Chapter 1

After the accident, I came home in clothes soaked with blood.

Mom and Dad took one look at the bandages covering me and immediately asked what had happened.

I clenched my fists and said, “Car accident. My phone’s emergency SOS automatically sent my location to my emergency contacts and tried calling them. Mom, you hung up. Dad, you never even checked the alert.”

I thought they would apologize and promise that they would never ignore an emergency alert again.

Instead, Mom frowned. “Why would you put down my number? You know I have a heart condition. What if I suddenly got an emergency alert like that and passed out from the shock?”

Dad waved a hand dismissively. “My blood pressure is high. I can’t handle that kind of shock either. Take my number off the list.”

I stood there, stunned.

Everyone in the family had me listed as their primary emergency contact.

When Grandma fell out of bed in the middle of the night, when Dad was rear-ended by someone on the highway, when Mom had a sudden episode of heart palpitations...

No matter what I was doing, the second I got an SOS alert from them, I would call for help and rush straight over.

At the beginning of September, my younger sister started college. Mom and Dad had practically fought over who would get to be her primary emergency contact, each insisting they were the better choice.

When it came to me, their whole attitude changed.

I lowered my eyes and asked softly, “Mom, Dad, if I died because neither of you answered when I called for help, would you regret it?”

Chapter 1

Mom pointed at me. Her finger was trembling with anger.

“Why would you say something like that? It’s the holidays! Stop talking about death. You’re tempting fate, and you’re breaking my heart, do you know that?”

My pale lips curved into a bitter smile.

If only she cared about me half as much as she pretended to.

Dad looked annoyed too. “Of course we are worried. You were in a car accident. But what is this about you dying, just because we didn’t answer the phone? You’re standing right here, perfectly fine.”

I peeled off a blood-soaked bandage and tossed it into the trash can in front of them.

“Right. Perfectly fine. There’s not a scratch on me.”

That shut them both up.

Mom’s embarrassment quickly turned to anger.

“So, what exactly do you want from us? Do you want us to beg you for forgiveness?”

There it was again.

Every time I calmly pointed out something they had done wrong, Mom would turn it around on me and ask whether I was trying to corner her, whether I wanted her to grovel.

In the past, that was usually where I backed down and let it go.

However, right at that moment, I could not swallow it anymore.

“Mom, Dad, I just want to ask you one last question. When Nellie was filling out her forms for college, why were you both fighting over who got to be her primary emergency contact?

“Mom, you said Dad was careless and that you were more responsible, so it should be you. Dad, you said Mom was too slow and indecisive, so it should be you instead.

“I remember every word. Funny how your heart condition and high blood pressure weren’t an issue then. So, why is it suddenly such a problem when it comes to me?”

An awkward look crossed both their faces.

Mom immediately started trying to justify herself again.

“Nellie is at school. How much trouble could she possibly get into? Even if something did happen, there would be staff there to help us deal with it.

“You’re constantly traveling for work. If something happened to you, we wouldn’t even know where to start. Having us as your emergency contacts would probably just slow things down.

“Just put one of your coworkers down as your emergency contact.”

What a perfectly reasonable explanation.

I almost laughed out loud.

In fact, Mom, Dad, and Grandma were not the only ones who had me listed as their emergency contacts. Aunt Sonia and Aunt Judy did too.

They were both divorced with their children living far away. They lived alone.

Mom and Dad thought I was dependable, so they had happily recommended me.

When Aunt Judy had a stroke, I was the one who rushed over and called for medical help.

Aunt Sonia was in pretty good health, but she called me for every little thing, like when she could not get a payment to go through on her phone, when the TV would not turn on, or whenever something else stopped working.

If she could not reach me for ten or fifteen minutes, she would use the emergency alert.

Not once did I ever fail to respond, because I was afraid that she might truly be in urgent danger.

It was exhausting sometimes, but I never once asked any of them to take my number off their emergency contact list.

I could be there for my parents and everyone they cared about, yet when it came to me, my own parents could not even be bothered.

“All right, enough. Let’s just drop it.”

Mom reached for the gift bags I was carrying. “It’s Thanksgiving. Don’t ruin the mood by making such a big deal out of this. It’s family dinner tomorrow. What do you feel like eating? I’ll make whatever you like.”

Her tone had softened. I was too exhausted to keep arguing.

Forget it.

I was just about to answer, when Mom’s phone rang. It was the special ringtone she had set for my sister, Nellie Hamer.

Her face immediately lit up as she hurried to answer.

“Mom, I’m taking the train home tomorrow morning. But my best friend’s birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving this year, so I’m going out to celebrate with her tomorrow night. I won’t be home for dinner.”

Mom laughed. “Of course, sweetheart. Have fun and be safe. Do you have enough money? I can send you some more.”

After they hung up, I started again. “I was thinking roast chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, maybe a…”

Mom cut me off. “Your sister isn’t even coming home. Why make such a big production out of dinner? You know how tired I am after work. We can just throw together some sandwiches or something.”

Something heavy lodged in my chest.

Apparently, I was not even worth a proper Thanksgiving dinner.

