After the “walk-in” who had supposedly hijacked my best friend’s body for three years finally vanished, everyone told me I needed to move on and forgive her. My parents held Valerie close, their faces tight with pity as they looked at me. “The one who stole your place in this family and lived in luxury was that… that entity,” my mother said, her voice trembling with emotion. “Valerie was a victim, too. You need to be the bigger person, Lydia.” My brother, Nick, shielded her with his body. “The one who ruined your applications and switched your Harvard choice to a local community college was that imposter spirit. You can’t take your anger out on someone innocent!” Even Henry, my fiancé—the one who had promised to stand up for me—had changed his tune. “I’ll pay for you to do a prep year, Lydia. Let’s just let the past go.” Under their watchful, warning glares, I swallowed my bitter tears and resigned myself to my fate. Until the following summer. Right before the test scores were released, I was scrolling through an online forum and came across a thread. “What is the riskiest thing you’ve ever done that you now look back on with absolute gratitude?” The top-voted answer was pinned at the very top, drowning in a sea of angry, disbelieving comments. [My absolute favorite life hack? Playing the innocent lamb. I managed to steal my best friend’s spot as a billionaire’s heiress for a few years. Her entire family actually helped me lie to her, claiming my body had been “possessed” by some malicious walk-in spirit~] [I spent three years tormenting her behind closed doors, and nobody raised a finger. Even when I hijacked her college portal and changed her Harvard acceptance to a sketchy community college, her parents didn’t have the heart to blame me. Instead, they shipped me off to Europe to get a fancy degree to “recover” from the possession.] [If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.] I stared at the poster’s familiar avatar and the European IP address. The blood in my veins turned to ice. Last year, my parents had supposedly forced Valerie to study abroad in London, claiming her presence was “disruptive” to my exam prep. And the avatar on that forum was identical to the one Valerie used in our family group chat. … My trembling thumb tapped into the user’s profile. I scrolled from the very first post to the last, stopping only when I reached her bio: “I often think about how incredibly lucky I am. To have family and friends who love me so fiercely and unconditionally—it gives me the strength to face all of life’s injustices.” I stared at it, numb. “Injustices?” What did she have to complain about? While she was living her best life in a luxury flat in London, gifted to her by my parents alongside a brand-new Porsche, I was sent to live in a cramped, moldy boarding-school dorm, studying sixteen hours a day. When she boasted about learning how to cook a basic pasta dish, Nick rewarded her with a wire transfer of fifty thousand dollars. Meanwhile, my parents put me on a strict “budget”—claiming they didn’t want me to get spoiled—leaving me with just eighty dollars a month to survive on, forcing me to live off stale bread and instant ramen. When she scraped her knee skateboarding, Henry, my childhood sweetheart, flew across the Atlantic just to nurse her for a weekend. But when I fainted from severe malnutrition and lay on the cold classroom floor for hours, I woke up alone and simply dragged myself back to my desk to keep studying. “Why the tears? Did the prep tests go badly again?” A crisp, familiar voice broke through my thoughts. I turned my head and met Henry’s amused, smiling eyes. He reached out, intending to ruffle my hair the way he always did. But I flinched away. Seeing his hand freeze in midair and his smile falter, I quickly muttered, “I’m just tired.” He let out a soft chuckle. “You don’t have to push yourself so hard, Lydia. Even if you don’t get the perfect score, it’s fine. Your parents already said they can just send you abroad too.” I clenched my fists in my sleeves. I wanted to scream that I had always been top of my class. My SAT scores last year were high enough for Harvard, and after a grueling year of studying myself to the bone, this year’s scores would only be higher. But Henry didn’t care about my academic success. He smoothly changed the subject, as he always did. When we got back to the estate, my parents and Nick were actually home—a rarity. Nick gave me a playful shove toward the stairs. “Go pack your bags, kiddo. We have a flight at two. The whole family is taking you on a graduation trip.” I froze. For a split second, sheer joy washed away my lingering resentment. Then, I saw the destination printed on the boarding passes. “Hawaii.” “Don’t worry about the results. Just relax and have fun,” my mother said, wrapping a warm, affectionate arm around mine. I went stiff. A deep, biting chill crept through my veins, making me shiver in the heat of July. Valerie was the one who loved the