Chapter 1: Chapter 1
The night before my engagement party, my sister Victoria appears at my door, tears streaming down her face.
“I have leukemia, Emily. Six months to live.”
My parents stand behind her, nodding gravely.
“Daniel already agreed to switch brides. It’s her dying wish.”
I stare at my fiancé Daniel Matthews in shock. He won’t even look at me.
“It’s just temporary, Emmy. Once she’s… gone, we’ll have our real wedding.”
When I refuse to surrender my engagement ring, my parents haul me to our family cabin.
They shove me into the basement. “We’ll let you out after the party.”
But they never return.
Instead, a stranger breaks in and murders me.
By the time anyone bothers to remember I exist, I’m already decomposing.
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1
I was a ghost, hovering at what was supposed to be my own engagement party.
All eyes were on the center of the room, where my sister, Victoria Carter, was wearing my engagement ring and standing beside my fiancé, Daniel Matthews, as they announced their own engagement.
“Victoria has finally found her happiness!” my parents whispered from the crowd, their eyes brimming with tears of joy.
Amid the cheers, the happy couple glowed with bliss, spinning a fabricated tale of their whirlwind romance for the guests.
A chance encounter? A love for the ages?
There was no room for me in their story. I had been completely erased, as if I’d never existed at all.
The diamond ring, which had always felt a little clunky on my finger, now glittered on Victoria’s, as if it were made for her.
My spirit hovered, a bone-deep chill piercing my very essence.
So, this was the truth. The person standing here today, getting engaged to Daniel, was never supposed to be me.
No wonder Daniel had been so distracted while we were planning the party, always smiling secretly at his phone.
What I didn’t understand was, if they loved Victoria so much, why did they have to drag me into all of this?
Not long ago, I had died in our family’s vacation cabin.
My parents had locked me in the basement, sealing the door with a heavy wooden plank. I was powerless, forced to watch as a masked man broke in.
I was pregnant, and he assaulted me before ending my life.
My death was horrific. He slit my wrists with a knife and watched as my life dripped away.
Before my parents left, they had even taped my mouth shut, terrified I might call for help.
I died without ever making a sound.
Growing up, my parents’ love had never been for me.
The snacks we both liked? They were always for Victoria.
The dress I dreamed of? It always ended up on Victoria.
When money got tight and they could only afford to send one of us to college, they chose Victoria without a second thought. I had to work my way through school.
But I never imagined their favoritism could go this far. When Victoria claimed she had leukemia and didn’t have long to live, they actually asked me to give her my fiancé.
The most crushing part was that Daniel, who had been my shadow since college, had betrayed me too.
I watched coldly as the sham of a party came to an end.
When they packed their bags for a celebratory trip, I followed them.
At a winery in Napa Valley, Daniel and Victoria strolled through the vineyards, bathed in golden sunlight.
A gentle breeze rustled their hair.
Victoria wrapped her arms around Daniel’s neck, and they shared a passionate kiss among the vines.
Tourists nearby looked on with envy, applauding them.
Even my parents, usually so reserved, stood by, raising their glasses in a toast.
In that moment, who would remember me, the girl locked away to die in a cabin basement?
And who cared if anything they had done to me was fair?
