Chapter 4

I don't remember how I got home, or how I ended up lying on my narrow bed.

Alone at last, the tears I could no longer hold back slid down my face.

That was when the phone rang. I answered numbly, and heard a voice I couldn't believe.

"Is... is that Rachie?

"It has to be her. Ask her again."

The voices coming through were unmistakably my parents, the same parents who'd died in a plane crash.

I confirmed it in a small voice, my own heartbeat pounding so loud I could hear it.

"Dad? Mom?"

Hearing me answer, the voice on the other end finally settled, tinged with guilt.

"Rachie, our family went bankrupt out of nowhere back then, and we were buried in debt. Your mother and I had no choice but to fake our deaths and leave the country.

"But don't worry, we've gotten back on our feet these past ten years, and we're on our way to Willen City right now."

Something in me snapped. Tears streaming down my face, I screamed at them.

"Do you have any idea what the last ten years have been like for me? Do you know how helpless I felt when our creditors seized the house and forced it into foreclosure?

"Paige used to hide in my arms, telling me she was scared, and I was scared too. Do you have any idea... I gave up my education, I gave up my dreams... I gave up Charlie..."

My father let out an awkward little laugh.

"There wasn't anything your mother and I could do. But we always knew you'd take good care of your sister. I hear you turned Paige into a real success, a flight attendant. You didn't let us down."

A long silence followed, and every ounce of strength drained out of me.

It was just like when I was a child, when they'd been too busy with their business to bother with us and left Paige in my care.

In their eyes, Paige had always been the one who needed protecting and looking after, while I was the one who could stand on my own two feet, no help required.

I shook my aching head.

"Paige's engagement dinner is the day after tomorrow. I'll send you the address. Come."

Their laughter came bright and cheerful through the phone.

"Our little Paige is getting married? That's wonderful... really, that's just wonderful..."

I couldn't bear to listen anymore.

I'd barely hung up, still nowhere close to settling my tangled emotions, when I heard someone jimmying the lock at my door.

Before I could react, a few men from my floor, the type who never seemed to have anywhere to be, sauntered in with leering grins.

"We saw everything that happened to you today."

"Who knew someone so prim and proper was actually so desperate for men."

"Come on, let us boys show you a good time."

The blood drained from my face. I bolted up and locked myself in the bathroom, hands shaking as I called Charlie. The instant the call connected, I grabbed onto it like a lifeline.

"Charlie, someone's trying to hurt me. Please, come now."

It was the first time in ten years I'd ever asked him for help.

His voice went taut.

"Rachel, don't be scared. I'm coming right now."

Just as a flicker of relief settled over me, I heard Paige's mocking voice cut in.

"She's lived there alone for ten years without anything happening to her. How could something suddenly happen the same day we had a fight?

"She's just trying every trick in the book to seduce you. Charlie, if you go to her now, we're through."

Charlie went quiet for a long moment, then sighed.

"Paige has a point. Rachel, whatever was between us is in the past now. We shouldn't keep dragging it out."

I listened to the call end without mercy, right as the bathroom door burst open behind me. I sank into a thick, suffocating despair.

…

Three days later, at the family dinner, Charlie's father didn't show up. Charlie's mother, Mrs. Anton, cast a scornful glance at Paige, dressed to the nines, before she turned her complaints on her son.

"That illegitimate son of your father's found some partner and is off starting a business, and your father's so excited about it he rushed off to Rivermont.

"And you, insisting on being some pilot, could only land yourself a flight attendant who's not even fit to be seen. You're an embarrassment to your father."

Paige's usually haughty expression twisted with humiliation, and Charlie could only offer an awkward, forced smile.

That was when the door to the private dining room opened. They looked at whoever had just walked in, and every one of them froze.