Chapter 1

1

At my birthday party, the adopted daughter left a single letter and vanished.

"I am returning the place I stole from her. Mom, Landon, I love you."

From that day on, I became the villain who drove her away.

My mother resented me for ever coming back.

My brother, Landon, wished I was dead.

Years later, she finally returned.

Yet they ended up on their knees in front of my grave, sobbing and begging for my forgiveness.

***

The day I found out I did not have much time left happened to be my birthday.

In the cold hospital hallway, the fluorescent lights stung my eyes.

The doctor looked at me with deep pity. "Do you need me to call your family?"

I opened my mouth, my throat dry and raspy. "No, thank you."

Stepping out of the hospital, I looked up at the gloomy sky.

The heavy grey clouds completely blocked out the sun.

My family?

If they knew I was dying, they would probably throw a party.

A bitter smile touched my lips as their familiar curses echoed in my ears: "Why don't you just die already?"

I bought a cheap slice of cake, sat down by the curb, and struck a match.

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me..."

Suddenly, a pair of tiny hands appeared in front of me, holding a delicate white flower.

A little girl beamed at me warmly. "Happy birthday, pretty girl!"

Her mother watched gently from a few steps away.

The little girl pinned the flower behind my ear and ran back to her mother, giggling shyly.

I reached up with a trembling hand, touching the soft petals as tears welled in my eyes.

Ever since I turned fifteen, not a single person had wished me a happy birthday.

That was the exact day Yvette ran away from home.

Ever since then, my birthday had become a forbidden curse in our household.

This small act of kindness from a stranger felt like a warm beam of light cutting through my frozen heart.

Maybe being alive was not entirely unbearable after all.

The moment I stepped through the front door, the laughter inside abruptly stopped.

A suffocating silence filled the living room.

The tiny spark of warmth in my chest was instantly extinguished by the icy reality.

The cold glares from my mother and my brother pierced me like sharp blades.

Even though blood ties forced them to keep me under their roof, my mother harbored nothing but hatred for me.

I tried to slip quietly upstairs to my room as usual, but Landon blocked my path.

My heart pounded as I nervously gripped the hem of my shirt.

His eyes burned with furious disgust as he pointed at my hair. "What the hell is that?"

Only then did I realize the tiny flower was still tucked behind my ear.

I froze for a second, whispering timidly, "A little girl gave it to me for my birth..."

Landon cut me off sharply. "You actually have the nerve to celebrate your birthday?"

His eyes turned bloodshot with rage as he ripped the flower from my hair, threw it onto the floor, and ground it under his shoe.

"You drove Yvette out of this house, and you still have the audacity to celebrate? What gives you the right?"

As the petals were crushed into dust, my heart shattered right along with them.

Landon sneered at me with pure loathing.

"Get this through your thick skull: you will never measure up to Yvette."

My mother walked over, her face twisted with deep resentment and blame.

"Today is the day Yvette went missing. We still don't know if she is alive or dead, and you're celebrating? How wicked can you be?"

I lowered my head, my voice breaking. "I'm sorry..."

A tear rolled down my mother's cheek.

"Why did you ever come back? If it weren't for you, she would never have left..."

They were the ones who searched for me and brought me home.

Yet now, everything was somehow my fault.

"Mom, let's go," Landon said coldly.

They turned and walked away, slamming the door behind them.

I was left standing alone in the empty hallway.

Slowly, I knelt down and picked up the bruised, ruined petals from the floor.

Tears fell silently onto the cold tiles.

Why did my heart still ache?

I should have gotten used to this pain a long time ago.