Were they really still my family?

Chapter 2

After deciding I would distance myself from my parents from then on, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner myself the next day.

It was supposed to be a family dinner. For me, it was also a farewell dinner.

We had barely started eating when Mom’s phone sounded an emergency alert.

Nellie had triggered the SOS on the family safety app.

Mom immediately called her back, but all she heard was silence.

“Nellie? What’s wrong? Talk to me!”

The call suddenly disconnected.

Mom shot to her feet. Her complexion went pale. “Something happened to Nellie. I know something happened! She triggered the SOS and now she won’t answer. Something’s wrong. Come on, we have to find her!”

Dad, who had been listed as her backup emergency contact, had received the same alert with Nellie’s live location.

“Here! I’ve got her location!”

Without another word, they both rushed for the door.

I grabbed my car keys and followed them. “I’ll drive.”

In the car, Mom kept calling Nellie over and over, but every time, she got the same automated message saying the call could not be completed.

She was crying so hard she could barely speak as she urged me on. “Drive faster! If anything happens to Nellie, it’ll kill me!”

When we still could not reach her, I told Dad to call an ambulance.

As soon as we reached the restaurant shown on the app, I rushed inside and asked one of the staff what had happened.

The server looked completely confused. “Nothing...”

Mom could not wait another second. She pushed past me and hurried toward the private dining room.

The three of us froze outside the door.

Even through it, we could hear loud laughter and voices from inside.

I opened the door.

Nellie was sitting in the middle of the group with a drink raised in her hand, perfectly fine.

The second she saw us, Nellie’s face lit up. “Mom, Dad, you actually came!”

Mom stared at her. “Nellie, what...?”

“It was a dare!” Nellie laughed and threw an arm around Mom. “Since I picked dare, I had to trigger my SOS alert and see if anyone would show up within thirty minutes. I can’t believe you guys got here in fifteen minutes!”

She turned to her friends with a smug grin. “See? Told you my parents love me. I didn’t even have to say a word, and they were all here in fifteen minutes!”

My parents just laughed it off and exchanged a few friendly words with her friends.

The ambulance pulled up just then.

All the adrenaline seemed to drain out of me at once. I walked outside on shaky legs and explained to the paramedics that it had been a false alarm and that my sister had triggered the alert as part of a stupid dare.

I paid the call-out fee and apologized to the crew for wasting their time.

On the drive home, Mom and Dad chatted easily about Nellie as if nothing had happened.

I did not say a word.

By the time we got home, the food on the table had gone cold and congealed.

My parents started reheating everything and ate dinner like nothing happened.

I had completely lost my appetite.

Nellie did not get home until midnight.

I had held my tongue earlier because I did not want to embarrass her in front of her friends. Since we were home, I finally let her have it.

“Nellie, we called an ambulance on the way there. The paramedics rushed across town thinking there was a real emergency. Do you have any idea how many people you dragged into this over some stupid dare?

“Mom was so scared she nearly had a heart attack! The SOS feature is for emergencies, not for you to mess around with!”

Nellie immediately turned to Mom with a wounded look. “Mom, why is Kate yelling at me? It was just a game. I didn’t mean any harm.”

Mom pulled her into her arms at once. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Kate was in a little car accident yesterday. The impact triggered her SOS alert. We missed it, and she has been upset about it ever since.

“Kate, don’t yell at Nellie!”

Nellie rolled her eyes at me.

“Mom and Dad were off for Thanksgiving, so I knew it was a good time to trigger the alert. You, on the other hand, got a few scrapes and still bothered them while they were at work.

“So, tell me, which one of us is actually being inconsiderate here? Which one of us is making everyone drop everything?”

Dad immediately backed her up. “The important thing is that Nellie is safe.”

Mom nodded. “What else are emergency contacts for? If she needs us, we show up. It’s that simple. You take everything way too seriously.

“Even if this happened again and someone told me straight away it was just a game, I would still go.

“I wouldn’t be able to relax until I saw with my own eyes that Nellie was safe.”

What they were saying at that moment could not have been more different from what they had told me the night before.

The contrast was so suffocating it felt like something was tightening around my chest.

When it came down to it, Nellie’s life simply mattered more to them than mine.

It was already the middle of the night, but I grabbed my bag and walked out anyway.

Chapter 3

I had originally arranged my vacation so I could take an extended break after Thanksgiving and take Mom, Dad, and Nellie on a trip to a neighboring state.

After returning to work early, I canceled the flights and hotel reservations I had booked.

The next morning, I saw a post from Nellie on social media.

[Family trip!]

In the photo, she was standing outside Dreamhaven Adventure Park with Mom and Dad, all three of them huddled together for the picture.

They had not invited me, yet somehow they were still calling it a “family trip”.

I muted Nellie and my parents on social media. Then, I pulled on my hiking boots and headed into the mountains to clear my head.

I had only recently been assigned to work in that area, so I figured a hike would give me a chance to get familiar with the terrain.

Since I was used to working outdoors, maybe I was too distracted by everything that had happened. I misjudged my footing and suddenly stumbled forward.

