Chapter 05

Valarie's POV

Elle stared hard at the two velvet boxes still sitting in Osborne's hands. Then, slowly, her eyes turned red, and tears began falling down her cheeks in perfect, glistening streaks.

"Are you guys going to abandon me now?"

She turned away sharply, wiping at her tears, crying like something inside her had been deeply, irreversibly wounded.

"She's already so awful," she said, her voice trembling. "She stole my foundation, played dead just to scare me, and ruined our whole Christmas. And you still prepared such nice welcome gifts for her?" She sniffled, her shoulders shaking. "Is it because she's your real sister? I'm just the adopted one, so I don't deserve to stay in this family?"

The three brothers panicked instantly, exactly the way I knew they would. I had watched this pattern play out so many times before, watched how quickly the whole house rearranged itself around Elle's tears like planets pulled into orbit around a sun.

Caspian was so anxious that he dropped to one knee right beside the couch and grabbed Elle's hand, his face pale with worry.

"Elle, what are you even talking about?" he said quickly. "In my heart, you'll always be my only little sister."

Osborne looked down at the two boxes in his hands. Then he looked at Elle, sobbing so hard now she could barely catch her breath between each cry. He didn't hesitate for more than a second.

He shoved both boxes into her arms.

"Stop crying," he said, his voice firm but gentle. "It's just a dress and a bracelet. You can have them."

Elle looked up at him through her tears, and for just a flicker of a moment, I saw something calculating pass behind her eyes before it disappeared again beneath the performance.

"But these are supposed to be Valarie's welcome gifts," she said softly, pretending to refuse, pretending it pained her to accept.

Osborne sighed. Something unreadable flickered across his face, gone before I could name it.

"After the way she acted today," he said, "all full of tricks and lies, she doesn't deserve to wear something this pure and white." He shrugged, already moving past it. "When she comes out tomorrow, I'll just buy her something else later."

Tomorrow. He kept saying that word like it still existed for me.

Tears fell from my empty, ghostly eyes, though no one in that room would ever see them. No need, Osborne. You don't need to make it up to me anymore. Because I will never receive another gift from any of you again.

Elle stopped crying almost instantly, the tears drying up like they had been switched off at the source. Right in front of the three brothers, she eagerly tore open the boxes. She shook out the dress the one that had clearly been tailored to fit my exact measurements and held it up against her body, admiring the fabric in the light.

Then, lifting the skirt excitedly, she turned to face my three brothers, and for just a moment, a cruel little flash lit up behind her eyes.

"Osborne, Gerald, Caspian, I want to try it on right now!"

Not long after, Elle came back out of the guest room wearing the white tulle dress. It looked a little tight on her, the seams pulling slightly at her shoulders where it had never been meant to fit anyone but me, but she didn't seem to notice or care. The bracelet swung delicately on her wrist as she spun around in the middle of the living room.

"Do I look pretty?" she asked, her voice sweet as syrup.

The three brothers nodded, praising her one after another, their voices overlapping with compliments. Caspian even pulled out his phone and snapped photo after photo of her twirling in the dress that had been made for someone else entirely.

Then Elle suddenly wrapped her arm around Osborne's, shaking it playfully, like a spoiled child asking for one more treat before bedtime.

"Osborne, since Valarie can't wear this dress right now," she said, tilting her head, "let's go to the garage and show her how it looks on me, okay?"

Osborne frowned slightly. "She's still in there thinking about what she did."

"Come on, please?" Elle kept whining, tugging at his arm, pouting up at him with wide, pleading eyes. "We can turn the live stream back on, too. Let the viewers decide who looks prettier in it."

She kept begging, on and on, until finally Osborne let out a tired laugh and gave in.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you want."

The garage door slowly rolled up again, the motor grinding softly in the quiet house, letting cold air spill back into the space where my body was still lying in the dark, alone, unmoving, exactly where they had left me.