When did I rub anything in her face? When did I say I was the better sister? How did they even find this? Where did they find this?

A choked sound escaped me, but before I could say anything, my father was on me. His hands grabbed my shoulders, shaking me so hard my teeth rattled.

“This is your fault!” he roared, his spit hitting my face. “You think you’re better than her? You think you could just come back here and take everything from her?! Those rogues should have killed you when they kidnapped you.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Those words pierced me. The air was thick with anger, suffocating me, pressing down on my chest until I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

My father had always been an imposing man, but never before had he looked at me like this. Like I was something vile, something he wanted to crush beneath his boot.

“I—”

I didn’t even get the chance to defend myself. His fist came out of nowhere, slamming into my cheek and sending me sprawling to the floor. My head hit the ground, the room spinning violently around me as pain exploded behind my eyes.

“I should’ve left you with them,” he spat, towering over me. “I should’ve never brought you back. I had the perfect daughter, why the hell did I agree to find you?”

My mother didn’t say a word. She didn’t move to stop him. She just stood there, sobbing, as if she wasn’t watching her husband beat their daughter to the ground.

But I wasn’t really their daughter, was I? Not anymore.

They had already replaced me.

I barely had time to push myself up before my father grabbed my ankle and yanked me toward him. A scream ripped from my throat as he twisted my leg, his boot coming down hard, once, twice, before a sickening crack filled the air.

White-hot agony shot up my body, stealing the breath from my lungs. I convulsed, my hands clawing at the floor, but it was useless. The second blow came down on my other leg, and this time, I knew something inside me had shattered.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. The pain was too much, burning through me like fire. My vision blurred, black spots dancing at the edges of my sight.

I was going to pass out.

“I hope you remember this, Aurielle.” My father’s voice was a growl, barely human. “I hope you remember that no matter how strong you think you are, you’ll never be better than Nerissa. If she were alive, I would have shouted it for her to hear.”

Through the haze of pain, I let out a shaky breath.

I never wanted to be better than her. I just wanted to exist. To have a family that saw me. Loved me.

But they never would.

After that, everything blurred together. The pain, the screaming, the way they dragged me out into the freezing night.

I was broken. Bleeding.

And as I lay in the dirt, the scent of pine and damp earth filling my nostrils, I knew one thing for certain.

They had abandoned me, again. Left me to die.

I didn’t, though; someone saved me. Someone gave me a second chance. One I wasn’t sure I wanted.