Chapter 3

Four years had passed, and time had worked its strange magic. Olivia's eyes, which had once made her a target of cruel bullying at the orphanage and caused Clayton Bradford to call her a freak, had become her most striking feature.

At seventeen, Olivia walked the halls of Cordova Academy with a grace that turned heads. Her mismatched eyes—one as green as spring leaves, the other as blue as a summer sky—had become an attraction.

Boys stumbled over their words when she passed by in the hallways, and the art students begged to paint her portrait. In photography class, Olivia became the most requested model. The photography teacher, Ms. Shanon, called her "a work of art."

Girls who once would have mocked her features back in freshman year now visited expensive boutiques, searching for colored contact lenses to mimic her look. But none could replicate the natural beauty she possessed.

When prom season arrived, her locker overflowed with invitations. The football captain, a famous politician's son, the Queen's nephew, and even the hot guy with a fan club all hoped to escort the girl with the bewitching eyes. The same eyes that once made children run away in fear now made men run toward her.

On her eighteenth birthday, standing at the podium as valedictorian, Olivia addressed her graduating class. The sun streaming through the auditorium windows caught her eyes, making them shine like jewels. The entire audience sat mesmerized.

She graduated with the highest honors Cordova Academy had seen in decades. Her list of achievements filled three pages in the graduation program.

After the ceremony, she held her golden honors cords and multiple medals out to her adoptive mother.

Mrs. Hilton hugged her with tears in her eyes. "You've made us so proud. Caroline would have achieved the same if she were alive.”

Olivia was heartbroken; for the past four years, her adoptive mother had never stopped mentioning Caroline at every opportunity. Even on this day, her day, she was still living in the shadow of a dead girl.

Her achievement felt nothing now even though she worked hard for them for a long time. It felt as if they were never truly hers because, when her parents looked at her, they only saw Caroline.

Walking through the crowded auditorium, Olivia smiled and nodded at the congratulations thrown her way. Inside, her heart ached. They had no idea that she had cried herself to sleep the night before, wondering if Mrs. Hilton would still love her if she weren't so perfect, if she didn't try so hard to be everything Caroline might have been.

Olivia slipped through the crowd, mumbling "excuse me" and "bathroom" to anyone who tried to stop her. Her perfect smile remained fixed on her face like a mask until the heavy doors closed behind her and she let it slip away.

Her heels clicked against the empty hallway floor until she reached the garden, where she gulped in the fresh air. She yanked off her cap, not caring that it messed up her carefully styled hair, which Mrs. Hilton had arranged to make her resemble Caroline in her elementary graduation portrait.

"I'm so tired," she whispered to no one. "I'm so tired of being Caroline."

“Olivia!”

Her heart lifted slightly when she saw Caleb approaching. For the past year, he had been the only person who understood her, who really saw the girl, the broken one, and accepted her wholeheartedly despite her flaws. He had always been there when she needed a shoulder to cry on. Perhaps she would have broken apart during the last months of her senior year if it weren't for him.

“Caleb!” She called to him and sensed instantly that something was wrong when he didn't even budge. His eyes, the ones that always looked at her with such warmth, were now fixed on the ground.

"I can't do this anymore," he whispered.

Olivia blinked rapidly. She didn't know what he meant by that. She didn't ask or demand answers. Instead, she waited until he was ready to open up.

"I thought I could handle it. I really did." He finally looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. "But every time I look at you, I see her."

"H-her?" She swallowed the lump in her throat. Olivia was screaming inside that this couldn't be happening.

"Caroline," he choked out. "I’ve always been in love with her since we were kids.”

The pieces clicked into place with brutal clarity. All those times he had listened to her cry about living in Caroline's shadow, he had been seeing Caroline's ghost too. Different from Mrs. Hilton's, but just as painful—no, even more so. At least her adoptive mother had been honest from the very beginning, while he had kept his feelings hidden for a year.

Olivia stared at the promise ring Caleb had given her, feeling sick.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "When I first saw you last year, I thought maybe God was giving me a second chance. You look so much like her, except for the eyes. But everything else, your smile, your laugh, the way you tilt your head when you're thinking..."

"Stop." Olivia wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold it together. "Please stop."

"I tried to love you for you, Olivia. I really tried. But I—”

Slap!

Olivia's palm stung from where it had connected with Caleb's cheek. Her mismatched eyes blazed with hurt and fury.

"I am not Caroline," she tried to control her voice, but it shook anyway. "I will never be Caroline."

She yanked the promise ring off her finger and threw it at his feet.

"I've spent four years trying to be perfect. Four years trying to fill a void that cannot be filled. Four years of straight A's, extracurriculars, student council, and volunteer work. Four years of straightening my hair and wearing the clothes Mrs. Hilton picks out because that's how Caroline would have worn them."

Her voice reached a fever pitch, and she screamed at him, "And you… you were supposed to be different. You were supposed to see me as who I am. But you're just like everyone else. You don't see Olivia at all. You just see Caroline's replacement.”

Olivia expected herself to cry, but even if she wanted to, the tears refused to fall. She had cried a dam for the past four years, and her eyes finally ran out of water.

She didn't run; she had grown tired of running from reality all her life, trying to escape everything that hurt her. This time, she stood, watching him without saying a word until shame finally sank in him, and he walked away without saying goodbye, even though they both knew that was the last time they'd see each other.

Olivia had no idea how long she'd been standing there until she felt a pair of eyes glued on her. She turned only to find Clayton offering her his handkerchief.

She didn't realize a tear had fallen on her cheek. A single tear! That's all she could summon from all the heartache she felt.

She didn't take his handkerchief. Instead, she just stared at it, wanting to laugh at the irony of it all. Clayton Bradford, the boy who tormented her worse than anyone, stood before her with his handkerchief.

He'd been there when Ace broke up with her, just like when he accidentally stumbled upon her after David ended things. And he was watching, probably heard everything Caleb said.

Every breakup, every heartache, Clayton had been there by coincidence or on purpose; she couldn't tell… She didn't know what to believe anymore.

Her heels clicked against the pathway as she walked away, leaving Clayton standing in the garden.

“Olivia…”

She stopped, waiting for him to finish his words, but he didn't. Just like what he had done that fateful day four years ago after he called her a freak, she walked away from him without looking back.