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Victoria’s desperate pleas were cut short when my mother rushed forward and slapped her so hard she fell to the ground.
They were all intimate pictures of Jake and Victoria, some taken just a few days ago. Sarah just scoffed and pulled another thick stack of photos from her bag.
Everyone was consumed by the immense grief of my death. How ironic. The attention and remorse I had craved my entire life finally came after I was gone.
So, Victoria hatched a plan to get her hands on my fiancé and our family’s successful advertising agency.
As she was handcuffed, the neighbors who had gathered to watch spit at her.
They had staged the scene to look like a suicide, but the plan went awry.
Manic, unhinged–those were the only words to describe her.
The best way to do that, she figured, was to make me disappear from the world. Then she could marry Daniel, divorce him, take half his assets, and run away with Jake.
Daniel ignored her completely, giving her the cold shoulder.
Today was my funeral. My parents, forcing their weak bodies to move, dressed in black and busied themselves at the church.
My mother stumbled to her knees and gently held her, then began slapping her face, over and over, muttering, “A life for a life!”
“Daniel! Daniel, let me explain!”
In just a few short months, one daughter was brutally murdered, and the other was in prison.
She would only repeat one sentence, over and over: “I’m sorry, Emily.”
Jake had confessed everything. He said Victoria had manipulated him into doing it. He loved her, but he was broke, and she refused to marry a poor man.
Meanwhile, my parents were so devastated they could barely function, no longer
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caring about Daniel at all.
“Dad, Mom! Help me! Write me a letter of forgiveness! Emily is gone, I’m the only daughter you have left! I don’t want to go to jail!”
Even when she made dinner to try and make peace, he didn’t come home.
When the detective told Daniel that I had been a month pregnant, his agonized cries echoed through the police station. He punched the floor again and again until his knuckles were bloody.
“With this baby, I’ll be fine! My looks, my personality, my grades–how am I any worse than Emily? Why should she get the perfect fiancé and the perfect life? Why should I have to marry some loser and live in poverty? As long as I can live better than her, who cares if she’s dead?”
The autumn rain fell endlessly, and a chilling morning breeze swept through.
Everything was dying–even the most stubborn blades of grass were bent low by the cold rain.
Then, the news broke: Jake had been arrested. He was my murderer.
The final, devastating blow was the revelation that Victoria never had leukemia–it was all an elaborate lie she had concocted to eliminate me.
She was supposed to be their sweet, darling eldest daughter. How had she become so vicious?
The terrified Victoria suddenly shoved my mother away and began to laugh hysterically.
When Jake saw me, he lost control.
He looked somber and broken.
Over the next few days, Victoria was a nervous wreck. She even secretly hid the silver bracelet.
The police even found Jake’s DNA inside my body.
Even Daniel, who had been missing for weeks, showed up. But he was no longer the confident, vibrant man I once knew. He was painfully thin, with deep, sunken eyes and dark circles that looked like they were painted on. His messy hair fell over his face,
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hiding his eyes.
After Victoria was taken away, my parents seemed to age twenty years overnight.
This time, they were there for Victoria.
My mother cried so much she went blind, and her mind began to slip.
Victoria clutched her stomach, laughing triumphantly.
“Daniel, don’t listen to her! Jake and I broke up a long time ago. She’s framing me!” Victoria pleaded.
He lit a new cigarette from the butt of his last one.
My parents watched, tears streaming down their faces, as their daughter who had murdered her own sister for greed was taken away. They stood with their mouths agape, unable to form a single word.
Friends and family arrived one by one, laying bouquets of flowers before my portrait.
Soon, the police knocked on our door again.
Victoria suddenly dropped to her knees. So, she too was afraid of losing her freedom.
She too knew the value of a life.
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