LOGINShare
Chapter 8
Latest chapter
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 10
A year after my death, Mom sold the Foster family home. She said a house that had no room for me didn't deserve to be called a home.Dad used the money from the sale to establish a mental health support center. He didn't name it after me.Ms. Bennett told him I'd hated being the center of attention while I was alive and wouldn't have wanted my story turned into a symbol of the Foster family's attempt at redemption.Dad listened, then quietly removed the plaque he'd already prepared. It was the first time he'd considered whether I would want something before making a decision for me, even though it was already too late.Mom moved into the small house Grandma Jo had left me. It was barely five hundred square feet, with yellowing walls and a kitchen faucet that was always leaking.There, she found records from my childhood.When I was seven, I'd collapsed while washing dishes and was taken to a clinic, where I needed three stitches.When I was twelve, I'd suffered from frostbite af
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 9
Everyone looked at Adrian.Even I floated over to his side. I'd never written him a letter.Adrian opened the envelope. Inside was a single printed sheet."I'm willing to withdraw from the engagement, but please have the Maxwell family tell everyone that I'm the one who isn't good enough for Adrian."The name at the bottom had been written to imitate my handwriting, but in the bottom-right corner of the page was a watermark from Gemma's private studio.Adrian placed another document in front of Dad."The day the engagement was called off, Carly's reaction didn't feel right. I had someone look into it. That's when I found out she'd received a voice message from Mrs. Foster before she came to see me."Mom seemed to remember something, and her face suddenly went white.The recording played. Her voice was gentle, but every sentence pressured me to give in."Carly, Gemma has liked Adrian since she was little. You've only just come home. You don't understand the rules of our social
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 8
My funeral was scheduled for seven days later.Mom wouldn't let anyone put makeup on me. She said I'd suffered enough while I was alive and shouldn't have strangers touching me after I died.But she didn't know that I'd never been afraid of strangers. I was only afraid of someone treating me well, then suddenly telling me none of it had been real.On the day of the viewing, Mom chose a white dress for me. The tag was still attached to the sleeve. It was the first gift she'd bought me after I came home.Gemma had said she liked it too, so Mom told me to put it away for the time being and said I could have it once Gemma got tired of it.Later, Gemma forgot about it, and I never dared wear it.Mom's hands shook so badly she could barely hold the scissors as she cut off the tag. "Carly, I'm giving it to you now. This is yours. No one gets to take it from you."I sat beside the casket and watched her straighten the hem of my dress over and over. She'd finally admitted that some thing
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 7
Gemma spun around. The phone slipped from her hand and hit the stairs.Nolan approached her one step at a time. "Didn't you say Carly took your things herself? Why are you so scared now that they found the phone?"Tears spilled down Gemma's face. "Nolan, don't look at me like that. We came up with the plan together."You said if we got Carly out of my birthday party, the guests would stop crowding around her and asking about which one of us was the real Foster daughter."Nolan's face slowly turned white.I finally understood why he'd helped Gemma.Before the birthday party started, the guests had kept asking about my identity.Gemma stood nearby in a designer dress, but hardly anyone paid attention to her. She couldn't stand having me steal the spotlight, so she'd gone crying to Nolan.Nolan agreed to help her teach me a lesson. They placed the suicide note and her personal belongings at the lighthouse to lure me away from the party.Once I arrived, Gemma would leave through t
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 6
The hallway at the medical examiner's office was cold.I followed them through two sets of doors and saw myself lying on the other side of the glass.The medical examiner had removed my bloodstained dress. A white sheet covered me to the collarbone, leaving only my pale, swollen face exposed.The moment Mom saw me clearly, her legs gave out. Dad caught her in time, but she shoved him away as though she'd been burned."That's not Carly. She has a tiny mole at the end of her left eyebrow. This person doesn't."A staff member put on gloves and wiped the remaining dirt from my brow with a cotton swab.The faint mole appeared.Mom's voice stopped abruptly. She raised a hand toward the glass, her fingertips hovering over where my face was. "How can she be so cold? She was still warm when she left home yesterday."The staff member didn't answer.Of course, a dead person couldn't stay warm forever.Nolan stared at my tightly clenched left hand. Her hand had turned pale and waterlogge
The Words That Killed Me Chapter 5
Dad was the first to laugh. "Officer, that's not a very funny joke."He pointed at the ID inside the evidence bag. "An ID can be forged. She could have deliberately left those things behind too."Carly grew up away from us. She knows how to take care of herself. There's no way she'd die over a few things we said."I floated beside Dad and suddenly found that strange.I'd been home for three months, and he'd never asked where I'd grown up or whether I knew how to take care of myself, yet now, he was certain I couldn't be dead.Officer Lester didn't argue. He simply handed him a photograph.In it, I was lying inside a white body bag. The sand and mud had been cleaned from my face, leaving a cut on my right temple where the rocks had torn the skin.Mom looked at it once, then knocked the photograph to the floor. "That's not her. My daughter is perfectly fine. How could she be lying in a place like that?"Officer Lester lowered his voice. "Mrs. Foster, the body has a crescent-shape
You May Also Like
The Real Garcia
Ding18.1K viewsMy Twin Sister
Stuart Paige61.3K viewsNo Longer a Stand-In
Celebrant10.6K viewsIn My Next Life, I Beg for Your Love
Bathed in Gold64.6K viewsFive Times the Pay, Zero Loyalty
I. Winter10 viewsMom Saves All Her Blessings for My Sister
0078 viewsMy family Chose My Foster Sister, Then I Died
Stellan12 viewsMy Boss Fined Me, So I Stopped Caring
Sable Censer12 views
