Chapter 1

My finger hovered over the "Submit Application" button on the laptop screen, the name of the state university clear and final, a thousand miles away. This was it, a clean break.

My phone buzzed on the desk. A notification, bright and intrusive.

Pop-up: She' s watching you. Her heart is breaking.

I glanced across the living room. Sarah, my adoptive sister, was curled on the sofa, scrolling through her phone, a frown etched on her face. She didn' t look heartbroken, just annoyed, probably at something her boyfriend Jake posted.

Another buzz.

Pop-up: She wanted to go to State with you, Liam. Don' t you remember your promise?

A faint memory, a casual chat years ago, nothing solid. Certainly not a promise.

"Decided yet?" Sarah asked, her voice flat, not looking up.

"Yeah, State University. The one out west," I said.

She finally looked at me, her expression unreadable.

"Good for you," she said. "Once your plans are finalized, I' m moving out. Jake needs full-time care, and I' ll be there for him."

Her words were like a cold splash of water. No surprise, really. Jake always came first.

Pop-up: She' s saying that to protect you. She can' t show weakness.

I wanted to throw my phone across the room. Protect me?

My mind flashed back to last month, the warehouse party, Jake picking a fight. One of his goons had swung a pipe, I' d stepped in front of Sarah, and she' d just watched as it connected with my arm, then fussed over Jake who' d gotten a superficial scratch. The pop-ups then had said she was paralyzed by fear for my safety. Right.

My father, a firefighter, died pulling the Thompsons out of a burning apartment building. They owed him their lives, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, Sarah, and little Lily.

They took me in, the orphaned son of their hero. It was the decent thing to do.

But "in" never quite felt like "part of." Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were always on business trips, leaving us to our own devices. Lily, Sarah's younger sister, was sweet, she looked up to me.

Sarah, though, always kept her distance. A wall of ice.

These damn pop-ups started a few weeks ago, a constant stream of commentary only I could see, insisting Sarah was secretly in love with me, that her coldness was a defense.

It was messing with my head, making me question everything.

"Jake' s condition is serious," Sarah continued, her voice firm, a slight tremor I might have imagined. "He sacrificed his health saving me from that… that chemical spill at his old lab job. He' s a hero."

The "chemical spill" Jake orchestrated for sympathy, I was sure of it. He' d walked away with a cough and a claim of a "rare neurological condition."

Pop-up: She believes his lies because she' s terrified. He controls her.

"Right," I said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "The hero who needs you to abandon your own life."

"It' s not abandoning, Liam," she snapped. "It' s devotion. Something you wouldn' t understand."

Her eyes flicked to my laptop, then back to her phone. The pop-ups were silent for a moment, then a new one.

Pop-up: She' s pushing you away because Jake threatened you. She' s choosing the lesser of two evils.

I clicked "Submit." The application was gone. My future, far away from here.