Chapter 2
I wandered home, totally out of it.
I sat on the stairs, staring blankly at my phone.
The lock screen was a photo of Calvin holding my hand.
There was a red "MC" tattoo at the base of his thumb.
It was the day I said yes to being his girlfriend.
He looked me in the eye and made me a promise.
"I'll only love you for the rest of my life," he said.
I laughed and teased him, "Talk is cheap."
Without hesitating, he got my initials, MC, tattooed right at the base of his thumb.
"Why did you get it there?" I asked.
"When my thumb is open, it's ready to catch you. When it's closed, it grips you tightly. Either way, I'm never letting you go," he replied.
It's only been a little over a year.
And now, everything is different.
Suddenly, I heard a soft chuckle behind me. I whipped around and saw my sister, Mia, standing there.
Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glimmered with a trace of desire.
"Didn't you find Calvin?" she asked.
I froze, staring at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"Let me play you something," she said.
She flashed a seductive smile and hit play on a voice message.
"What's the meaning behind that tattoo on your thumb?" a woman's voice asked.
Then Calvin's deep voice came out of the speaker, tinged with a playful laugh.
"If I told you it was your name, would you believe me?" he said.
"What do you mean?" the woman pressed.
"M stands for the first letter of your name, Mia, and C is the first letter of my name, Calvin," he said with a flirtatious tone.
"Why did you get my name inked there?" Mia teased.
"Curious? Then how about I ask you out?" Calvin flirted.
Seeing the fury in my eyes, Mia clicked her tongue and sneered, "It's not over yet. Keep listening."
"I just left you, and I already miss you," Calvin said softly.
I'd never heard Calvin talk like that before.
It was disgustingly sweet, with a spoiled, clingy tone.
It made my skin crawl.
"You're about to get engaged to Maeve, so why are you still coming after me? If you sleep with me tonight, what's your plan after that?" the woman asked.
"If you don't tell, and I don't tell, Maeve won't ever know," Calvin replied.
"So you want me to be the other woman?" the woman shot back.
"I can't let you go, Mia. Just give me a little more time, please?" Calvin pleaded.
The air was thick with silence.
The only thing you could hear was my teeth grinding.
Mia showed no fear at all.
She leaned in close, her voice turning cold and vicious.
"Maeve, you think because Mom and Dad brought you back, you're suddenly the Carter family's princess? You think you can get rid of me? Dream on! You're the one who's leaving. Making you lose Calvin is step one. Watch what happens next," she scoffed.
Mia and I were swapped at birth.
By some crazy twist of fate, last year the Carter family tracked me down and brought me home.
When I came back, Mia was supposed to move out.
But my parents couldn't bear to let her go after all those years, so they let her stay and kept up the story that she was my sister.
Mia thought I'd stolen the life that was supposed to be hers.
She was always making trouble for me.
She'd spit in my food, and if I wouldn't eat it, she'd rat me out to our parents.
She'd break Mom's antique vase and blame it on me.
All this made my parents, Lily Carter and Frank Carter, start looking at me differently.
I kept holding it in and putting up with everything.
But I never thought Mia would push it this far.
All that bottled-up anger exploded. I didn't think and slapped Mia hard.
The very next second, I saw a flash of smug satisfaction in her eyes.
She looked at me, and for a split second, I could see she'd gotten what she wanted.
With Lily and Frank shouting in shock, she staggered back and went tumbling down the stairs.
Luckily, the stairs weren't that high.
Lily and Frank helped Mia up, their faces set in cold and hard lines as they rounded on me.
"Why did you push Mia?" they snapped.
Mia kept shaking her head, her voice trembling with tears.
"Don't blame Maeve," Mia said.
She said, "I saw she was in a bad mood, and she said she was going to break up with Calvin, even though they're about to get engaged. I said a couple of things to her, and she got upset and pushed me. I'm fine."
Dad froze for a few seconds, his face darkening with anger.
He yelled angrily, "You brought him home and wanted to get engaged. And now you want to break up out of nowhere? Don't you have any self-respect?
"Guess we've spoiled you way too much. You never think before you act and do whatever you please. If we'd known you'd end up like this, we—"
Lily cut him off and said, "She wasn't raised by us and turned out wrong."
Those words cut deeper than any insult ever could.
For the first twenty years of my life, my home was drowning in endless booze and cigarette smoke.
No one ever cared if I was warm enough or had enough to eat.
When they died in an accident, I felt relieved.
When I first came back to the Carter family, I saw Mia curling up in Frank's arms, being cute and clingy, getting hugs from Lily every day.
I was so naive. I thought if I was good enough, maybe they'd love me like that as well.
But I was wrong.
The more I put up with it, the more they walked all over me.
No more playing nice, I snapped, "If that's how it is, I'm out of here."
Mia was curled up in Lily's arms, an amused, taunting smile tugging at her lips.
"Mia, if you love being the other woman so much, he's all yours. There's no need to claw at me for him," I snapped.
I grabbed my suitcase and started tossing my things in, not bothering to look back.
Downstairs, Mia was already shouting, her voice dripping with indignation.
"What is she trying to say? How could she slander me like that?" Mia called out.
By the time I had my bag slung over my shoulder and was about to walk out the door, Mia stepped up, acting dramatically as if she was trying to stop me.
Mia faked concern, pretending to block my way.
But Frank glared at me, his face ice-cold, and waved me off. he snarled, "Let her go. Once she leaves the Carter family, she has no home. She will be nothing. I'd like to see how she manages out there."