The Wrong Script

Synopsis

Before my arranged marriage meeting, my cousin stopped me. She slipped the phone out of my hand and spoke in that soft, coaxing voice people use with little children. "Lily, honestly? A family like the Lewises is never going to accept someone like us. You're way too trusting. If you actually go through with this, they'll eat you alive." I opened my mouth to answer, but then, right in front of my eyes, a line of semi-transparent text drifted past. [Here it comes. The evil cousin is finally about to guilt-trip Lily into handing over her engagement to the reborn heroine.] [It's honestly hilarious that Lily still thinks her cousin gives a damn about her.] [Then again, what can you expect? The girl's got all the luck in the world, a useless, pampered princess who doesn't deserve half of what she has, including the very marriage contract the heroine spent her whole past life begging for.] I stared at those lines of text, and I could feel the blood run cold all the way down to my bones. Claire Summers must have taken my silence for agreement, because she bent down to straighten the hem of my dress and lowered her voice even further. "Just do what I say. Delete the Lewises' number. Don't go tonight. I'll go in your place and call the whole thing off, so you won't have to spend the rest of your life wishing you had." The comments in front of my eyes started scrolling faster. [Call it off? She's not calling anything off. She's going so she can swoop in and meet the male lead herself.] [In the past life, the side character was stupid enough to give up her engagement right here, and the heroine walked right into her shoes and married into the Lewis family. After that, her life just took off.] [Come on. Delete it already! The second she does, the heroine can get to the hotel and meet him tonight!] I lifted my head and looked at Claire, that familiar, tender face, and suddenly, I didn't recognize her at all. She's my aunt's daughter. Five years ago, after my parents died, she came to live with us, and she has been nothing but thoughtful ever since, always looking after me, always there when I needed her. When I was a kid and my classmates turned against me, she was the one who stood up for me. When my mother got sick, Claire ran around handling everything without a word of complaint. I used to think of her as more of a sister than any real sister I could have asked for. And now, the comments were telling me that she was about to steal my life from right under my nose.