Chapter 1
Before I turned ten, I was the family’s most cherished princess.[]
When I fell in love with gemstones, Mom and Dad would snag the show–stopping pieces at auctions just for me.[]
When I wanted to learn ballet, they flew in the most incredible dancers to be my private instructors.[]
Dad and Mom adored me, and my big sister spoiled me rotten.[]
Until the year I turned ten, when my sister got crushed by a semi–truck trying to save me.
From that moment on, I became the family scapegoat.
They wouldn’t let me sleep in a bed anymore, making me kneel on the floor every night to repent for what I’d done.[]
Every year on my sister’s death anniversary, they’d whip me with bamboo switches, making sure I never forgot my sins.[]
Later, they brought home a girl who looked just like my sister. To take her place in punishing me.[]
When they’d tortured me to the brink of death, a voice suddenly appeared.[]
“Pathetic. I didn’t save you just so you could let them destroy you like this!“]
…D
When Mom and Dad got home, I was on my knees scrubbing the bathroom floor.[]
The bleach had turned my fingertips a sickly white–blue. I pushed back the hair falling in my eyes, revealing the face I’d been hiding underneath.
Seeing me, Mom and Dad both froze.
I knew they were thinking about my sister again.[]
When she died, she was exactly my age now.[]
Thinking about her, I dropped my head again.[]
That year when I was ten, I was the one who insisted we go get ice cream.]
My sister always spoiled ine the most and never felt comfortable letting me go out alone.]
So even though she was swamped, she still dropped everything to come with me.
We left the house so excited, debating what flavors we’d get.[]
Then out of nowhere, a truck came barreling through the intersection.[]
And I lost my sister forever…[]
She got mangled under those wheels trying to push me out of the way.[]
A Derade Later Her Ghost W=> lo
Chapter 1
Mom and Dad decided I was the one who killed her.
They confiscated all my stuff and banished me to the storage room.
Not long after, they adopted Madison Thorne.[]
Suddenly, my hand slipped and the nail on the broom cut my fingertip, the gash bleeding drops of blood. The sharp pain pulled my thoughts back to reality.
“My Chanel shirt!“[]
At the same time, Madison’s shrill voice cut through the hallway.]
She came running in barefoot, hurling the silk fabric right at my face.
“What the hell did you do to it? Look at this!”
The bleach stung my eyes.
Looking at her, I felt dizzy for a second.
Mom and Dad had adopted Madison because she looked almost identical to my sister.
Now she was glaring at me, so vivid and alive that she looked exactly like my sister when she’d get mad at me for not eating properly.[]
I couldn’t help whispering:[]
“Sis, is that you? I’m so sorry, I promise I won’t be greedy anymore or beg you for ice cream.“[]
Madison seemed to catch that I was seeing her as my sister’s replacement too.[]
Hatred flashed in her eyes.]
She knew her role in this family was being a stand–in for my sister.
To secure her position here, she had to copy my sister in every way.[]
But she absolutely hated being treated like a replacement.[]
Except for Mom and Dad, anyone who saw her as a substitute had to pay.
So she ran off crying to tattletale to my parents with the shirt in hand.[]
I have no idea what story she spun, but within two minutes, Mom and Dad came looking for me with a ruler.]
“You little curse, get your ass out here.“[]
“Don’t you dare mention your sister! Madison IS your sister now,”
“This is what you owe her!“]
Before I could say a word, Dad’s ruler cracked across my back.[]
“Do you get it now?”
A berade Later, Her Great Walks in. Nue It’s Fayback Time
0.3%
Chapter 1
I wanted to argue back, but didn’t know what to say.[]
After all, my sister’s death really was my fault.]
Sometimes I even wished Dad would hit me harder.
As if that might make my sister in heaven forgive me just a little bit more.
2 AM. A cockroach crawled across the iodine bottle.]]
I lay face–down on the cot in the storage room, a cotton swab breaking off in the infected wounds on my leg.]
Moonlight leaked through the door crack, illuminating the tin candy box with my sister’s faded handwriting bleeding through water stains:
“JoJo needs to study hard so she can go to the same college as me.”
clutched the note my sister left me, letting the tears flow freely.[]
This was my promise to her–I had to get into college no matter what.
