By the following week, Sophie had returned to school in full victim mode.
Pale makeup.
Fragile expression.
A voice so soft it practically begged to be protected.
Students were stuffing snacks into her desk.
Teachers were speaking to her gently.
Jason followed her around like a bodyguard who thought emotional dependency was romance.
When she finally crossed paths with me in the hallway, she stopped first.
“Emily,” she said timidly. “Are you still mad at me?”
“I really didn’t mean any harm.”
“I just thought… maybe I should step back and give Jason to you.”
Jason immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and glared at me.
“Sophie, I would rather die than like someone like Emily.”
“Don’t compare her to you. It’s insulting.”
I almost laughed at how hard he was trying.
Sophie bit her lip, but the triumph in her eyes was impossible to hide.
A crowd started gathering.
Of course it did.
People loved a public stoning.
“Emily is shameless.”
“If I were her, I’d disappear.”
“All that stuff online and she still has the nerve to show her face.”
Sophie turned to them with false urgency.
“Please don’t say that about my cousin.”
“She made mistakes, but everyone deserves a second chance, right?”
I smiled at her.
Slowly.
Sweetly.
“Sophie.”
“Your birthday is coming up.”
Her face lit with anticipation before she caught herself.
I stepped closer.
“So let me wish you something in advance.”
“I hope you have a wonderful eighteenth birthday.”
My smile widened.
“A birthday celebrated fully in the light.”
Something flickered in her eyes.
Fear, maybe.
Good.
On the morning of her party, Ashley and I acted exactly like we had in our previous life.
Weak.
Pale.
Unable to get out of bed.
Mom and Dad came in to put on a performance of concern, asking if we felt worse and whether we needed to rest.
Their eyes were shining, though.
They could barely contain their excitement.
Sophie lingered at the door wearing a silk robe and satisfaction.
They thought by tonight…
Everything would be over.
And what a grand celebration they had prepared.
Every dollar they had squeezed out of Ashley and me over the years had apparently gone into Sophie’s birthday banquet.
Designer dress.
Gold crown.
Private venue.
The works.
They left the house full of fake concern and real anticipation.
The second the front door closed, I sat up in bed.
Ashley did the same across the hall.
I called the police.
By the time they arrived, the officers found exactly what Ashley and I told them they would.
Gasoline hidden in our rooms.
A timed ignition device.
Enough to turn the entire house into an inferno.
My hands stayed steady while I gave my statement.
Inside, though, I could still feel the heat of that past fire licking at my skin.
The police remained behind to secure the scene and document everything.
Ashley and I changed clothes.
Did our hair.
Put on clean coats.
And headed straight for Sophie’s birthday party.
If this was going to be the most important night of her life…
Then obviously we had to be there.
Compared to the forgotten, dim, empty eighteenth birthdays Ashley and I had endured, Sophie’s banquet looked like a princess fantasy.
Crystal lights.
Towering floral arrangements.
A spotlighted stage.
She stood in the center of it all in a fitted ivory gown, crown glittering, skin glowing, smiling like victory itself.
Jason sat below the stage with his hair carefully styled, looking at her with the kind of soft devotion boys mistake for love.
A giant screen behind them was playing a slideshow of Sophie’s life.
Baby pictures.
Childhood pictures.
School photos.
Sophie took the microphone with trembling hands and thanked her beloved aunt and uncle.
Thanked her classmates.
Thanked a “special person” who had always stood by her.
The room erupted in teasing cheers.
Then someone mentioned my name.
And just like that, the mood shifted into mockery.
A few people snickered.
Then more joined in.
Soon enough, it was open ridicule.
Exactly as expected.
That was the moment Ashley and I walked in.
The room went dead.
Sophie’s smile froze first.
Then Mom’s.
Then Dad’s.
All three of them looked like they had seen actual ghosts.
I smiled.
“Surprised?”
My heels clicked softly against the floor as Ashley and I walked forward.
“Funny, right?”
“We’re not dead.”
“Not poisoned.”
“Not burned alive.”
“And if we hadn’t shown up, how would everyone here ever get the chance to see your real faces?”
I turned toward Sophie on the stage.
“Sophie, why are you still calling them your aunt and uncle?”
“Shouldn’t you be calling them Mom and Dad?”
The banquet exploded.
What?
Excuse me?
Did she just say—
At the exact same moment, phones began lighting up across the room.
Ashley and I had prepared every file in advance.
DNA results.
Medical reports.
Audio clips.
Screenshots.
Digital forensics proving the campus confession post had been fabricated.
Proof that the anonymous account used to spread the rumors traced back to Sophie.
Proof that the fake chats had been generated.
Proof that Mom and Dad had spent years using Ashley’s and my talents to collect money, status, and opportunities—
Only to plan our deaths once Sophie came of age.
I lifted my own phone and spoke into the silence.
“For everyone who’s confused, let me summarize.”
“Sophie is their biological daughter.”
“My parents spent years pretending she was just a pitiful cousin while draining Ashley and me for everything we could give.”
“When we became inconvenient, they tried to drug us, ruin our futures, collect insurance money, and clear the way for Sophie to take our places.”
I looked straight at Sophie.
“Oh, and as for the person behind that confession post?”
“The account belonged to you.”
“And the so-called chat evidence?”
“Already verified by a professional technician as fake.”
“You’ll find the report on the last page.”
Jason’s face went white.
Like truly white.
For the first time, he looked at Sophie like he didn’t know her.
Mom’s legs gave out beneath her.
Dad clutched his chest and stared at me with bloodshot eyes.
Then came Sophie.
She snapped.
All her sweetness evaporated in an instant.
“Bullshit!” she screamed.
“You lying bitch!”
She hurled the microphone down and charged off the stage toward me, nails out like she wanted to claw my face open.
She never made it.
Ashley stepped forward and kicked her hard enough that Sophie crumpled sideways onto the floor.
Ashley looked down at her like she was garbage.
“We’ll let the police sort out what’s true.”
Sophie’s face emptied.
She knew then Ashley wasn’t bluffing.
She knew the police were already involved.
Around the room, guests were reading through the evidence with growing horror.
Then disgust.
Then fury.
“Are you kidding me?”
“She played us.”
“This whole family is insane.”
“I bought her gifts. I paid for her meals.”
“What kind of monsters do this?”
A group of Ashley’s teammates moved first.
Then other students followed.
In seconds, the banquet devolved into chaos.
Everyone surged toward Sophie.
Then Mom and Dad rushed in to protect her.
Which only meant all three of them got swallowed together by the anger of dozens of furious teenagers.
By the time the police arrived, Sophie’s carefully styled hair was half ripped out, Dad’s jacket was shredded, Mom’s face was covered in makeup streaks and scratches.
The officers shouted, separated people, restored order.
And then, right there in the wreckage of her dream birthday…
They arrested all three of them.
Sophie was eighteen now.
No more juvenile shield.
No more pretending she was just a fragile little girl.
As they dragged her away, she kept screaming for Jason.
Screaming that he had to help her.
That he had to save her.
He didn’t move.
Not even once.