I slammed hard into an old safety railing.

I had barely managed a breath of relief when the railing gave way beneath me, making me tumble over the edge with it and crashing into a narrow gap between the rocks below.

My head hit a rock. Warm blood began running down the side of my face.

My vision quickly started to blur. With what little strength I had left, I dragged myself forward until my fingers finally brushed against my phone a short distance away.

I tried to call 911.

However, everything was going dark. My hands were shaking so badly that I could barely control the screen.

I did not have enough strength left to make the call, so I triggered the emergency SOS instead.

The alert automatically went to my primary emergency contact.

I had not changed it yet. So, it was Mom.

As the phone began calling her, I lay there fighting to stay conscious, silently begging her to answer.

“Mom, please pick up. Please.”

Then, I heard the call disconnect.

She had declined it.

That sound felt like a blade cutting through the last thread of hope I had left.

In the end, I closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the mountains.

The sun that had been high overhead when I fell was already sinking toward the horizon.

Somewhere in those four or five hours, my life had quietly slipped away.

Somehow, my spirit found its way to Dreamhaven Adventure Park, where my parents and Nellie were having dinner.

As they ate, they talked about the SOS alert I had sent around noon.

Mom turned to Nellie. “Your sister is probably copying you. You pulled that stunt with the SOS the other day, so now she’s trying the same thing.”

Nellie scoffed. “That’s what she gets for lecturing me. I was just messing around that day, and she went off on me like I’d committed some horrible crime.

“I left her out today, and of course she couldn’t stand it. Now, she’s trying to lure us out to the middle of nowhere and ruin our day. Does she seriously think we’re that stupid?”

Mom nodded. “It’s so annoying. I’ll unblock her tomorrow. Otherwise, she’ll probably keep trying to call.”

She picked up her phone and blocked my number.

The setting sun cast its warm glow over me, but all I felt was a cold, hollow ache.

Chapter 4

After a full day at the adventure park, my parents washed up and went to bed as soon as they got home.

Dad fell asleep almost immediately, but Mom kept tossing and turning.

She had not gone on any of the intense rides that day, but even standing below and watching Dad and Nellie scream their way through them had left her dizzy and unsettled for quite a while.

The longer she lay there, the worse she felt. Clutching her chest, she reached for her phone and called me.

A silent laugh escaped me.

Whenever they needed help, I was always the first person they thought of.

But Mom, the daughter who would always drop everything and come running the second you needed her was not coming back.

Four or five hours had passed between my fall and my death.

If they had called for help as soon as they received my SOS alert, there was a very good chance I would have survived.

My phone rang, but no one answered.

Mom frowned and triggered an SOS alert to me.

Still no response from me.

She stared at her phone for a few seconds, almost as if she could not believe it.

Ever since I had gone off to college and become old enough to handle things on my own, there had never been a time when I failed to respond to an emergency alert.

Annoyed, she tossed her phone onto the bed.

The noise woke Dad. He asked what was wrong.

Mom pressed a hand to her chest. “I missed one call from Kate this afternoon, and now she won’t answer my calls.

“After everything I’ve done to raise her, she’s seriously going to hold a grudge over this? Unbelievable!”

Dad sat up and tried to calm her down. “Maybe she’s just dead asleep. You’re the one I’m worried about right now. Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital.”

“Forget it. I’m already worked up enough as it is. You hurt your ankle today, so you stay here. I’ll try Kate again in a bit and have her take me.”

A few minutes later, Mom sent another SOS alert, but once again, there was no response.

In the end, she had no choice but to wake Dad again.

“No, I think we should go. My heart’s racing, and I’m really dizzy.”

Dad quickly pulled on a coat. They took a cab to the hospital.

At the hospital, Mom had an ECG and some bloodwork done.

The tests showed an arrhythmia caused by overexertion. It was not serious, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observation.

As she lay in the hospital bed, her frustration only kept building.

Dad could sleep through anything. He was already snoring on the empty bed beside her, so when Mom wanted some water, she had to get up and find it herself.

In the quiet hospital hallway, I listened as she sent Aunt Sally a long voice message to whine about everything I had supposedly done wrong.

“Just wait till she calls me back. I’d love to hear her excuse. I could’ve had a real medical emergency, and she was off sleeping like the dead.”

I gave a bitter smile.

Mom, I was dead.

Mom was discharged the next morning. While settling the medical bill, she took a picture of it and sent it to me. She was expecting me to reimburse her.

I supposed she could consider the bill reimbursed when she got my inheritance.

As soon as they got home, Mom started ranting about me again.

“She can stay away for all I care. She won’t answer my calls or respond to my messages. Apparently, we don’t matter to her anymore.”

Right then, Mom’s phone rang.

She answered. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Hello, ma’am. Am I speaking with Kate Hamer’s mother?”

Mom’s expression hardened. “Not anymore.”

There was a brief pause on the other end before the caller continued.

“This is the Westhaven Police Department. I’m very sorry to tell you this, but your daughter was found this morning near Ravencliff Mountain. She was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Mom went completely still.