Chapter 1

"Elena, let Mia walk down the aisle first at your wedding."

I stared at my mother, sure I'd heard wrong. "What did you say?"

"Don't get upset." My father sat beside me, his voice earnest. "Mia says her biggest dream is to walk down the aisle in a wedding dress. Let her have this."

I shook with anger. "No! It's my wedding! You want her to walk down the aisle in my place? What do you take me for?"

My father's face darkened. "Elena! It's just a formality. Stop being so selfish."

My mother frowned. "Mia's father died saving us! It's just one little wish. Be the bigger person and stop throwing a tantrum."

I looked at my fiancé, Julian, but he avoided my eyes.

"Elena, be reasonable. You already have so much. Mia just wants to feel included."

Here we go again.

All they had to do was tell me to be understanding and grateful, and I was supposed to hand everything over.

Before Mia came, I'd been the apple of their eye too.

My father used to carry me on his shoulders to watch the fireworks, and my mother used to warm milk for me late at night and tuck me in.

But ten years ago, Mia's father died saving my parents during an avalanche, and everything changed.

Her mother had remarried long before. With her father gone, Mia had no one to care for her.

From then on, our family lived under the weight of that debt.

And I was the one expected to pay it.

My parents brought Mia home to raise her. On her very first day, she pointed at my room and said she liked the tree outside the window.

So I was forced to give it up and move into a cramped storage room. I slept there for ten years.

My mother casually passed the necklace my grandfather had given me on to her. Designs I'd stayed up all night drawing went out under Mia's name. Even the roses Julian gave me ended up in her vase, just because she said they were pretty.

Once, Mia and I were in a car accident together. I broke my right leg; she only scraped her left arm. But when the only ambulance arrived, my parents rushed Mia into it without a second thought and shouted at me.

"Mia's father died to save us. We can't let anything happen to her!"

I was left waiting in the pouring rain for three hours before help finally came.

When I woke up, the first thing I heard was my parents comforting Mia. "It's not your fault. Elena's tough. She can handle it. But you had a scare. You need to rest."

What a joke. Because I was strong and obedient, my pain somehow didn't count.

Whenever they hurt me, they promised to make it up to me someday. But someday never came. They just kept letting me down.

This time, I didn't want to wait anymore...

"Elena? Are you listening?" Julian's voice pulled me back. "Mia just wants to know what it feels like. You'll still be the bride."

As Julian spoke, I thought of everything I'd endured over those ten years. Suddenly, the weight I'd carried for so long lifted.

That old, scabbed-over wound in my heart had finally gone numb.

Ten years. I'd paid off this so-called debt in full. I didn't want this family or this wedding anymore...

I looked at them, managed a calm smile, and said, "Sure. If you all think it's fair, let her have the wedding."

My parents looked stunned for a moment. Then they smiled.

"I knew it. Elena is always so understanding."

My mother reached out to stroke my hair. I turned away and walked to my room.

I locked the door and opened my encrypted laptop. The Department of Defense's top-secret research assignment was waiting on the screen.

If I joined, I'd have to cut off all contact with the outside world and live and work at a secure research base for five years.

I gripped the mouse, typed my name into the signature field, and clicked Confirm.

A countdown popped up in cold red letters.

[Identity erasure protocol initiated. Departure in three days.]