Chapter 1

On my twenty-fourth birthday, Les Henson proposed to me.

But the words that lit up the giant screen on the Twin Towers read:

【Fern Winfield, marry me!】

Fern Winfield was my sister.

Four years ago, she died in a car accident on her way to pick me up from the airport.

Because of it, Les developed a severe mental illness.

To help the doctors treat him, I became my sister's stand-in.

Looking at the tenderness in his eyes, I nodded through red-rimmed eyes and said yes.

The instant I reached out my right hand, his face changed.

"Why are you wearing nail polish? Fern never liked things like this!"

The crowd's cheering turned into piercing screams.

Les tore off all ten of my nails, one by one, until the pain sent me under.

It had happened more times than I could count.

I had hair down to my waist, but my sister liked hers short, cut to the shoulder, so Les went mad and chopped off the hair I had grown for eighteen years.

I couldn't eat the sweets my sister hated, couldn't listen to the music she didn't like, couldn't wear heels…

The moment I did anything my sister wouldn't have done, Les would lose control and fly into a rage.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a hospital bed.

Les stood in the doorway, talking in a low voice with his friend Dr. Floyd.

"It's been four years already. Let Doris Winfield go, and let yourself go too."

"How do you know Doris isn't enjoying every minute of it?"

Les's gaze swept over my face, cold and remote.

"I read her diary. She's developed feelings for me she never should have."

"A person like her makes me sick."

Under the blanket, my hand clenched until it hurt.

This one-woman show was finally reaching its end.

…

The air conditioning left me chilled to the bone, shaking and unable to stop.

Dr. Floyd spoke up.

"Les, what happened back then was just an accident. Why take it out on Doris?"

"Doris has suffered for four years for your 'illness.' If she ever found out you've been faking it all along, she…"

"Accident?"

Les gave a cold laugh and cut him off.

"If she hadn't come home out of nowhere, why would Fern have gone out to get her that late? How would any of this have happened?"

He twisted his mouth.

"In her diary, she wrote that her birthday wish this year was to cure me and pull me out of the dark."

"Three days from now, at the wedding, I'll grant that wish of hers."

Something startled flickered in Dr. Floyd's eyes.

"What are you going to do?"

"At the wedding, in front of everyone, I'll expose her for what she really is."

Les's smile twisted.

"I'll make Doris's diary public. I'll tell everyone she used the excuse of curing me to climb into my bed."

"That she killed her own sister and then seduced her sister's man. A slut that vile, that disgusting, that everyone should spit on!"

Dr. Floyd's eyes went wide with disbelief.

"Les, do you hear yourself?"

"Aren't you afraid Doris might snap and do something reckless?"

Les's mouth went tight.

"If Doris really is that fragile, then let her go down and atone to Fern."

"But if she survives this, I'll claim I'm cured, say I have to take responsibility for her, and stay with her from then on. Bury the past for good."

When he finished, his gaze fell on me again.

Only this time, buried in all that tangled feeling, there was a trace of tenderness I couldn't understand.

Dr. Floyd hesitated for a long moment, then finally asked.

"Les, is there really not even a little part of you that likes Doris?"

Les didn't answer.

He clapped Dr. Floyd on the shoulder and told him to call the moment I woke up.

After they left, I slowly opened my half-closed eyes.

Every bit of love and hope in me shattered at once, and the things he'd said came surging in like a tide, drowning me whole.

Four years ago, when Les learned Fern was dead, he collapsed from the shock.

When he came to, he mistook me for Fern.

Dr. Floyd said the shock of Fern's death had given him a severe mental illness, and that I needed to help with his treatment.

I already felt guilty, so I agreed without a second thought.

Later, in his lucid moments, Les would apologize for the harm he'd done me, take me out on dates, make me happy, and little by little I couldn't help falling in love with him.

I hoped that on the day he was cured, I could stay by his side as "Doris."

But now I had stumbled onto their secret.

These four years were nothing but Les's punishment, his revenge on me for killing Fern.

I took out my phone and opened my email.

It was a job offer from overseas, and the start date listed on it was exactly three days away. My wedding day.

I didn't hesitate. I tapped "Accept."

This wedding would go ahead as planned. Only the bride would be someone else.