On the third day after my death, my family was still busy preparing Tessa Winslow’s Sweet Sixteen party. The police officer who found my body called my mother. She snapped in frustration, “Dead? So what if she’s dead! She was always lying, disappearing to make a scene. If she’s really dead this time, I still won’t pay for the funeral!” My soul hovered in the air as I watched her hang up, smiling broadly as she called Tessa to come cut the cake. Everyone gathered around Tessa, singing the birthday song. But today is my birthday too. On the fifth day after my death, my father reported me missing to the police. My mother and my brother, Derek, reluctantly joined him at the Westfield Police Department. “Ivy was always up to something,” my mother muttered, annoyed. “She used to torment Tessa, always lying and saying Tessa bullied her, hit her, tore her things apart. And every time we tried to talk to her, she’d throw a fit… This isn’t the first time she’s run away. She’s probably playing video games at some lowlife’s house.” Derek, who always resented me, scoffed and went back to playing on his phone after speaking. My mother’s attitude was no different. Even with her perfect makeup, she couldn’t hide her disdain for me. “Coming down to the station for that worthless girl? Just to make a spectacle of ourselves?” she said to my father, glancing impatiently at her watch. Tessa had a ballet recital tonight, and my mother had ordered flowers for the celebration. All this time, my father hadn’t said a word. To be fair, my father, Clay, was a remarkably handsome man, even in his middle age. Time had only added a calm gravity to his features. But right now, his brows were furrowed. I admit, a part of me eagerly anticipated how he’d react when he saw my body. “Are you Ivy’s family?” the officer asked. After confirming our identities, the officer led my family to the morgue to view my remains. Derek was the first to express his displeasure. “What’s Ivy pulling now?! This place is bad luck, I’m not going in!” “Ivy’s always had a wicked streak,” my mother whispered, casting a furtive glance at my father. “I don’t believe she’s really dead.” As I hovered there, I overheard the officer whispering to his colleague, “Are they really her family? They didn’t even come to see her one last time.” For the first time, I heard my father’s voice drop, heavy with anger. “Everyone, get in there!” My body was not a pleasant sight. After days submerged in Silver Creek, my skin had swollen and turned translucent, distorting me beyond recognition. Derek took one glance and stumbled to the wall, retching. The officer began to explain, “We found her in the creek five days ago. Initial findings suggest she accidentally fell in… Oh, and when she drowned, she tried calling someone. Didn’t she try to contact any of you?” He pulled out the evidence bag. The familiar number on my mother’s phone showed a call lasting a minute and a half. My mother screamed, “What call?! I never got any call! Ivy’s lying again, Ivy…” Her voice cut off when she saw my body. Something clicked inside her, and she began to tremble. “Tessa told me Ivy called asking for money…” Tessa, the fake daughter. That day, I had called my mother, hoping for help. Tessa answered the phone. I told her I was drowning. I begged her to come and save me. But on the other end, I heard her tell my mother, “Mom, Ivy’s asking for money again. She says if we don’t send it, she’s never coming back. She’ll cut ties with us.” My mother was furious. “Then let her die out there!”
Now I’m dead. They must be so relieved. “Ivy, I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t mean to… we thought you were just asking for money again…” My mother’s eyes were red as she shook uncontrollably, trying to reach out to hold me. My father pulled her aside, but she sobbed, saying she wanted to see me. He sneered. “When Ivy was alive, why didn’t you look at her then? Now you feel sorry? Too late!” It was the first time I had seen my father speak so harshly to my mother. She collapsed to the floor, burying her face in her hands and crying. Derek muttered angrily, “Dad, why are you yelling at Mom? Isn’t it good that Ivy’s dead? She came back and messed everything up. Now that she’s gone, we can finally be happy again. We can have peace…” Smack! My father’s hand struck Derek so hard he fell to the ground. “You look at her!” my father growled. “Ivy was your sister!” Derek landed right on top of me, face-to-face with my pale, bloated corpse. He tried to pull away, but my father pushed his head down. “She adored you when she was little! When you got into fights, she was terrified you’d get hurt and ran to protect you. She was only three years old then!” “When you fell off the table and wouldn’t take your medicine because it tasted bad, she saved up her candy from preschool to give to you! She was so hungry, but she only licked the wrappers!” Derek’s face twisted in shame. “That was so long ago…” My father’s voice shook with rage. “Derek Lennox! The day you took Ivy out and she went missing, you really think we didn’t know?” His chest heaved, emotions raging inside him, pushing him to the breaking point. “When Ivy came back, we asked her how she got lost, and she said it was her fault for being naughty! She didn’t say a word about you!” Derek’s lips trembled. “But… but you found out anyway! Ivy was never innocent. She was jealous that I cared about Tessa, so she didn’t say anything to you but