LOGINShare
Chapter one - She is dead
publish date:
2026-04-25 01:28:48The call came at 11:47 PM on a Tuesday.
Alexa Lean was folding laundry in her home bedroom she'd shared with her sister for eleven years after their parents death . The room was somewhat empty now except for her stuff filling the room.
Alice's bed had been stripped and her posters had been taken down.
Alice's smell…jasmine and pencil shavings and something that was just Alice had faded months ago, replaced by the sterile scent of bleach and neglect.
The phone was a cheap burner. Alexa didn't own a smartphone. Couldn't afford one. Couldn't afford much of anything except the bus fare she'd been saving for two years.
When she picked the call the voice on the other end was a stranger's.
"Alexa Lean?"
"Yes."
"This is Detective Marlene Cross from the Westbrook Police Department. I need you to sit down."
Alexa didn't sit. She leaned against the wall, the same wall where Alice had carved their initials with a safety pin when they were nine. A&A Forever.
"I'm standing," Alexa said.
A pause. The kind of pause that happens before someone tells you your life has ended.
"Your relative, I assume, Alice Lean, was found approximately three hours ago in Lake Westbrook on the campus of Westbrook University. Preliminary investigation suggests accidental drowning or more likely….” She paused bracing Alexa
“…Murder, we are still waiting for the autopsy results. I'm so sorry for your loss."
The words arrived like stones thrown at glass. They shattered something inside Alexa, but she didn't make a sound. She'd learned not to cry when she was six years old, watching her mother's casket lower into frozen ground.
Her father had already been gone before they were born, a photograph, a name, nothing more.
"You're her only listed emergency contact," the detective continued. "Someone will need to come identify the body."
The body.
Not Alice. Not her sister. Not the girl who'd held Alexa's hand during thunderstorms and taught her how to French braid her hair and promised they'd get a bigger apartment together after college, a real home, the first real home they'd ever have.
"I'll come," Alexa said.
The clothes she was folding suddenly became so heavy. She didn’t cry, she couldn’t. She was going through the first stage of grief…denial.
The first bus heading to Westbrooke tomorrow was to leave by 6:00am. She had six hours to pack her entire life into a single duffel bag.
She didn't pack much clothes. She packed Alice's things, the ones that Alice hadn't thrown away. A hairbrush with dark strands still tangled in the bristles. A notebook half-filled with song lyrics. A sweatshirt that still smelled like jasmine.
She stared at the brush as if summoning it to life with her eyes.
**********
(FLASHBACK)
“Ouch! Careful Alice, you might just rip my whole hair out.” Alexa said, teasing.
“Oh relax, I barely even touched your hair yet…. And…done.”
Alexa stared at the mirror grinning from ear to ear
“My magic fingers strike again.” Alice praised herself
“Oh please.”
“Now you’ve got hair all over my brush, keep it.”
“Fine.” Alexa dragged the brush from her hand.
“Fine.”
Alice mimicked her and they both laughed.******************
(PRESENT)
She threw the brush into the bag and she sat on Alice's empty bed and waited for dawn.
She didn't cry.
She would never cry again.
Not for Alice. Not for anyone.
*********
The bus ride took fourteen hours.
Alexa watched the world change through a window streaked with grime. The city fell away first, abandoned buildings, pawn shops, check-cashing stores. Then the suburbs. Then farms. Then trees so thick they looked like walls.
She'd never been this far from home. Neither had Alice, until she got the scholarship. The full ride. The chance to escape.
And now Alice was dead in a lake.
Alexa didn't believe it was an accident. Not for a second. She couldn't explain why, she didn't have evidence or logic or any of the things detectives looked for. She had something else. She had knowing.
When you share a womb with someone, when you spend every day of your life with them, when you finish their sentences and feel their pain in your own bones,you will know when something is wrong.
And something was wrong.
Alice had called her three days before she died. Not the usual weekly check-in, the gossip, the laughter. This call was different. Alice's voice was tight. Her words came too fast.
"Lex, I need to tell you something. But not over the phone. I'll explain when I see you."
"See me? When?"
"Soon. I want you to come visit.
“I need to know what’s wrong now.”
“Just promise me you will come."
"Alice, you're scaring me."
"Promise?”
"I promise."
The line went dead.
Alexa had called back twelve times. No answer. Then thirteen. Then twenty. Then she'd told herself she was being paranoid. Alice was probably stressed about her exams and now she was being dramatic.
“Always looking for an excuse to see me.” Alexa said to her self tossing the burner phone on the bed.
Turns out she wasn't fine, because now she was dead.
And someone had killed her.
