Chapter 3

"Look, that's her. The crazy one. The jealous stand-in."

"An adopted orphan actually thought she could steal Cassandra's man? What a joke."

The crowd lining the hallway stepped back, carving out a path of pure malice just for me.

Countless glowing phone screens were held high, all looping the same video from last night's party.

My heart clenched from sheer humiliation, but I refused to let a single tear fall.

"Shut your mouths! Keep filming and I'll smash your phones!" Mia shoved past a cheerleader blocking the way.

"Mia." I reached out and grabbed her wrist.

Mia whipped her head around, looking at me in disbelief. "You're just going to let them spread this garbage? That bastard Dax hasn't even stepped up to clear your name! One word from him could fix all of this!"

"Clear what up?" I looked at Mia, my voice sounding as dead and still as a stagnant pool. "That I'm not Cassandra's stand-in? Or that I wasn't the shameless one who crawled into his bed?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow. I don't want to spend my last day on this campus dealing with this farce."

I took one last look at the university I had fought tooth and nail to get into, just to follow in Dax's footsteps.

Then, without a shred of lingering regret, I turned and walked away.

That evening, I returned home.

Cassandra was straddling Dax's lap.

His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist.

They were making out so fiercely that the wet, suggestive sounds of their kissing echoed loudly in the empty living room.

I headed straight for the stairs.

My scraped knees from being pushed down at the party last night were still throbbing, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow, dead sensation expanding in my chest.

"Elara."

Dax's breathless voice rang out from behind me. "Not even going to say hi when you walk in? How long are you going to keep up this attitude?"

My grip tightened on the banister.

Without looking back, I kept walking until I reached my room on the second floor.

Less than thirty seconds later, my door was violently pushed open.

"I'm talking to you!" Dax's massive frame filled the doorway.

"You threw a tantrum at the party last night and made Cassie cry all night. And you didn't even bother to find her at school today to apologize?"

Suddenly, Dax's gaze dropped to my right hand. It was wrapped in gauze, blood seeping through the layers.

His pupils constricted. His usual impatient tone hitched with a rare trace of tension. "What happened to your hand?"

He stepped forward, instinctively reaching out to grab my wrist.

I took a step back, hiding my hand behind my back. "If you don't have anything else to say, I want to rest."

His hand froze in midair.

"Elara, can you just drop it?"

He pulled his hand back, forcibly pushing down his temper. "I know Cassie being back makes you feel a little neglected, but you didn't have to throw a fit at the party. You used to be so well-behaved."

"Well-behaved?"

A low laugh suddenly escaped my lips. My stomach twisted into tight knots, and my eyes instantly burned red.

"Dax, what exactly am I to you?"

Dax stared at my bloodshot eyes. His jaw clenched, a muscle feathering in his cheek.

After a long moment, he looked away, delivering the dullest, most brutal blow.

"You're my sister, El. We're family. My parents raised you like their own. There could... never be anything between us."

My self-deceiving fantasies were ripped to shreds right in front of me.

Staring at his face, I suddenly felt utterly disgusted by the girl who had loved him so pathetically in the past.

I took a deep breath and violently yanked out the last remaining thorn in my heart.

"If it was never possible... then why did you touch me that night? Why did you take my virginity?"

Dax's face instantly darkened. "That was an accident. I was drunk, and you just happened to throw yourself at me. You didn't say no, didn't fight back. Any guy would have slipped up."

"Elara, it's always been Cassie for me. But as long as you learn your place, stop causing trouble for her, and respect my parents' reputation, there will always be a place for you in this house."

How greedy.

He wanted to hold his precious, untouchable first love in the palm of his hands, yet he couldn't bear to lose the vanity of having me worship him on my knees.

The last tiny, flickering ember in my heart went out completely, turning into cold, dead ash.

"By the way," Dax added.

"Tomorrow night is the national championship game. After the game, I'm going to officially confess to Cassie on the jumbotron for the whole stadium to see."

"I want you there. Cassie needs you to be in the crowd to witness it. That's the only way she'll feel truly secure and know you've moved on."

Tomorrow night.

The exact time my flight to Florence was scheduled to take off.

I felt an invisible hand crush my heart into powder. Yet, from the bloody ruins of it, I slowly stretched my lips into a flawless smile.

"Okay," I heard myself say. "I'll be there to witness it."

Before I left, Dax stayed out entirely, too busy preparing for his grand championship and the romantic spectacle that would follow.

I started packing.

The suitcase was practically empty. I only packed a few changes of clothes I had bought with my own part-time job money, and my essential IDs.

Before heading to the airport, I detoured to the cemetery, gently resting a bouquet of white roses against my parents' headstone.

"Mom. Dad."

"I'm leaving."

"For so many years, I lived for people who didn't love me back. I reduced myself to a stand-in, a pathetic joke that could be tossed aside at any given moment."

"But starting today, I'm going to live for myself."

After leaving the cemetery, I went straight to the airport.

Staring out the airplane window, I watched the city slowly get swallowed whole by the thick layers of clouds below.

Dax, from this moment on, our paths will never cross again.

Without you, my world is finally bright and clear.