Chapter 2
From the day she was born, she carried a weight that wasn't hers to bear.
Her grandparents had never forgiven her for surviving when her twin brother hadn't. To them, she had stolen his life, his place, his future. Their whispers—she should have been the one to die—dripped into her parents' ears day after day.
At first, her father and mother had loved her. She remembered faintly the warmth of her mother's lullabies, the way her father used to lift her into the air and make her laugh. But as the years passed, that love rotted into something else.
Her father avoided her now, burying himself in work, pretending she wasn't there. Her mother's eyes, once soft, turned sharp and cold. Every word from her lips was a blade.
"You've brought nothing but misfortune," her mother spat one evening when the girl tried to help set the table. "Just stay out of the way."
Her elder brother and sister had learned well from them. To her siblings, she was nothing more than a convenient scapegoat. If a vase broke, she was blamed. If homework went missing, she was accused. When they lied, she was punished in their place.
No one ever believed her.
The isolation followed her even to school. Classmates whispered behind her back, teachers dismissed her, and when she was bullied, no one spoke up. She was cursed, they said. Bad luck. A shadow no one wanted to be near.
Yet despite the cruelty, she endured quietly. She worked part-time jobs late into the night, her small hands aching as she stacked boxes or served food. Her pay went into buying her own meals—because even in a millionaire's household, she was expected to feed herself.
Her room at home wasn't a bedroom, but a forgotten storage space at the far end of the hall. Dust clung to the walls, the window creaked, and her thin blanket barely kept out the cold. Still, she whispered to herself each night: It's fine. I'll be fine.
And in her heart, she clung to one fragile piece of light.
The boy next door.
He was everything she wasn't—loved, admired, celebrated. He shone in ways she could only dream of. When he laughed, it felt like the world brightened. When he smiled, her heart stirred with feelings she didn't dare name.
Of course, she knew he liked her elder sister. Everyone did. But still, she couldn't help it. From afar, she loved him. From afar, she let herself dream.
Little did she know that even that dream would soon be poisoned—just like everything else in her life.