Chapter 1

In my past life, I treated my stepsister, Vanessa, like my own blood. I worked to pay for her tuition, covered her debts, and shielded her from every storm. What did I get in return? My inheritance stolen, the love of my life snatched away, and a lonely death in a damp, rented room. With my final breath, I heard her on the phone outside my door, ‘She’s dead? Good. At least I don’t have to deal with her anymore.’ When I opened my eyes again, I was eighteen. Vanessa was there, putting on her ‘poor little thing’ act, begging me to take the fall for her mistake again. Looking at her tear-stained face, I said only one thing: ‘No.’

Chapter 1: No More Playing the Fool

When I opened my eyes, the stinging scent of antiseptic filled my lungs.

Everything was blindingly white―the ceiling, the walls, the bedsheets. I was lying in the school infirmary, surrounded by a few familiar faces: Mr. Henderson, my homeroom teacher; Brenda, my stepmother; and Vanessa.

Vanessa was crouched by the bed, her face puffy and red, tears streaming down like a broken faucet. She grabbed my hand―her grip was cold, damp, and clammy, like a fish pulled straight from the river.

‘Avery, I’m so sorry! I really didn’t mean for this to happen. I thought those were just regular vitamins, I had no idea―please, you have to help me. Just tell the teacher you took them yourself. Please don’t let them think it was my fault―’

I stayed silent.

My mind was a battlefield of two clashing realities. One was the agonizing memory of my past life, flashing by like a grainy, old movie. The other was the harshness of the present: the smell of the clinic, the rhythmic chants from the football field outside, and the sickening moisture of Vanessa’s palm against mine.

It took me only a few seconds to realize: I was back. I was eighteen again.

I was back before Vanessa had the chance to ruin me completely.

The weight of my previous life crashed down on me like a bucket of ice water.

My mother had died young, and after my father remarried, he passed away in an accident a year later. From that moment on, I became a spare part in my own home. Brenda was cold, and Vanessa, three years younger, was a master at playing the victim and buttering up our stepmother.

But I never fought back. I thought that as the older sister, I was supposed to be the bigger person. When Vanessa messed up, I took the blame. When she ran up debts, I paid them. When she stole my scholarship spot, I said nothing. When she took the college tuition I had saved for four years to buy a designer bag, I told myself, it is fine, I will just save more.

And how did that end?

Vanessa eventually married the guy I had secretly loved for five years. I went to the wedding, sitting in the corner, nursing a glass of cheap wine in silence. Later, when the family home was sold for redevelopment, Brenda made sure every cent of the payout went straight into Vanessa’s account. I didn't get a dime. When I tried to argue, Vanessa just leaned back on the sofa, polishing her nails, and said, ‘Avery, you don’t need the money. Besides, you are an outsider here. It would be inappropriate for you to take our money.’

‘An outsider.’

In the end, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was early-stage, treatable, but I had no money. I asked Vanessa for a loan―just fifty thousand. She claimed she was short on cash. The very next day, I saw her post on social media, showing off a new SUV she had bought in full, captioned: ‘A birthday gift to myself.’

I spent three months rotting in that rented room. No one visited. No one called. In my final days, I lost control of my bodily functions, and the landlord only found me because of the smell. By the time the paramedics arrived, I was already gone. I was only twenty-seven.

Before I drew my last breath, I heard Vanessa’s voice through the wall. She wasn’t there to see me; she was on her phone.

‘…She’s dead? Good. Saves me the trouble of supporting her. Her salary was never enough anyway, and she was nothing but a burden.’

Her voice was light, filled with nothing but disgust, as if she were talking about a stray cat that died.

And then, I was gone. It was clean and cold, and I didn't shed a single tear.

‘Avery!’ Vanessa was still shaking my hand, pulling me back to the present. ‘Are you going to help me or not? If you don’t, I’m finished! Dad will kill me―’

I lowered my head, staring at her.

She was beautiful, with a delicate, oval face and wide, almond-shaped eyes. When she cried, she looked so helpless. In my past life, that face had been the reason I kept folding, the reason I sold my soul over and over again.

‘No.’

My voice was quiet, but the room went deathly still.

Vanessa’s tears stopped for a second before she wailed even louder. ‘Avery! How could you? We are sisters! Can you really stand to watch me―’

‘Are we?’ I cut her off. My voice was calm, but every word carried the weight of my past. ‘You call me sister, but have you ever treated me like one?’

Vanessa froze, tears hanging on her lashes. She had never heard me speak like this. In her memory, I was the pushover who would always sacrifice myself, the fool who would count the money for the person selling her.

Brenda stepped forward, her face twisted in rage. ‘Avery, is that any way to talk to your sister?’

I looked at Brenda, this woman who held the title of ‘mother.’

‘I don’t call her sister. I don’t have a sister.’ I kicked off the blankets and stood up. My legs felt shaky―I wasn't sure how long I had been out―but I stood straight, my spine rigid, my eyes clear.

‘Mr. Henderson,’ I turned to the teacher. ‘I didn't take those pills. Vanessa did. She said they would help her lose weight and forced me to try them. I refused, so she dumped them into my water while I was in the restroom.’

Mr. Henderson’s expression shifted.

Vanessa’s face drained of color.

Brenda turned ashen.

‘Avery! You’re lying!’ Brenda lunged toward me, trying to grab my arm.

I stepped back, pulling my phone from my pocket and hitting play on a recording. Vanessa’s voice filled the room: ‘Avery, please just help me, I promise it is the last time. Just tell the teacher you took them yourself, okay? You are the best, please―’

I had secretly recorded it the moment I woke up.

The air in the infirmary turned to ice.

Mr. Henderson adjusted his glasses, looking at Vanessa with a flicker of disappointment I had never seen before. ‘Vanessa, come to my office with me.’

Vanessa stood rooted to the spot, trembling violently. She turned and glared at me with a look of pure, venomous terror.

I held her gaze, my face expressionless.

In my past life, that look would have broken my heart. But not anymore.

Your tears, your sweet lies, your masks―to me, they are all completely transparent now.