ocean. Her latest post was literally tagged in Honolulu. I, on the other hand, had nearly drowned three years ago saving a panicked Henry when he first tried to learn how to swim. Ever since, I had carried a paralyzing, visceral phobia of deep water. I looked up, scanning the faces of the four people around me. They were all smiling. None of them remembered. My brother’s smile soured at my silence. “What’s with the long face? If it weren’t to make you happy, do you think any of us would bother flying all this way just to look at some stupid ocean? Don’t be so ungrateful.” Meeting his impatient, condescending gaze, the urge to explain myself withered away. The things I wanted from them were like dry sand in my fist; the tighter I squeezed, the faster they slipped through my fingers. If that was how it was… then I didn’t want this family anymore. And I didn’t want Henry, either. As soon as we stepped out of the Honolulu airport, I saw Valerie waiting for us. She stood in the crowd, her skin beautifully bronzed, looking radiant and carefree. She threw herself into my parents’ arms, and Nick and Henry immediately rushed to crowd around her. “Have you been skipping meals? Look how thin you’ve gotten!” “We told you to wait at the resort, Val. Why did you drag yourself all the way out here to pick us up? You must be exhausted.” “I missed you guys too much!” she beamed. “I couldn’t wait another second. I wanted to see you the moment you landed!” The bustling airport noise swirled around us, but their voices cut through the din, ringing painfully in my ears. Suddenly, Valerie’s gaze shifted to me. “Lydia, this is your first time traveling far from home, right? Let me be your tour guide. I’ll make sure you have the best time!” Her smile remained bright, radiating a sweet, approachable warmth. My mother laughed softly. “Lydia always has such fragile health. Every time we planned a family vacation in the past, she’d conveniently get sick and ruin the whole schedule.” Valerie giggled and looped her arm through my mother’s. “It’s all because of that horrible imposter spirit. She made poor Lydia feel so neglected that she had to pretend to be sick just to get some attention. It’s a good thing that entity vanished, or I’d have taught her a lesson myself to avenge Lydia!” She said it with such righteous indignation, completely glossing over the fact that before every single trip we planned, she was the one slipping peanut powder into my food. After I was rushed to the ER, she would whisper poison in their ears, claiming I was just starved for drama. And then, she’d lead my furious parents, brother, and fiancé away to enjoy their trip without me. I didn’t say a word. The cheerful atmosphere froze instantly. Nick nudged my shoulder roughly. “Cat got your tongue? She’s talking to you.” My parents frowned, their irritation clear. Henry took Valerie’s hand, offering a teasing, dismissive shake of his head. “She hit her head right before the exams. She’s a bit slow on the uptake these days. Don’t let her ruin your mood.” Valerie gasped dramatically. “Oh my gosh, I hope it didn’t affect her Harvard scores! If she misses out for another year, I’ll feel like the bad guy all over again!” “How is any of that your fault?” Nick scoffed. “If she fails, she just doesn’t have the brains for it.” “Exactly,” my mother added. “Let’s not talk about such depressing things. Let’s get to the resort.” The color drained from my face, and my knuckles turned white against the handle of my suitcase. Days before the exams, I had temporarily moved back home from the dorms, only to be chased and knocked down by a neighbor’s loose mastiff. I cracked my skull against the concrete. Dizzy and bleeding, I called my parents and brother dozens of times. None of them picked up. With my battery at one percent, I managed to text Henry. His reply had been cold: “Are you stupid? Why didn’t you call 911? I’m not a doctor. Even if I came over, I’d just tell you to do the same.” I had sat on the floor, holding a bloody towel to my head. “I don’t have the money for an ambulance fee,” I had typed, but the phone died before I could send it. If I had any savings at all, I would have booked a hotel near the testing center myself, instead of having to decline my classmates’ offer to split a room because I couldn’t afford a share. And I certainly wouldn’t have stayed in that hollow, cavernous mansion where I was always an afterthought. Looking at their completely indifferent faces now, a horrifying realization washed over me. They knew. They had always known I got hurt. They just didn’t care enough to ask. I silently followed them to the front desk. The receptionist apologized profusely. “I’m so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker, but there is an issue with the HVAC system in one of the luxury suites you booked. Since it’s peak season, we don’t have any vacant suites left to swap. We can refund that portion and offer a discount on your overall stay, if that works?” Valerie