Chapter 1
Just to study how to treat Sophia's brain cancer, my own family handed me over for experimentation.
They were convinced that after I returned, I'd been bullying Sophia, making her so miserable that she got cancer.
Dead inside, I shut my eyes and let the scalpel slice through my brain.
But when the machine started playing back my memories, every single frame was just me getting bullied.
My parents, eyes red and swollen, clutched me as I lay unconscious, crying their hearts out.
My usually aloof brother desperately begged me to wake up.
As I woke up in the hospital bed, I looked at them calmly and asked, "Are you all actors or something? Which drama set are you from?"
*****
Three days after Sophia's suicide, my family put me on the basement lab table.
My hair was shaved off, and the cold air sent chills down my spine.
I tried to push myself up, but my hands and feet were strapped down.
I couldn't hide the terror in my eyes, and the next moment, my parents and my brother, Bradon, loomed into view.
Their eyes were cold, and their faces twisted with even more disgust when they saw me.
My dad was clutching a depression diagnosis report and Sophia's suicide note, his face twisted with rage as he growled at me, "It's all because of you that Sophia felt ignored and started thinking about ending her life.
"Did you curse her again, saying she deserved to die for taking your stuff? Now she doesn't even have the will to live."
Sophia had been in a coma for three days, and my dad finally snapped and turned on me.
Before I could even say a word, he grabbed my jaw and slapped me hard twice. He said, "You're the reason Sophia got depressed. Her suicide note said she felt guilty about you and ended her life so she wouldn't drag us down.
"She won't wake up, and it's definitely because you're still here."
That depression diagnosis was actually mine.
I'd read the suicide note too. Sophia kept saying she'd stolen my spot, and maybe her cancer was just fate getting back at her.
She said she was willing to step aside so our family could be happy again.
She promised to return all the attention from my parents and Bradon to me, asking me to grant her one last moment together.
But I had no idea she was planning to kill herself.
That day, I was locked in my room, hurting myself because the hunger was making my depression flare up.
Bradon called me a good-for-nothing who only cared about eating. He said I knew Sophia was sick and couldn't eat, but I still ate like a glutton right in front of her, so he made sure I didn't eat for three whole days.
But that was all just Sophia's version of the story. All I did was drink a glass of water.
But she used that as an excuse to stop her treatment, went and tried to end her own life, and stopped trying to compete with me for our family's affection.
Every word she wrote made it sound like she was bleeding out, like I was constantly driving her to the edge.
When my family found out, they couldn't tolerate having me around as a threat to her anymore, so they put me up as a lab rat, hoping to figure out some miracle cure for Sophia.