Chapter 4

Cole's POV

My body contorted as a blood-curdling scream ripped out of me. The unprecedented level of pain nearly knocked me unconscious.

Pure instinct made me want to push Joey away. But before I could even touch him, he tumbled down the steps behind him on his own.

"Mom! Dad! Savannah! It hurts so bad!"

His pitiful cries instantly drowned out my screams of pain.

In my daze, I saw the three people inside the restaurant snap their heads toward the window almost instantaneously, right before they frantically got up and rushed across the street.

Savannah arrived first. Clearly looking heartbroken, she scooped Joey into her arms in a complete panic and asked what had happened.

Mom and Dad followed close behind, throwing themselves next to him and frantically calling him their sweetheart.

While checking him for injuries, they hurriedly called for an ambulance.

Joey looked utterly aggrieved while lying in Savannah's arms, his nose turning red as he sobbed and pointed at me.

"I… I thought the person outside looked a bit like Cole, so I wanted to come out and see. I wanted him to celebrate my birthday with me. I never thought…"

Following his line of sight, the three of them finally looked up and saw me lying motionless in the darkness.

Mom and Dad instantly froze. Unreadable emotions flooded their eyes as they stared at me. And when Savannah turned to look at me, the sympathy in her eyes immediately hardened into fury.

I stared blankly at the three people who had once held me in the palm of their hands, now glaring at me as if I were their worst enemy. The excruciating physical pain brought years of pent-up grievances and anguish rushing to the surface.

I waved my hands, stubbornly clinging to a sliver of hope as I tried to defend myself.

"I never bullied him. He was the one who attacked me first this time as well! Can you please just believe—"

But before I could finish, Savannah slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side.

"Cole Shepherd! You stalked me just to get your way, intentionally luring Joey out on his birthday to harm him, and now you have the nerve to frame him for it?"

Dad's expression was utterly livid, and his eyes were filled with nothing but profound disappointment.

"Cole Shepherd! Must you drive Joey to his death before you're willing to stop? After all these years, the only thing you've learned is how to lie!"

I cradled my burning cheek with a trembling hand. The pain was downright excruciating, but a hysterical laugh escaped me.

It was always like this. They were supposed to be my biological parents and my flesh-and-blood sister!

Yet they couldn't see how emaciated my body was or the blood soaking the pants beneath my injured leg. All they cared about was blindly favoring Joey.

Maybe I should have known all along not to hold onto any hope.

I lowered my head and asked Savannah in a hollow voice, "If I don't make it through tonight, will you come here and collect my body?"

Savannah scoffed, her eyes full of contempt and mockery.

"If only. That way, Mom, Dad, and I won't have to worry about you bullying Joey if we bring you back home."

Her complete indifference emptied whatever was left in my heart. Even death didn't seem that terrifying anymore.

"Then keep your word."

That way, I wouldn't scare whoever came across my body.

She didn't spare me another glance. The ambulance arrived, and she busied herself helping the sobbing Joey onto the stretcher.

Before getting into the ambulance, Mom shot me a concerned look.

"Savannah, there's something really off about Cole. Were we too harsh on him?"

Savannah snorted dismissively.

"He's just pretending," she huffed, her voice contemptuous. "How could we have been too harsh? A lesson like this is still too light for him."

Once the ambulance left, I was the only one left in the street, lying there like roadkill. My head grew heavier and heavier. Then, as I watched the fireworks light up the sky to ring in the new year, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

…

Third-Person POV

A new year had begun, but an inexplicable sense of unease settled in Savannah's chest.

Thinking about Cole left her with a deep sense of emptiness, so she suggested to her parents that they bring him back home early.

But just as the family reached an agreement, a news report caught their attention.

"On the first day of the new year, sanitation workers discovered a frozen male corpse drained of blood on Marston Street. Authorities have identified the deceased as a boy named Cole Shepherd from an orphanage."