Chapter 2

I stepped through the door and heard something whistle past my ear.

Glass exploded against the wall behind me. Blood trickled down the side of my face, and I wiped it away without thinking. I looked up toward the couch.

Claire and Emily were getting their nails done.

Julian stood by the coffee table, face red with rage. "You actually remember you have a home here?"

I ignored his anger. "Home? You mean this place?"

I'd spent a month in the hospital, but no one visited except Nora and the nurses. They didn't even text me once.

In this massive house, if there was anywhere I could call home, it was probably just that storage room in the attic—the one that froze in winter and baked in summer.

Emily seemed to notice me for the first time. She covered her mouth and gasped, putting on a show. "Lily? How can you talk to Dad like that? Where have you been all this time? Do you know how worried we've been?"

Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked at me like she felt guilty. "Are you mad because Mom and Dad were with me at the wrap party and hung up on you?"

Emily was beautiful, no question. The illness made her delicate face even paler, rendering her look even more fragile. Heartbreaking.

Claire grabbed Emily's hand, her face twisted with concern, then whirled on me. "When are you gonna grow up and be responsible like your sister?

"Why do you keep making us worry? Emmy's suffering like this, and you're jealous? Why couldn't it be you who got sick instead? Oh, my sweet, thoughtful Emmy."

I sneered, "Worry? Is that what you call not texting me for a month? Or maybe sitting on the couch getting your nails done while your other daughter hasn't been home in weeks counts as—"

The slap echoed through the living room. My cheek burned.

The manicurist froze. The staff scattered.

Julian exploded. "You ungrateful brat. I should never have let you into the entertainment industry in the first place. Look at what you've become!"

I pressed my hand against my burning cheek and snorted.

Let me? He made me sign a relationship concealment agreement before I could even set foot in the industry, and he calls that letting me?

But when it came to Emily, he and Claire handed her million-dollar endorsements and lead roles in major productions, as if they were birthday presents.

What did that make them? Saints?

I've always known the truth that I was born for Emily. Nobody wanted me. Nobody expected me.

Twenty years of bone marrow donations. Twenty years of needles and hospital beds and pain that made me want to die. People'd think that would count for something. At least a "thank you" or "we appreciate you." But no.

I was Emily's backup supply. Her living bone marrow bank.

When they needed me, they said, "Lily, she's your sister. Without her, you wouldn't even exist. You have to save her."

When they didn't, they said, "Stop being so needy. Always trying to steal attention from your sister. Get lost—I'm busy taking care of Emily. Don't bother me."

I used to crave love so desperately that I'd take even the tiniest scrap of kindness, even if it was only because they needed my bone marrow.

But after nearly dying, I'm done reaching for things that were never meant for me.

"Dad, this is all my fault—don't hit Lily!" Emily rushed over with fake concern written all over her face and cupped my cheeks, but her manicured nails dug into my skin. "Lily, your face—"

"Ouch! Let go!" I shoved her hands away.

She stumbled backward and fell to the ground.

Claire, who'd been watching coldly from the sidelines just seconds ago, suddenly rushed to Emily's side. "Lily, have you lost your mind?"

Julian pushed past me like I was nothing and dropped down beside Emily. "Emmy, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Emily shot me a timid glance and then looked away, her voice trembling. "I'm fine. Mom, Dad, please don't blame Lily. I just lost my balance and fell—it has nothing to do with her."

Claire's eyes turned bloodshot. "You ungrateful wretch! Emily was trying to help you, and you repay her by shoving her?"

Julian's face went dark as thunder. "Get over here and kneel down to apologize to your sister right now, or you can forget about ever stepping foot in this house again."

The cuts on my face from her rhinestone nails stung with every breath I took.

Love and indifference—the line between them couldn't be clearer.

Emily controlled her fall perfectly and landed on the soft carpet, but my parents acted like I'd committed murder.

My face wouldn't stop bleeding from where Emily's sharp nails had deliberately scratched me, but they didn't even look at it.

I let out a sneer and pulled out the family severance agreement I'd prepared earlier. "Then let's sign this and be done with it."

I ignored the disbelief in their eyes. "Just terminate our parent-child relationship, and I'll leave right now."