Chapter 3

No one answered me. Chase's outstretched hand froze in midair, then slowly dropped.

I went to the study, clutching my cup of soy milk. The cot was narrow. The hives on the back of my hand still hadn't faded, and a tingling numbness shot up my arm when my skin brushed the side of the cup.

Out of nowhere, I really wanted to talk to my best friend, Jocelyn Lane.

This whole past year, my family had revolved around the other Cordelia. Jocelyn was the only one who would still listen to me.

Last New Year's Eve, while my parents were on video chat celebrating with "Cordelia", Jocelyn had sat with me on the curb outside a convenience store. We'd had hot dogs.

She'd said, "If you find that you can't take it anymore, just come to me."

I tapped on my chat with her and held down the voice message button. I cried for a full minute. The second I lifted my finger, all I saw was a single gray tick.

I stared at it for a long time, then searched for our dorm group chat. I couldn't find it, but that wasn't all. Our graduation chat, our project-rant group, and even the group chat where we usually arranged to eat together… I'd been kicked out of all of them.

I called Jocelyn. The first time, she declined the call. The second time, she declined again. It wasn't until the fifth call that she finally picked up.

"Why are you still calling, Cordelia?" she snarled.

My throat tightened. "Jocelyn, it's me."

"I know it's you." Her voice was shaking, but it was frosty. "Weren't you the one who said you were about to start living a more elite life and didn't want to be dragged down by us commoners? Weren't you the one who dumped every secret we ever told you into the group chats?"

I went rigid. "I didn't."

"You sent those messages yourself last night. You said I only got my job because of my family, and you said Anna's love life was a mess. You said we all look classy on the surface but are disasters behind the scenes. At the end of it all, you told us not to bother contacting you anymore."

I parted my lips, but no sound came out. Last night, I'd been in the hospital getting treated for my allergies. My phone had been in Mom's purse.

Jocelyn sneered. "If you didn't want to be friends with us anymore, you could've just been frank about it. You didn't have to utterly humiliate us first."

Then she hung up.

I stared at the black screen, my heart pounding so hard that it felt like it was about to jump out of my throat. I'd lost the last person I could've turned to.

I ran out of the closet to see Mom in the middle of confirming closet measurements with the contractor.

I slammed my phone down on the table. "Why did you use my phone to send those messages?"

She frowned. "Once she gets here, we can't have a bunch of random people crowding around, asking questions and prying."

Dad set his blueprints aside. "The simpler your social circle is, the more stable things will be after the exchange."

I let out a mocking laugh. "So you quit my job for me, cut off my friends for me, and kicked me out of my own room."

Mom's expression darkened. "Why are you being so unreasonable? You're about to leave. Do you have to make things harder for us?"

Her gaze landed on my wrist—or specifically, on the diamond bangle I wore—as she spoke. Grandma had slipped that bangle on herself, right before she passed.

Mom grabbed my hand. "Take this off, too."

I tried to shake her off. "Grandma gave this to me."

She tightened her grip. "Lia said she likes diamonds. With her temperament, this will look much better on her than on you."

The pain made my fingertips tremble.

Dad came over and held me down by my shoulders, impatience written all over his face. "It's just a bangle. Why are you kicking up such a fuss over it?"

Mom poured liquid soap over my wrist and forced the bangle off. It scraped over my hives, and the pain made my vision go white.

As I watched her take the bangle away, it felt like something inside me snapped. I drew in a long breath, suddenly feeling like I no longer wanted to fight for anything anymore.

Mom set the bangle into a jewelry box. As she did, she said, "That's more like it. Behave and make everyone's life easier."

I looked down at my bare wrist. All that was left was a red ring.

I forced myself to smile brightly. "Okay. I'll be good."