Chapter 1

When my consciousness was trapped inside my own body, the world around me was nothing but darkness.

The only thing that still connected me to the outside world was my hearing.

So when my family prepared to wake me this time, I heard Mom’s voice again.

“What if we let Nora sleep for one more year?”

Her voice trembled.

She sounded as though she were making an unbearably painful decision, yet there was absolute certainty in her tone.

Before Dad or my brother could answer, she had already made up her mind.

“Yes. One more year won’t hurt.”

“Mom!”

This time, it was my brother, Travis.

He cut her off before she could say anything else.

“Nora has already been asleep for six years!”

Had it really been that long?

For a moment, I felt dazed.

I had only been twenty when my sister died in that car accident.

I hadn’t even graduated from college.

And now this body was already twenty-six.

The years from twenty to thirty were supposed to be some of the best years of my life, and I had already lost six of them.

While I was still trying to process it, the argument outside continued.

Mom’s tearful voice rang out.

“What’s one more year?”

“Don’t you understand? The moment Nora wakes up, my Evelyn will be gone forever!”

Her sobs were so broken that the room fell silent.

And only then did I slowly remember.

For the past six years, this body had belonged to my sister.

Six years ago, on the day my childhood sweetheart confessed his feelings to me, my sister ran out of the house.

She was struck by an out-of-control truck and died at the scene.

My sister, Evelyn Bennett.

Afterward, Mom, Dad, and Travis all said I owed her.

So when the medium they later hired told them there was a way to summon Evelyn’s soul back, but that she would need the body of a close blood relative as a vessel, Mom immediately pulled me forward.

Her grief had driven her almost mad.

With bloodshot eyes, she forced me down in front of the ritual altar and told the medium,

“Nora owes her sister this.

“Use her body to bring Evelyn back.”

Dad and Travis didn’t object.

I looked at them in despair.

Then my eyes finally landed on Ryan Cole, my childhood sweetheart, standing among the others.

I asked him,

“Do you think so too?”

Ryan avoided my eyes.

He only said quietly,

“Nora, we were the ones who wronged Evelyn.”

When he saw my face turn white, he added,

“Don’t worry. Your mom said Evelyn will only stay for three years.”

“After three years, we’ll wake you up again.”

But when the first three years passed, Mom found herself even less able to accept the idea of losing Evelyn again.

So there came another three years.

And now we were entering the seventh.

Mom still wanted to break her promise.

She still couldn’t let go of my sister.

She wanted to keep using my body to hold onto a soul that should no longer have been in this world.

I remembered the first time I had been chosen as the vessel for Evelyn’s soul.

Travis had held my hand and promised,

“Once Mom accepts reality, we’ll give you your life back.”

Six years had passed.

Mom still hadn’t accepted it.

Dad had never pushed her.

And Travis’s so-called promise had been reduced to one hesitant protest.

The mattress suddenly dipped slightly.

Someone sat beside the bed and gently took this body’s hand.

It was Ryan.

“Mrs. Bennett,” he said, his voice strained, “the wedding date has already been set.”

“Evelyn has waited years for this day.”

Travis immediately demanded,

“What about Nora?”

“I’ll take care of her.”

Ryan was silent for a long time before continuing.

“After Evelyn celebrates her birthday and the wedding is over, I’ll personally take out the bronze comb and place it in Nora’s hair.”

Wait.

It was always the same.

They always wanted me to wait.

The first year, they said Evelyn had died before finishing college.

At the very least, she deserved to graduate in a cap and gown and know what that felt like.

The third year, they said Evelyn had started her first business and was the heart of the entire project.

Everyone depended on her.

The fifth year, they said Ryan had finally accepted Evelyn’s love.

At the very least, she deserved two more years of happiness.

Now it was the seventh year.

My boyfriend was about to marry my sister.

Even if the body he would be marrying was mine.

But they always said the same thing.

This would be Evelyn’s first and last chance to experience these things.

After this, she would be gone forever.