turned to me with a look of mock concern. “Lydia, Hawaii is so packed this time of year. Do you want to go find another hotel yourself, or can you just rough it out in the room without AC?” I looked her dead in the eye. “I don’t know my way around this island, Val. Is this how you play host?” Instantly, their defensive glares locked onto me. My parents shielded Valerie. “It’s not Valerie’s fault the hotel’s system is broken. Why are you taking it out on her?” Nick sneered. “Your dorm back home doesn’t have AC either, and you survived the ninety-degree summer. Stop acting so spoiled.” Henry waved it off. “We’ve all had a long flight, Lydia. Let’s just sleep on it tonight, and we’ll figure out another room for you tomorrow, okay?” I knew arguing was pointless. I felt the last of my pride collapse inward, my shoulders slumping. Taking my silence as submission, they grabbed the keycards and headed upstairs. They had booked the sprawling penthouse suites. I was handed the key to a windowless, suffocatingly hot standard room near the service elevator. I woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat and covered in itchy bug bites. My phone buzzed with a notification from the family group chat. Valerie had sent a message with a winking emoji: [If Lydia finds out you guys are throwing her Ivy League send-off party on my birthday, she’s going to be so mad at me, isn’t she?] The message was deleted almost instantly. But I had already seen it. It was only when I stumbled across Valerie’s social media page that I realized they had two family group chats. One with me. One without me. In the chat that included me, the last message had been sent six months ago. I used to think my family was just quiet, that they didn’t use social media much. But looking at the timestamp in the upper corner—3:00 AM—I saw they were still chatting merrily in the other group. They weren’t quiet. They just had nothing to say to me. Early the next morning, Valerie pulled up to the resort entrance in a sleek, cherry-red convertible. I recognized it instantly. It was the custom sports car she had received for her eighteenth birthday. Her eighteenth birthday had been celebrated with a massive gala at a private estate in the French countryside. Guests had flown in from all over the world. There had been a towering, castle-shaped cake, and a giant backdrop crafted out of actual hundred-dollar bills. My own eighteenth birthday had passed without a single mention. I hadn’t even remembered it myself until the power went out in our dorms one night, and my roommate happened to mention the date while I was doing practice tests under a flashlight. It had been just another grueling day. I had debated buying an extra roll at the cafeteria but decided against it to save money for the next day’s lunch. Eventually, I had drowned the hunger in math problems and slept right through to the morning. “What are you staring at? Get in,” Nick said, shoving me from behind. I stumbled, my knee slamming hard against the metal car door. Valerie let out a melodic, ringing laugh. “Lydia, don’t get too excited. Do you even know how to open the door to a sports car?” She sat in the driver’s seat, oversized designer sunglasses covering half her face. She looked effortlessly cool, but her words were like needles, piercing straight through me. It was just like the past three years since I had been brought back to the Whittaker house. Whenever my parents, Nick, or Henry bought her something expensive, she would always bat her eyelashes and ask, “Oh, did you get one for Lydia too?” When they admitted they hadn’t, she would put on a grand show of trying to give it to me, patronizingly asking if I even knew how to use it or what the brand was. And every single time, my parents would stop her, laughing and saying that giving luxury goods to me was a complete waste of money. Nick would mock me, saying that putting designer clothes on a girl like me only made them look like cheap knockoffs. Only Henry would pull me away, taking me for walks and buying me pastries. For the longest time, I foolishly thought he was trying to save me from the embarrassment. It wasn’t until much later that I realized he only did it to keep me from getting jealous and trying to take Valerie’s things. This time was no different. Before I could even respond to Valerie’s jab, my parents grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the resort’s shuttle bus. Nick blocked the exit, ensuring I couldn’t slip away, while Henry slid into the passenger seat of Valerie’s car. The engine roared, and the red convertible sped off down the highway. I watched as it shrank into a tiny red speck against the horizon, completely vanishing from sight. Valerie’s itinerary for the day consisted of snorkeling, surfing, and a dolphin-watching charter. When we arrived at the beach, I wanted to tell them I wouldn’t be participating. But I soon realized my anxiety was entirely unnecessary. Not a single person asked where I was going or