Chapter 3

"What's all this noise about?"

Father walked in from outside, already irritated.

"Do you have to turn the house upside down every time you're upset?"

I pressed a hand to my forehead and forced myself upright, unsteady on my feet. Blood slipped through my fingers and down my face, but he didn't even glance at it.

He hadn't always been like this.

When I first came back to Cole Manor, he was still a powerful man, but he treated me with an easy kind of patience.

"You've had it hard out there," he told me then. "You won't have to deal with that anymore. I'll take care of you."

People laughed at me for not knowing the rules, for being out of place, and he never once minded.

I held on to that.

Every year on their birthdays, I would carefully prepare a grand party and wish them a happy birthday. They would always smile, touched, and pull me into a hug.

It changed the first time Vanessa cried because of me.

That was when I realized blood ties meant less than the years they had shared, even if I hadn't done anything wrong.

After that, the way Father looked at me shifted. The first time Vanessa said I had bullied her, he didn't ask for an explanation.

"You're out of line. It must be all those bad habits you picked up out there."

I had never seen him that angry before. He kicked me to the ground and cursed the woman who had raised me.

After that, I stopped pretending not to see it.

They loved me, as long as I didn't cross Vanessa.

"She refused to let Vanessa join the royal court, and she had the nerve to call her shameless," Mother said coldly. "She's selfish, cruel, and utterly heartless. She thinks being our daughter gives her the right to bully Vanessa. Sometimes I wish I'd never had her."

Father's expression darkened, and his hand came down hard across my face. The sound rang out, leaving my ears ringing and my vision swimming with pain.

"You troublemaker! We should never have brought you back!"

I stared blankly at my parents, their faces twisted with cold fury. The color drained from my face.

"The one tearing this family apart isn't me. It's Vanessa. And the mistake wasn't bringing me home. It was letting Vanessa stay."

The system had already warned me that this world's remaining gratitude wasn't enough to keep me alive for another two days.

Tomorrow, I would die.

"This is the last time I'll call you Father and Mother."

My legs gave way beneath me, and I sank to my knees.

"Thank you for giving me life. For giving me a home."

Blood dripped onto the ground between us. Father's expression shifted, just for a moment.

Right then, Derek's voice came from the doorway.

"So now you're crying because the rest didn't work?"

He stood there watching me, something like disappointment in his eyes. Vanessa stayed close to him, half-hidden, her face pale as she leaned into his arm.

"Charlotte, what happened to you?" he said. "You threaten to die every time things don't go your way. Do you really think that's going to make us give in? Vanessa's kind, and she's never done anything to you. Why won't you leave her alone?"

It was always the same. Whenever something happened between Vanessa and me, they always thought I was the one at fault.

Something cold settled in my chest as I raised my head.

"But she took everything from me."

She took my place at Cole Manor. She took my family.

Now, she was taking my husband.

She told everyone the world ending was a lie, that I had never given up years of my life to keep it from happening.

The people who once believed me stopped. Day by day, their gratitude drained away.

I had one day left.

A quiet laugh slipped out.

"She's the one who won't leave me alone. And if I have nothing left, neither will you."