Chapter 1

I gripped my phone tightly, my palm covered in sweat.

If the voice on the other end had not been so familiar, I would have thought it was some kind of cruel prank.

But the future she described was too devastating.

Whether it was true or not, I could never gamble away my own future.

My phone suddenly lit up.

It was a message from Adrian.

“Have you finished changing your college application? Sienna doesn’t like snow, so why don’t we all go to California? That way we can stay somewhere without winter.”

Sienna also sent me a message.

“Eli, Adrian said you would come to California with me and take care of me.”

“You really are the best sister in the world.”

A bitter ache spread through my chest.

Sienna was my stepsister, and Adrian was my childhood sweetheart.

Only one month after my mother died of heart disease, my father wasted no time bringing Sienna and her mother into our home.

That was when I learned I had a younger sister who was only half a month younger than me.

Fortunately, my father carried guilt in his heart and tried to make it up to me.

My stepmother also appeared kind on the surface, and even Sienna seemed to genuinely like me, following me everywhere like a little shadow.

But I understood my awkward position in that family.

So I had always tried my best to make myself invisible.

As my childhood sweetheart, Adrian knew better than anyone how deeply my mother’s death had affected me.

After my father remarried, he had been even angrier than I was, openly disliking my stepmother and Sienna.

But as time passed, he was eventually forced to accept the little shadow at my side.

I never realized when it happened.

Somewhere along the way, his heart had already started leaning toward her.

He had even gotten involved with my stepsister behind my back.

During the silence after receiving his message, Adrian never got a response from me, so he called directly.

“Elena, the deadline for your college application is only one hour away. Have you changed your application? Listen to me, California has better weather, and it will also be easier for us to visit home during breaks…”

“Don’t worry. I already changed it.”

I calmly interrupted him.

A burst of excitement came from the other end of the call.

“Wow! That’s amazing! The three of us don’t have to be separated anymore!”

Adrian’s voice carried obvious affection.

“Eli, I knew you couldn’t bear to leave me.”

“The weather in California is great. When we get there, the three of us can keep each other company. It’ll be much better than going to Harvard.”

He naturally assumed that I would give up everything just to stay with him.

Even though my academic achievements deserved a better university, he never cared.

If it had not been for that phone call from my future self, I never would have realized that Adrian’s gentleness and patience toward Sienna had already gone far beyond what ordinary friends would share.

Instead, I had always believed he treated her like an ordinary friend only to make things less awkward for me at home.

I could not even imagine how devastated my future self must have been when she discovered the truth.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too late to change everything.