Not one of them ever stopped to think that college had been a first for me too.

I had never gotten to graduate in a cap and gown.

I had never known what it was like to spend the best years of my youth working alongside a group of people toward a shared future.

I hadn’t even experienced my own boyfriend proposing to me.

Marriage would be Evelyn’s first time.

But wouldn’t it have been mine too?

No one cared how I felt.

All they cared about was that once Evelyn was gone, she would never come back.

“Nora, you still have your whole life ahead of you.

“For the next few decades, you’ll have Mom, Dad, Travis, and Ryan all to yourself.”

Every time they briefly woke me, they said the same thing.

As though I had somehow been born owing Evelyn something.

But she was the one who had taken over my life.

Travis paced back and forth across the room.

His breathing grew heavier with every step.

I thought he would at least argue for me one more time.

But then my sister spoke through my mouth.

“Travis.”

His footsteps stopped.

The moment he heard Evelyn, his voice instinctively softened.

“What is it, Evelyn?”

She didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, a blissful smile spread across my face as she gently rested a hand over my stomach.

She said she might already be carrying Ryan’s baby.

But I knew she wasn’t pregnant.

Ryan had never slept with her.

And yet, he chose not to expose the lie.

The room fell completely silent.

A long time later, I heard Travis open the wooden chest and put the bronze comb back at the very bottom.

“One last year,” he said.

Strangely, I didn’t even feel like crying.

Because what they didn’t know was that the soul trapped inside this body was no longer all of me.

It was only a fragment of my soul that had failed to escape six years ago.

The real me had already awakened in another body at the end of the first three years.

Back then, I woke up in an unfamiliar hospital room.

The last thing I had heard before losing consciousness was Mom pushing the bronze comb back into the bottom of the chest.

That was when Evelyn and Ryan’s startup was beginning to take off.

Everyone said Evelyn was the heart of the business and couldn’t possibly leave.

So Mom and Dad personally coaxed me back to sleep.

“Nora, one more year at most.

“Your sister is building all of this for your future too.”

Whenever Mom said things like that, there was always resentment in her voice.

“Your sister died because of you, and someday you’ll still get to enjoy everything she built.

“Nora Bennett, you really hit the jackpot being born into this family.”

Her words broke my heart.

I didn’t understand.

All I had done was live my life normally.

I went to school like anyone else.

I accepted a confession from the boy I had grown up with.

And somehow, by the end of it all, I was expected to repay Evelyn with my entire life.

Before they could say anything more, I willingly let myself sink back into sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, harsh fluorescent lights burned overhead.

A monitor beeped sharply beside me.

Then I heard someone say,

“The patient’s awake.”

A few moments later, a kind-looking middle-aged couple hurried into the room.

The woman gently took my hand and pressed my palm against her cheek.

“Judy.”

“Mom thought she’d never see you again.”

As she spoke, hot tears fell into my palm.

Something strange swelled inside my chest.

When I was five, Evelyn had once picked up a bottle of pesticide and tried to drink it.

She cried and accused our parents of being selfish.

They already had Travis, but they still only cared about themselves and went and had a third child…

Mom had nearly lost her mind.

She stopped Evelyn before she could swallow any of it, pulled her into her arms, and promised her over and over that she would only ever love one daughter.

From that day on, Mom never hugged me again.

In that family, she treated me like a guest.

Cold.

Distant.

Only Travis occasionally felt sorry for me.

Whenever I was left without something the others had, he would quietly make sure I got it too.

But after Evelyn died, even Travis began to resent me.

He never said it out loud.

But I knew.

And now, after all those years, someone was finally holding my hand and calling me her daughter with so much love in her voice.

That overwhelming affection made me selfish.

So I turned my face away.

And I didn’t correct her.

Later, I learned that the body I had awakened in belonged to a woman named Judy Foster.

She had been a local volunteer.

While trying to save a drowning child, she had been swept away by the current and struck the back of her head against a submerged rock.

She had been in a coma ever since.

Mr. and Mrs. Foster had stayed by her side for three years.

