Chapter 3

Anything I cherished always seemed to get ruined or go missing in various "accidents."

Meanwhile, Stella was forever the pitiful little sister who was clumsy, innocent, and always in need of forgiveness.

My parents' initial requests for me to let her have her way slowly morphed into excuses about her age.

Eventually, it turned into total disapproval and outright impatience.

"Hannah, why are you being so petty?"

"Stella has been through enough already. Can't you just be nice to her?"

"Act your age and be a big sister for once!"

Through these endless accidents and my parents' blatant favoritism, Stella slowly chipped away at the space and affection that once belonged to me.

She learned to play the perfect, obedient, dependent child in front of my parents.

But behind closed doors, she showed me exactly who she was.

Everything finally blew up on my eighteenth birthday.

Stella tumbled down the sweeping grand staircase.

I reached out to help her up, only for her to flip the script on me.

Sitting on the floor, she looked up at me in absolute disbelief, her face stained with tears.

Her voice wasn't loud, but choked with sobs, it carried perfectly through the crowd of guests that had suddenly gone dead silent. "Hannah, why did you push me? Did I do something wrong again?"

My ears rang, and my mind went totally blank. "I-I didn't!" I stammered, my voice trembling as I looked at my parents and Aaron rushing over. "Mom, Dad, I didn't even touch her! She fell on her own!"

Stella's tears fell in heavy drops.

Her voice was fragile but piercingly clear. "I'm sorry, Hannah. I know you hate me because Mom and Dad are nice to me. I never should have come here and taken what was yours."

She broke down sobbing. "I miss my mom. Just let me leave. I don't want to make you any angrier."

"Hannah! How could you do this?" My mother wrapped her arms around Stella, frantically pressing a hand against the bleeding cut on her forehead.

She glared at me fiercely. "Look at what you did to her. Stop lying!"

"Mom, please believe me just this once," I cried, trying to reach out to her. "She did it to herself!"

"That is enough!" My father's face was livid as he cut me off. "You would do something like this to your own sister just because you're a little jealous? You're vicious, Hannah!"

Aaron stepped forward, shoving me away with eyes full of ice. "Are you done making a scene, Hannah? Look around you. You don't even deserve to be her sister!"

The guests were dead silent, their stares piercing me like needles. I was completely alone, a cold dread washing over my body.

Right at that moment, Logan stepped firmly to my side and took my hand.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hayes," he said smoothly, his voice carrying an undeniable weight. "I believe Hannah."

Stella's sobbing stopped instantly. My father's gaze hardened, and my mother's hand froze against the wound.

I looked up at Logan, tears flooding my eyes. At that moment, he was the only person in the world who believed me.

But it was also the exact moment something inside me went completely cold and shattered forever.

After that night, I withdrew. I threw all my energy into my studies, building an invisible wall between myself and the rest of them.

I thought getting into a good out-of-state college and moving far away would fix everything.

But I was so wrong.

They easily stole and twisted the one opportunity I had fought so hard for, my only ticket out of this suffocating house, all just to appease Stella's fragile feelings.

And the worst part? Even Logan, the boyfriend I trusted with my life, switched sides. He told me to be the bigger person. He told me to think of the family.

Inside the living room, the air grew thick and heavy.

"Mom..." A fragile whimper broke the silence.

Stella timidly tugged at our mother's sleeve, tears spilling down her cheeks in a steady stream. "Does Hannah hate me? This is all my fault.

" I shouldn't have taken her things, and I shouldn't have made her so mad. I'll go give everything back to her right now.

"I'll just pack my bags and go back to where I belong."

As she spoke, she struggled to stand. Her narrow shoulders trembled violently, making her look like she might shatter at any second.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Mom forced her right back down onto the velvet sofa. "Hannah has completely lost her mind!

"Over some stupid college acceptance, she's willing to throw her entire family away.

"She doesn't even want her own mother anymore. She is literally trying to put me in an early grave."

Even as she complained about her life ending, her hands gripped Stella tight.

It was like this weeping girl was her only remaining source of comfort.

"She is completely ungrateful!" Dad slammed his hand against the glass coffee table, making the coasters rattle.