Chapter 1

1 Ever since my long-lost sister, Summer, was found and brought home, I became the black sheep of the family.

It all started when she claimed the diet plan I gave her made her gain a pound, costing her the chance to be the lead dancer.

Mom and Dad tore up my invitation to the Black Swan Dance Company, just like that.

My brother, Jake, started putting hormones in my milk every day.

After ballooning up, like, a hundred pounds, a video of me struggling to even use the bathroom went viral.

Mortified, my family shipped me off to a "good girls" weight loss camp, where I was supposed to learn some manners.

What followed was pure torture.

I broke ribs five times, shattered my leg bones three times, and had my head shaved twice. My body was a roadmap of scars.

Finally, they sculpted me into their idea of a "good girl."

The day Jake came to pick me up, I knelt on the ground, dead inside, and mumbled, "Number 2145 messed up. Please forgive me."

...

My clothes from a year ago hung off me, practically swallowing me whole.

I stumbled out of those iron gates, completely dazed.

The guy leaning against the Rolls-Royce straightened up, his eyes scanning me with undisguised disgust.

"Daisy, are you pulling some kind of stunt?"

"The family's been bankrolling this place every quarter. You're not exactly starving. What's with the rags? Trying to make us look bad?"

Daisy? The name felt both foreign and familiar, like a ghost from my past.

I raised my head, but I couldn't quite make out who was talking.

The sun hit my eyes.

Blinded, I dropped to my knees, hands shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm not Daisy. I don't deserve a name. I shouldn't look people in the eye. Please, no more bright lights."

"I'm sorry. 2145 won't do it again. I messed up..."

The first day at that camp, the instructors had slapped me senseless.

The first lesson was to forget my name, because I wasn't worthy of being Daisy Miller, the daughter of the Millers, only Number 2145.

And Number 2145 was the lowest of the low, forced to stare at the ground, never allowed to meet anyone's gaze.

At first, I fought back, but that just earned me a chair, strapped in, and eyes peeled open with toothpicks as I got blasted with a laser. I couldn't even last a few seconds.

After feeling my corneas burn over and over, I finally accepted my new name and developed a muscle memory response to bright light.

A jolt of pain shot through my shoulder as the guy yanked his foot back.

"Daisy, a year, and you still haven't learned? More acting? As if the family would stop providing food and clothing for you here. You went on a diet, but you didn't learn any manners, and now you're acting crazy?!"

"It's just a bit of sunlight, Daisy. Stop staring at your shoes and look at me!"

Hearing his voice, I reflexively lowered my head to the ground and began begging.

"2145 learned. 2145 messed up. Don't hurt 2145, please..."

He froze for a second, then grabbed my chin, forcing my gaze up to meet his.

"What the hell are you babbling about? You were the school princess. Don't you have any self-respect? What are you, a dog?"

The brute force sent my fear-o-meter skyrocketing, even more afraid to open my eyes.

I closed them again and started crying.

He lost patience and raised his hand to open my eyelids, blocking the sun.

Seeing the person in front of me stabbed me in the heart.