still made sure you knew…” Smack! Another brutal slap knocked Derek to the side, leaving him spitting blood and teeth onto the floor. My mother wept even harder. “It wasn’t Ivy who told us. It was your father, Derek. He hired someone to find out.” When Tessa returned home later that night, the house felt off. Seeing my mother’s red, swollen eyes and Derek covered in blood, Tessa cautiously approached my father. “Dad, did you go looking for Ivy? I’m so sorry, I should’ve told you sooner—she’s been hanging out with some bad kids at school. They’d do anything for her.” She handed him her ballet trophy. “Didn’t everyone say they were coming to see me? But no one showed up. I got distracted, didn’t perform well, and only got silver.” My father’s gaze was cold. “Don’t you always get silver?” If I weren’t just a ghost, I’d be clapping. Tessa’s smile faltered, her lips trembling. “Are you angry because of Ivy? A few years ago, I did win a gold medal…” Derek caught her eye, signaling her desperately. She quickly wiped at her eyes. “Is Ivy still mad at me? I told you, I don’t care that she took my lucky bracelet. If she likes it, I’ll just buy another one for her. Dad, don’t be angry with Ivy. She grew up in a rough place. She’s got some bad habits, but she’ll change over time—oh, and I made dessert. We can all eat together as a family. Don’t let Ivy make you sick.” I floated after Tessa as she carefully plated store-bought pastries, proudly presenting them as her own creation. “I wanted to make something fancier, but I was missing some ingredients…” Tessa trailed off, glancing nervously at my father. “My wallet’s missing a lot of cash. I could’ve sworn I counted it before, but it seems like the only time someone touched it was the day Ivy left.” My father shot up from his chair. His sharp gaze pinned Tessa in place. She stammered, unsure of what to say. “Derek, tell her what your sister was doing that afternoon!” Derek shivered, his expression conflicted as he answered, “The police showed us the security footage. Ivy went out at noon, but she stayed at the convenience store near our house… She kept looking at her phone, probably waiting for one of us to call.” Angry that I was falsely accused of stealing Tessa’s bracelet, I stormed off to the convenience store. Even though I had been disappointed so many times, I still waited for someone from the Lennox family to come find me, to tell me they had made a mistake, apologize, and bring me home. So I kept staring at my pinned family chat on WhatsApp. But I waited from morning until night, and no one came. Tessa’s face went pale. She muttered, “The police? Ivy was arrested?” My father’s voice turned icy. “Ivy’s dead.”
Those four words hit like a thunderclap, shattering the fragile harmony that had held up the household. My mother clung to Tessa, her voice rising in protest. “Ivy’s death isn’t Tessa’s fault! Why are you treating her like this? Ivy was my daughter, but so is Tessa! We’ve raised her for over a decade! We only had one daughter, and now that Ivy’s gone, we can live like we used to, can’t we? Why do you have to keep stirring things up?” My father’s lips quivered as he stared at her. “You’re the one who stirred up all this trouble!” he shouted. “When we brought Ivy back, you told me that Tessa was our daughter too, and that we had to protect her feelings. You cared about Tessa. Derek cared about Tessa. Everyone cared about Tessa. But who cared about Ivy?!” “When Ivy came home, she had so little that she packed her things in one small bag. I told you to take her shopping for new clothes. But when Tessa started crying, you felt sorry for her and took her too. What was supposed to be a mother-daughter bonding moment turned into a show for Ivy to watch!” “The designer clothes we bought for Ivy ended up on Tessa! Don’t tell me you didn’t know!” “You keep saying Tessa is your heart and soul, but what about Ivy? She was our daughter! We spent years searching for her, and she suffered countless abuses while she was gone!” My mother gaped, tears spilling down her cheeks. For a moment, there was a flicker of guilt in her eyes. But it was faint, and she quickly dismissed it. “I wasn’t bad to Ivy… she just wouldn’t accept my love! She never considered my feelings. She was always stirring up trouble, trying to push Tessa out!” My father, drained of all hope, let out a deep sigh, slumping back as though the weight of the world had fallen on him. “You’re right,” he said bitterly. “The one who killed Ivy wasn’t Tessa. It was me. It was you. It was all of us, this so-called family.” He paused before continuing, “Margot, I want a divorce.” True to his word, he quickly set the divorce in motion, enlisting a lawyer to finalize the details. My mother, on the verge of hysteria, refused to accept it. “Ivy is already dead! I know I wasn’t good to her before, but I’ll make it up to her… I’ll give her the grandest funeral, the most expensive jewelry. I’ll invite all her friends and teachers!” It was the first time she had ever acknowledged my existence at school. She rushed out the door in simple clothes, for once wearing no makeup. As I floated above, I watched her step onto campus, hesitating as she entered. “Where’s Ivy’s class?” she asked. Derek, yawning mid-sentence, stopped cold. Mom had dragged him out of bed, and his irritation vanished as he uncertainly glanced in the direction of my old dorm. “Over there?” It wasn’t exactly wrong—that was my dorm. My old dorm.