Latest chapter
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Eight - Daddy dearest
I woke to an empty room. The morning light was gray and thin, filtering through the curtains like water through cheesecloth. Ashley's bed was empty, the sheets tangled, her cat socks nowhere to be seen. Madden's spot on the floor was vacant, her laptop gone, her blanket folded in a neat square. Myles was gone too. I sat up, my heart racing. The floor beside my bed was bare. No blanket. No pillow. No evidence that he'd been there at all. But his jacket was still draped over the foot of the bed. He wouldn't leave without his jacket. I pulled on my shoes and walked into the hallway. --- The common room was empty at this hour. A few students sat in the corners, heads bent over textbooks, earbuds in, lost in their own worlds. The vending machines hummed their fluorescent hymn. The coffee maker in the corner gurgled and steamed. Myles was standing by the window, his back to me, his hands in his pockets. I walked up beside him. “Hey.” Myles turned around, acknowledgi
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Seven – The Frame
I didn't stop running until I reached the dorm.My lungs burned. My legs screamed. The cold air sliced through my jacket like it wasn't even there. But I didn't care. I couldn't stop. If I stopped, I would have to think. And if I thought, I would have to face what I'd just seen.The video.It had been altered. Someone had taken footage of me at the lake,probably from the same security camera that had captured Caleb's body,and edited it to make it look like I was pushing him into the water.But I hadn't touched him. I'd found him floating. I'd turned him over. I'd seen his face and run.That was the truth.But the truth didn't matter when someone had evidence.---I burst through the door of my room.Ashley was sitting on her bed, her laptop open, her eyes red. She looked up when I entered, her face crumpling with relief."Alexa! Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay? We've been freaking out for hours."Madden was on the floor, her back against the wall, her arms crossed. She didn't s
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Six - Set-up
The room seemed to spin. Ashley grabbed my arm. Myles's hand found mine under the table. "You have the right to remain silent," the officer continued. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." "Wait, wait, wait." Myles stepped closer to the officers. "You're arresting her?" "We're detaining her for questioning. There's a difference." "There's no difference. You just read her Miranda rights." The officer ignored him. His eyes were fixed on me. "Miss James. Please come with us." I looked at Myles. At Ashley. At the students watching, their phones recording, their whispers spreading like fire. "Let me call someone first," I said. "You can make a call at the station." "Alexa, don't go with them," Ashley whispered. "Wait for Detective Cross. She'll….” "Miss James." The officer's voice was harder now. "Don't make this difficult." I stood up. My legs we
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Five – Morning Light
I woke to sunlight streaming through the curtains and the sound of Ashley's muffled laughter. Myles was still beside me, his head now resting against the headboard, his hand still loosely holding mine. He was awake, watching me with those dark eyes that always seemed to see too much. "You snore," he said. "I do not." "Lightly. It's actually kind of adorable." I pulled my hand away and sat up, my cheeks warming. Ashley was standing by her bed, her phone raised, a grin spread across her face. "Delete that," I said. "Never." She tucked her phone into her pocket. "This is blackmail material for life." Madden was already dressed, sitting cross-legged on the floor, her laptop open on her knees. She looked up when I stirred, her expression unreadable. "You're both disgusting," she said. But there was no heat in it. Almost a smile. I looked around the room. At Ashley's cat socks and Madden's sharp eyes and Myles's tired smile. At the people who had become my family when I
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Four - The Detective’s home
I couldn't hold it anymore.The tears came fast and hard, choking my throat, stealing my breath. I pressed my free hand against my mouth to muffle the sound, but it was useless. The sobs escaped anyway, raw and ugly and unstoppable."Alexa?" Detective Cross's voice was sharp with concern. "Alexa, where are you? What's happening?""I'm at the chapel," I managed. "The old one. Near the edge of campus.""Stay right there. I'm coming to get you. Don't move."The line went dead.I sank onto the nearest pew, my legs shaking, my breath coming in ragged gasps. The tears kept coming, hot and relentless, soaking my cheeks, dripping onto my jacket. I'd been holding them in for so long. Weeks. Months. Years, maybe.And now they wouldn't stop.---Fifteen minutes later, headlights cut through the darkness outside the chapel windows.I stood up, wiped my face with my sleeve, and walked to the door. Detective Cross's car was parked on the grass, the engine still running, the driver's side door alrea
A SISTER’S REVENGE Chapter Thirty-Three – The Decision
I stood there in the darkness long after he left.The door swung shut behind him, the chains rattling, the echo bouncing off the stone walls. Then silence. Just the wind through the broken windows and the beating of my own heart.He was gone.Again.Just like he'd always been.I sank onto the nearest pew, my legs suddenly unable to hold me. The wood creaked beneath my weight, dust rising in small clouds around me. I stared at the door, at the place where he'd disappeared, at the space where my father had stood and told me nothing.I already lost Alice. I'm not going to lose you too.Those were the only words that mattered. The only ones that felt true.Everything else,the warnings, the mask, the running,was just noise, because I knew I was never going to stop seeking revenge, fear dressed up as action. Guilt dressed up as protection.He hadn't killed Alice. I believed that. Whatever else he'd done, whatever accidents he'd caused, he hadn't held his own daughter underwater and watched
You may also like
