Chapter 3

My sister stood in the crowd, her face bone-white, and to the very end she never dared speak the truth.

So everyone believed it. That I had been fooling around with a strange man behind my boyfriend's back.

My boyfriend broke up with me in front of everyone, and not long after, he left the country.

The rumors at school spread everywhere.

The same people who once envied me began to whisper and point, and even my teachers looked at me differently.

I couldn't bring myself to set foot on campus again. In the end, all I could do was drop out.

It wasn't until the whole thing blew up beyond control that my sister finally broke down and dropped to her knees in front of me.

"Bev, I'm sorry."

"I was so insecure that I used your photos for online dating. I only wanted to meet the person I loved on the happiest day of my life, so I invited him to my birthday party."

"I truly didn't know he was a stalker, and I had no idea he'd mistake me for you—"

She sobbed and apologized to me, over and over.

But I only looked at her.

That one word of hers. "Didn't."

What it destroyed was my university, my love, my reputation, and the whole life that should have been mine.

Her apology couldn't buy any of it back.

That night, I broke down completely.

Mom got up in the middle of the night and found me sitting in the kitchen with a knife in my hand. She burst into tears on the spot.

The next day, Dad threw my sister out of the house.

Right in front of me, they struck her from the family records.

Mom held me and promised, again and again.

"Beverly, from now on she has nothing to do with this family."

Dad's eyes were red too as he said:

"You'll never see her again. You never have to be afraid anymore."

But now.

Today, three years later.

Mom stood in front of me holding a dress, urging me to go to her birthday party.

When she saw me shaking uncontrollably from head to toe, the smile on her face finally faltered.

She reached out to steady me.

"Maybe we should just skip it today…"

"No."

But my sister cut her off at once.

She looked earnestly at our parents.

"Bev is afraid right now precisely because the memories from three years ago haven't truly faded."

"The more she avoids it, the worse it gets. She has to go back into a similar environment. That's part of exposure therapy too."

Dad was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Right."

"We've come this far. We can't give up halfway."

Before I could get a word out, they had already taken hold of me from either side and led me into the banquet hall.

The door had barely opened when a wave of cheers erupted inside.

"The birthday girl is finally here!"

"Happy birthday!"

"Come on, come on, the guest of honor's arrived!"

Everyone laughed and clapped, calling out my sister's name at the top of their lungs.

But standing in the doorway, when I made out the faces inside, the blood in my whole body went cold.

This wasn't at all what my parents had told me, that only a few close relatives and friends had been invited.

The room was packed with people, almost all of them from the same school as me three years ago.

Former classmates from my own class.

There were even people who, back then, had watched with their own eyes as I was led out of that room.

My breath caught, and I instinctively stepped back.

Just then, the crowd suddenly parted.

A man walked out from the very back.

I froze where I stood.

Lee Harding. My first love.

The same man who, three years ago, after everyone believed I'd betrayed him, walked away from me without a backward glance.

Three years apart, and he'd grown so much more mature.

Familiar enough that I recognized him in an instant, and yet strange, as though I'd never known him at all.

Before I could even react, my sister had already gathered up the hem of her dress and thrown herself into his arms like a butterfly.

Lee slipped an arm around her waist as naturally as breathing.

At once, a chorus of teasing whoops rose all around them.