Chapter 2

2.

On the phone, Derek kept cooing at her.

"Liv, relax. Erin wouldn't dare disobey... We still have her sister."

He floored the gas pedal. The city blurred past the window. And my mind was dragged backward. Three years ago.

Olivia claimed her condition had suddenly worsened. She needed a second kidney transplant. Matching donors were nearly impossible to find.

I was dead. She couldn't find me. So she turned her sights on my sister. Emily.

I remember that night. Emily had just finished her night shift at Dunkin'. She was walking home with a stack of thick review books in her arms.

A black van screeched to a halt in front of her.

The door slid open. Two men jumped out and dragged her inside.

She kicked and clawed. Her review books scattered everywhere. Her SAT score report―top percentile―fluttered into the gutter.

I screamed and lunged at them. My hands passed right through her body. I couldn't grab anything.

I howled as the van peeled away.

The only things left behind were her ruined textbooks and one lonely canvas sneaker.

They took her to a hospital. The operating room lights were blinding white. Cruel.

Emily was strapped to the table. A gag stuffed in her mouth. Tears streaked down her face.

Her thin body shook with terror. The restraints cut bloody welts into her wrists and ankles.

Olivia stood off to the side. Mask on. Eyes cold as a butcher sizing up meat.

That was when I understood. Olivia was never sick.

Her "illness" was a front for an organ trafficking operation on the dark web. She wanted Erin's kidney because a buyer had offered a fortune.

"Don't worry. It'll be over soon."

She patted Emily's cheek. Her tone was light.

"Blame your sister for disappearing. Otherwise, we wouldn't need you."

Emily shook her head desperately. Muffled sobs choked from her throat. Tears fell in huge drops.

I knelt beside the operating table. Screaming. Trying to untie the restraints on her wrists. My hands passed through. Again and again. Nothing.

"Emily... Emily!"

My soul felt like it was being ripped apart. I watched the anesthetic push into her vein.

Her struggle faded. Slower. Weaker. Until only her lashes still trembled.

The moment the scalpel broke her skin, I shattered. A shriek tore out of me no one could hear.

Ghosts don't get heard when they cry.

***

"Liv, Emily's tuition is due. Remind her to register for classes on time."

Derek's voice yanked me back.

I spun around. Stared hard at his phone screen.

Olivia's reply popped up fast.

"Already handled it. The girl's been very well-behaved lately."

Well-behaved?

My Emily was ash. Discarded in the Arizona desert badlands.

And this fool Derek was still wiring money to Olivia every month. Calling it "supporting my sister's education."

Every cent went straight into Olivia's accounts. Fuel for her spending sprees.

I watched him live inside a three-year-old lie. Sending money to a dead girl.

"Right," Derek said, as if just remembering. His voice dropped low. "If Erin still doesn't show, get ready to send Emily to the border. Let's see if she dares keep hiding then."

Olivia sent back a hesitant emoji.

"Is that really okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be? If we don't scare her, she'll think we're bluffing."

I hovered above the car roof. My soul trembled with rage.

Derek, you keep saying you have Emily. You don't even know she's been dead for three years.

You'll never know the money you sent for "your sister" every month bought Birkin bags and club tabs for your mistress.

You'll never know the hostage you used against me was already a cold corpse.

The car stopped at a red light. Derek adjusted his hair in the rearview mirror. Humming.

All I could see was Emily. The look in her eyes as she searched the empty air in those last moments.

Looking for me.

She died waiting for a sister who never came.