CHAPTER 3

The first person I saw standing at the entrance was my father. His face was dark with anger, his eyes fixed on me as though I had committed an unforgivable crime. Beside him stood my mother, her arms folded across her chest as she looked at me with nothing but disgust. Then, standing quietly behind them with an innocent smile on her lips, was the person who had stolen everything that should have been mine. The person who had taken my name, my family, my place, and even my future.

Rosaline Cassian.

Everyone in the Bloodmoon Pack believed Rosaline was the beloved daughter of the Cassian family. They admired her beauty, and envied the perfect life she seemed to have. No one knew the truth. Rosaline wasn’t my biological sister. She had been adopted when I was only eight years old. Before she entered our lives, Rosaline Cassian had been my name. It was the name my parents had given me at birth, the name that belonged to me. But the moment they brought her into this house, they stripped it away as if I had never deserved it. They handed my name to her without a second thought, then gave me a new one—Hazel Cassian and introduced me to everyone as their adopted daughter. Just like that, I stopped existing in the eyes of the world.

My parents had despised me for as long as I could remember. Even as a little girl, I was bigger than the other children. I had simply been born that way. But to them, my size was a stain on the family's reputation. My father, the respected Beta of the Bloodmoon Pack, cared more about his pride than his own daughter. He couldn't bear the thought of people whispering that the Beta's daughter was fat, so instead of loving me, he erased me.

He replaced me with a prettier, slimmer little girl and gave her everything that should have been mine. They stole my identity while I was still too young to understand what was happening. By the time I learned the truth, it was already too late. To everyone else, Rosaline was their real daughter, while I was nothing more than the adopted girl they had generously taken in.

“Where the hell have you been?” my father roared as he stormed toward me. I had barely lifted my head before his hand came flying toward my face.

The force of the slap sent my head snapping to the side. A sharp sting spread across my cheek, and for a moment, my ears rang so loudly I could barely hear anything else. I slowly raised a trembling hand to my burning face, my eyes fixed on the floor.

“Not only are you useless,” my father shouted, pointing a furious finger at me, “but now you’ve started sleeping outside the house? Have you completely lost your shame?”

“Dad, I told you already,” Rosaline said as she slipped her arm through my mother’s, pretending to look disappointed in me. “Hazel is a shameless whore. She spends her nights sleeping with different pack men because she’s desperate for someone to accept her as their mate. She’s been doing it for a long time.”

Every lie rolled effortlessly off her tongue, and my parents believed every single word without hesitation.

My mother’s eyes filled with disgust as she looked me up and down.

“Are you not ashamed of yourself?” she hissed. “You’re wolfless, you’re fat, and you’re nothing but a disgrace to this family. Why can’t you learn from Rosaline? She’s beautiful, respectful, talented, and carries herself with dignity. Look at the difference between the two of you. She makes us proud, while you only bring us humiliation.”

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my lips before I could stop it.

If only they knew that the daughter they praised so proudly was the one sneaking into men’s beds behind their backs. If only they knew how many lies she had told, how many innocent people she had manipulated, and how many dirty secrets she buried beneath that sweet, innocent smile. They worshipped the wrong daughter while treating the real one like garbage.

Rosaline noticed the small smile on my face. Her expression changed instantly as she stepped closer until we were standing face to face.

Before I could react, her hand crashed against my other cheek with even more force than my father’s. My head whipped to the side, and a sharp pain shot through my jaw.

“My parents are talking to you,” she snapped coldly. “How dare you stand there smiling? Have you become so shameless that you can’t even show them respect anymore?”

I slowly turned my head to look at her, my eyes widening in disbelief.

In my past life, on the morning right after my one-night stand with Rowan, Rosaline had mocked me, but she had never dared to lay a hand on me.

My heart hammered against my ribs as a chilling realization washed over me.

Something had changed.

Why was the timeline changing? What else was different this time?