Chapter 1

The day before New Year's, my wealthy parents and brother finally agreed to take me to Disneyland to celebrate.

But when I arrived at the park, I still hadn't seen them.

I messaged them. They replied helplessly, [Traffic is bad; we'll be late.]

I waited alone in the park until late at night.

When the clock struck midnight, I scrolled through my Instagram and saw my fake heiress sister.

She wore a pristine white princess dress, holding a freshly won dance trophy, embraced by my parents and brother at the New Year's party.

It read: [Starting the new year with my beloved family again!]

Her friends liked the post one by one.

This wasn't the first time my parents had stood me up.

But this time, I didn't argue or cry. I just calmly commented: [So nice. Happy New Year to all four of you.]

*****

That night, I stayed up all alone at Disneyland, having fun until almost sunrise.

When I finally got home and had barely closed my eyes, my phone started ringing.

I stared at my phone, watching my brother Brogan Robinson's name light up on the screen, but I didn't budge.

When the call came back for the fourth time, I finally picked up, taking my sweet time.

Before I could even say a word, Brogan started yelling at me, "Alannah, what's with the snarky comment in the middle of the night?"

"Ruby finally won an award last night, after working her tail off for years. What's so wrong about us celebrating that?"

His voice turned even colder as he said, "Can you just grow up for once? Do you have to make the whole family miserable on New Year's?"

Be sensible again.

Ever since I was brought back to the Robinson family, it had been my shadow.

It kept telling me to make way, stay silent, and just smile.

I stared out at the gloomy sky and finally spoke up. "Happy New Year, Brogan."

He was caught off guard. All that anger he'd built up suddenly stuck in his throat.

Before he could say anything, I kept going in that same flat, emotionless tone. "It's nothing, really. I just feel like you guys are the real family."

And with that, I hung up.

The world went silent in an instant.

The phone screen went dark, and my blank reflection stared back at me.

I stood up, walked to the massive walk-in closet, pulled open the bottom drawer, and dug through a pile of fancy but useless jewelry boxes until I found the beat-up canvas backpack I'd brought with me when I first arrived.

I unzipped it and started packing.

My old T-shirt, my sketchbook, and that mechanical pencil I'd been using for years.

Halfway through packing, my phone rang again.

This time, it wasn't Brogan. It was Jazzlyn Cameron, the woman who's legally my mom.

I didn't pick up. Just sent the call straight to voicemail and kept calmly folding my old clothes, tossing them into the canvas bag. Didn't take long to fill it up.

My phone rang again. This time, it was my dad, Aaden Robinson.

I hung up on him, too.

Soon, my phone buzzed with a text message.

It was from Aaden, still talking like the boss of the house. [Ruby's crying her eyes out, feeling guilty. Get your butt back here and apologize. Enough drama—just come home.]

I stared at the message, but didn't reply.

There was still one last, most important thing I had to do.

I opened my desk drawer, and there it was, a sleek black card, just sitting there, untouched.

When I first returned to the Robinson family, they shoved it into my hands, calling it pocket money, and told me to buy whatever I wanted, as long as I didn't make the Robinsons look bad.

I never used it. Not even once.

I took it out, set it on the spotless desk, pulled out my phone, aimed it at the card, and snapped a picture, making sure to capture every detail.

Then I opened up the group chat, the one that only ever woke up when someone sent out a holiday cash gift.

I attached the photo and hit send.

Right after, I typed out a message. [Thanks for everything. I never touched this money. The password is Ruby's birthday. From now on, I'll rely on myself.]

Once I was done, I felt like a weight had finally been lifted off my shoulders.

Less than half a minute later, my phone started blowing up.

The group chat went wild, but I couldn't care less.

Right after, Jazzlyn called for the third time, sounding like she wouldn't stop until I picked up.

This time, I answered.

As soon as I picked up, Jazzlyn's voice came through, shaky and on the verge of tears. "Alannah, where are you? Please come home, okay? What did you mean by that message you sent in the group?"

"Nothing special," I said. "Just what it says."

She said, "Alannah, I know you've been wronged all these years, but Ruby's health is fragile, and she's always been sensitive. How could you upset her like that? If she sees it, she might have another episode!"

Listening to her usual lines, I almost snorted.

Here we went again.