Chapter 5

After that, the house turned even colder toward me.

Dad couldn't be bothered to speak to me.

My two brothers acted like I didn't exist.

Only Mom still asked once in a while how school was going and whether I had enough money.

I clung to those scraps of warmth like a drowning person grabbing driftwood.

As long as Mom cared about me, I told myself, that was enough.

I'd win the others over in time.

I bent over backward to please them.

When Caleb had a project at the company, I stayed up all night digging through research and pulling data for him. Not even a thank-you.

When Carter had a script, I went through it line by line, fixing every typo. He glanced at it and tossed it aside.

I thought if I tried hard enough, made myself useful enough, they'd eventually see me.

Until that family dinner.

It was Mom's birthday, and a lot of guests had come.

Mom kept me at her side as usual, introducing me to every guest who'd come to wish her happy birthday.

"So this is the daughter Mrs. Lawson got back? Goodness, what a lovely girl. I hear she was the top scorer in the entire state. She has a bright future ahead of her." It was Mrs. Holt who said it.

I let a small smile tug at my lips. "Thank you, Mrs. Holt."

Mom, beside me, seemed pleased with how I was carrying myself. The way she looked at me was even softer than usual.

Once we'd finished making the rounds, she let me off to mingle on my own.

I drifted through the crowd and noticed that everyone who saw me pretended they hadn't.

No one spoke to me.

No one clinked glasses with me.

I might as well have been invisible.

It started to dawn on me that they were avoiding me on purpose.

No luck finding anyone.

I picked a quiet corner and sat down. A waiter handed me a glass of juice.

It tasted good, so I helped myself to a few more glasses.

I only stopped when I needed the bathroom.

I asked someone for directions and slipped out of the hall.

I was about to leave the restroom when I heard voices coming from one of the stalls.

Yvette and her friend Sloane. "Yvette, sweetie, relax. I've already told everyone. That country bumpkin wants to make friends in our circle? In her dreams."

"Sloane, that's a bit much..." Yvette said.

Sloane said: "What's wrong with that? Some bastard who crawled out of who-knows-where thinks she gets to compete with you? You're the rightful Lawson heiress.

"You treat her like a sister, but does she treat you like one? She lied to set you up last time. Next thing you know she'll be hitting you."

So that was it.

It hadn't been my imagination.

Every single one of them really had been steering clear of me.

Silence.

I waited until they'd left before stepping out of the bathroom.

After what I'd overheard, I finally understood why everyone had been keeping their distance tonight.

What I still didn't understand was why my own sister had it out for me.

Or why she'd lied about me last time.

Back at the party, I knew there was no chance of making any friends, so I decided to head up to the private room on the second floor and rest.

At the top of the stairs.

Yvette was on her way down. My face stayed blank as I tried to walk past her. "Willow, having fun tonight?"

Yvette's voice came from right beside my ear, and her hand caught my arm.

I stopped. I couldn't hold the question back any longer."I want to ask you one thing. What did I ever do to you?"

Yvette didn't answer.

She looked at me for two long seconds, then smiled.

It was a smile I'd never forget for the rest of my life.

"You didn't do anything," she said. "But your existence is a sin."

Then she gripped my arm and pinched me, hard.

I jerked away on reflex.

I watched Yvette stumble back over the edge of the staircase, falling.

My mind went blank.

How?

I'd barely used any force.

And we hadn't even been that close to the stairs.

How did Yvette end up falling?

The crash was loud enough to draw everyone's attention in seconds.

Guests were screaming.

A girl I didn't recognize had hold of me, but her voice was familiar. "Willow, how much do you hate Yvette? Do you realize this is attempted murder?"

"How can anyone be this vicious?"

"Yvette..."

A sharp slap.

Caleb shoved through the crowd and struck me across the face.

My ears rang, my vision blurred, and I couldn't make out a thing.

All I knew was that someone was holding my arm and someone else was calling me a murderer.

Yvette lay at the foot of the staircase, her arm twisted, blood streaking her forehead.

But as she stared at me, there was something like a smile in her eyes.