what I wanted to do. When they finally finished, my parents changed back into their dry clothes and glared at me. “Why must you always be such a wet blanket? Do we have to beg you just to get you to participate?” Nick ran a hand through his wet hair, scoffing, “If you didn’t want to come, why didn’t you just refuse when we invited you?” Henry was busy drying Valerie’s hair with a towel, not even sparing me a glance. The diving instructor looked at me with confusion. “Wait, is she with your group? The waiver and booking only had four spots reserved. We can’t just add someone last minute without prior notice.” I froze, my gaze instantly shifting to Valerie. Her eyes pooled with tears in an instant. “I’m so sorry, Lydia. I remembered you were terrified of the water, so I didn’t book a spot for you. I mean… you wouldn’t have enjoyed it anyway, right?” She remembered I was terrified of water, yet she had planned an entire day centered around the ocean. And yet, no one stood up for me. My parents praised her for being so thoughtful and remembering everyone’s preferences. Nick said we could just go to a music festival and watch some fireworks tomorrow to make up for it. Henry told me not to be so petty and ruin everyone’s vacation. I opened my mouth, but not a single sound came out. Valerie wiped her tears, stepping forward to take my limp hand. “Don’t be mad, Lydia. Mom and Dad are already planning your graduation party. They’re even going to combine it with the eighteenth birthday gala you missed. I had to beg them for weeks to agree to it, so please, can you just smile a little?” I shook with a silent, burning rage, only to meet my parents’ cold, warning stares. That night, I swiped my keycard and went back into my sweltering, airless room. Nobody mentioned finding me a better hotel. My phone buzzed with another notification. Valerie had posted a grid of photos on Instagram, carefully omitting her face. Her caption read: [Hehehe, I’ve got a graduation gift that our real heiress will never forget. First person to guess what it is wins a prize!] I gripped my phone, a dark, heavy dread settling deep in my chest. In the middle of the night, Valerie fell violently ill with food poisoning and was rushed to the ER. The next day’s plans were canceled. After spending a week in the hospital, Valerie suggested moving up the date of my party. “Lydia looks so miserable here in Hawaii anyway. Let’s not make her suffer. We can just have the party early and send her back home.” My parents nodded in eager agreement. I said nothing, moving like a lifeless puppet through their arrangements. On the day she was discharged, my parents were busy finalizing the event details with the planners. Nick was waiting in line at the pharmacy, and Henry was sorting out the discharge paperwork. Valerie and I were left alone in the quiet hospital room. She sat in bed with her laptop, suddenly waving me over with a sweet, venomous smile. “Lydia, look! The SAT and placement scores are out. You scored in the top 0.01% of the state! Tell you what—I’ll give you five hundred thousand dollars if you just go quietly to that community college I enrolled you in last year, okay?” A deafening roar erupted in my head, like a physical blow. Before I could even think, I lunged forward, slapping the laptop from her hands. It clattered to the floor as I threw my weight onto her, wrapping my hands tightly around her throat. “What did I ever do to you?” I screamed, my voice cracking. “Why do you hate me so much?!” But a second later, a powerful force yanked me backward, slamming me hard onto the cold tile floor. “Slap!” A stinging, heavy blow struck my face. Blood pooled in my nose, and my ears rang as Valerie’s shrill, sobbing voice filled the room. “Lydia! I know you hate me, but I was just trying to celebrate your high scores! I was going to give you a half-million-dollar gift! Why would you try to kill me?!” My parents shoved me out of the hospital room. “Get out!” my father roared. “We don’t have a daughter this vicious and ungrateful!” Nick’s eyes burned with pure hatred. “If I had known you were this psychotic, I would have left you in that trailer park! Get lost, Lydia. I never want to see your face again.” Henry looked at me, a profound, chilling disappointment in his eyes, before turning his back on me without a word. I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, wiping the blood from my lip, and looked up. Valerie was tucked safely behind them, staring at me with a smirk of pure triumph. Nobody cared how a penniless teenager would survive stranded in a foreign country. But it didn’t matter. I had finally died to them. I turned and walked away, my steps firm and unwavering. This time, I didn’t try to go back to Boston or fight for a spot at Harvard. Instead, I accepted a full scholarship at a university in Savannah, Georgia—thousands of miles away from the Whittakers. From that moment on, we were strangers.
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