Frozen Out of Love
The fake daughter only sneezed.
My three brothers reacted as if she were on her deathbed, crowding around her anxiously and refusing to let her out of their sight.
So when she pointed her finger at me again, insisting I had shoved her into the pool, they accepted her story without a second thought.
They hauled me to a deserted walk-in freezer, sealed the door behind me at -58°F, and made sure the only escape was out of reach.
I screamed for my oldest brother, the CEO, to let me out.
He called me a cruel attention seeker.
I begged my second brother, the doctor.
He told me I finally got what I deserved.
I begged my third brother, the big-shot attorney.
He just sneered. "You've always been jealous of Chloe. Now you pushed her into the pool when you knew she was fragile? You really are rotten. Someone like you needs to stay in there and cool off."
Then, they bundled Chloe into their arms and rushed her to the hospital over a sneeze.
Bit by bit, warmth seeped from my body, until it seemed like ice was flowing through my veins instead of blood.
After thirty-six hours, I slipped away, lost to the cold.
Three days later, Chloe returned from the hospital, and only then did my brothers remember I existed.
But by then, the freezer had already claimed me.