The strain had turned their hair gray.

They had already begun preparing themselves to lose their daughter.

After all, Judy's condition had been steadily declining for years.

And then I arrived in her body.

On the day I was discharged, Mr. Foster drove while Mrs. Foster sat beside me.

She peeled an orange and placed a slice into my hand while reminding me,

“You get carsick, so don’t look at your phone.”

I obediently turned off the screen.

In the dark reflection, I saw an unfamiliar face staring back at me.

I made a silent promise.

Judy Foster, I’ll take good care of your parents for you.

Every year, on certain days, I would lose consciousness for a while.

Those were the days when the Bennett family summoned the fragment of my soul back.

And every time I woke up again, Mr. and Mrs. Foster would be sitting anxiously beside my bed.

Only after seeing me open my eyes would they finally relax and smile.

Over the years, they never asked me anything.

But I knew they had probably realized that I wasn’t really Judy.

After all, pretending to be a complete stranger perfectly was nearly impossible.

Yet they never questioned me.

Whenever I woke up, they simply brought me a cup of warm water and rubbed warmth back into my cold hands.

Before I fell asleep this time, Caleb had even come back from out of town.

I hadn’t seen him in a long time.

He was a quiet man who preferred proving how much he cared through his actions.

Before I lost consciousness, he stared at me for a long time.

Almost as if he were looking through Judy's body and studying the soul inside.

Then he said,

“If you’re unhappy there, come back early.

“Whatever happens, I’ve got you.”

Just those words were enough to make me smile.

And now, the Bennett family had finally made their decision.

They woke me.

When I was finally able to see the world through my own body again, the first things I saw were Mom, Dad, and Travis wearing expressions of forced concern.

Ryan was there too.

I didn’t look at him.

Mom was clearly struggling to hide her impatience.

So I deliberately looked at them in confusion.

“Dad. Mom. Travis.”

“Did you finally bring me back?”

Dad and Travis stiffened.

Mom, however, immediately flew into a rage.

She pushed past both of them and stormed toward me, her finger almost jabbing me in the eye.

“Bring you back? Bring you back?

“That’s all you ever think about!

“Do you even understand that the second you come back, your sister disappears forever?

“Are you so desperate to live?

“You ungrateful little burden!”

She screamed at me so viciously that no one else dared speak.

I stared at her twisted expression.

My voice gradually turned cold.

“If you never intended to bring me back, why wake me up just to put on this little performance?

“Aren’t you tired?”

Mom froze.

Apparently, she hadn’t expected me to talk back.

Then her expression twisted completely.

Before she could explode, I cut her off.

“You don’t have to pretend anymore.

“I’m giving this body to Evelyn.

“What are you talking about?”

Mom interrupted impatiently.

“Nora Bennett, stop playing these pathetic games.

“You’ve always been calculating.

“Ever since you were little, you had to compete with your sister for attention.

“And now that she’s already like this, you’re still playing these ridiculous little mind games.”

I waited quietly until she finished.

Then I said calmly,

“Mom, the time limit for the soul exchange was six years.

“This is the seventh.

“I can’t come back anymore.”

Mom froze.

Confusion slowly appeared in her eyes.

So they really had forgotten what the medium warned them about all those years ago.

Travis was the first to remember.

His lips trembled.

“Dad, Mom.

“The medium did say there was a time limit.”

Ignoring our parents trying to stop him, he rushed to the drawer and pulled out the bronze comb.

As Mom screamed and cried, Travis forced the comb into my hair.

The bronze comb snapped cleanly in half.

I looked at him calmly.

The mark on my wrist, the mark showing that Evelyn’s soul was still attached to this body, remained exactly where it was.

Travis’s hands began to shake.

He reached toward me.

Then stopped.

Tears spilled from his eyes.

I looked at him and calmly said goodbye.

“What a shame.

“Even our last meeting had to end like this.

“Goodbye, my former family.”

Then I willingly pulled the last fragment of my soul out of the body.