The door to the dorm room swung wide open. Inside, Chelsea Kramer and her crew were lounging around, smoking. When my mother asked about me, Chelsea blew a puff of smoke right into her face. “Oh, look! Here comes the mother of the little trash. Guess trash runs in the family!” They burst into laughter. Derek stepped in front of my mother, but their taunts only grew louder. “A real mommy’s boy, huh? I thought Derek Lennox only cared about his fake sister!” They gestured towards the balcony with their chins. “All of that little brat’s stuff is out on the balcony. Go help yourself.” As my mother walked past them, she tripped on the doorway, losing a shoe. Laughter exploded from the room as Derek moved to help her, but she shook him off. On the floor, she picked up a photo. It was taken during my first few days in the dorm. Chelsea and her friends had pinned me down, stomping on my face while flashing peace signs for the camera. My mother’s hands were shaking as she held the picture, her voice trembling as well. “These are the clothes I bought for your sister. When she came home, they were covered in footprints. I asked her what happened, and she said nothing. But Derek… Derek, tell me, didn’t she get into a fight at school not long after?” Derek turned away, and the light in my mother’s eyes dimmed bit by bit. Her voice cracked. “Did I… did I wrongfully blame Ivy?” I watched quietly, emotionless, as she bent down to start gathering my belongings. I only had one set of school clothes. The pants were stained, showing wear. She dusted them off, seeing the patchwork I had done myself. Then something clicked in her memory. “Ivy told me her uniform was torn and asked for money to buy a new one. Derek, I asked you to give it to her—did you?” Chelsea and her friends roared with laughter. “Give her money? That little piece of trash went to beg, and her dear brother and that fake sister of hers said money doesn’t grow on trees. Told her to be frugal and not wasteful.” “Oh, lady, is Ivy really the daughter you spent all those years looking for? Because when we came to rough her up, your golden boy here saw it happen and said, ‘Serves her right.’” Derek’s face turned ashen. “Shut up!” “Shut up? Oh, come on, Derek! You had the guts to do it, but not to admit it? Let me tell you, we didn’t start bullying Ivy right away. It’s just that… when your dad doesn’t care, your mom doesn’t care, and your own brother’s so biased it’s ridiculous—how could we not knock her around a bit? Dunk her head in the toilet, make sure she knows she’s nothing but a pitiful little loser.” In a rage, Derek grabbed Chelsea by the hair. She shrieked and cursed, but before she could fight back, he grabbed a moldy sock from the floor and stuffed it in her mouth. Chelsea spat it out, her words growing more vicious. “The whole lot of you are pathetic! Pretending to be tough! Your sister fought back at first, y’know—pulled a knife on me. But in the end, we still outnumbered her, grabbed her by the neck, and made her kneel!” “You monsters!” My mother finally snapped, going completely wild. She attacked Chelsea and her friends like a madwoman, her long, perfectly manicured nails breaking as she struck them, blood welling up, but she didn’t care. She forced them to apologize, to confess everything they had done to me, recording every word. She was sobbing and screaming the whole time, like a woman who had completely lost control, unhinged and terrifying. Derek tried to pull her away, but she slapped him hard across the face. My mother was crying, and this time I truly felt the depths of her anguish. “Ivy, my Ivy… how much did you suffer back then?”
Chelsea and her gang were expelled. No school would accept them after the bullying scandal broke. Their families, who owned small businesses, couldn’t compare to the Lennox family’s influence. A single word from my father, and they were ruined. “Please, ma’am! I know I was wrong. I beg you and Mr. Lennox to have mercy on us!” Chelsea sobbed as she knelt on the rough pavement. When she got no response, she dragged one of her lackeys over. “It was her! She’s the one who made Ivy drink toilet water! I’m making her pay for it!” The best fertilizer in a field is manure, and Chelsea shoved her friend’s face right into the dirt. “It wasn’t me…” the lackey tried to protest, but her mouth filled with filth as Chelsea pressed her down harder, gloating. “Is this enough for you, ma’am?!” Chelsea shouted, her voice growing louder. “Do you think this is enough?!” As my mother, father, and Derek turned to leave, Chelsea, desperate, yanked the girl up again and pinned her to the ground. She climbed on top of her, pressing her foot against the girl’s face. “Look, ma’am! Look at how I’m humiliating her!” “Ma’am, should I strip her down and post the pictures online?” “Ma’am…” Chelsea was a natural-born bully, her tactics endless. My family hadn’t even responded yet, and she was already carrying out her sick plan. Tessa’s soft voice broke the silence. “Mom, maybe we should just let it go.” Seeing my mother’s steely gaze, Tessa swallowed hard and continued, “They’re Ivy’s classmates. Conflicts between students are normal. If they bullied her, Ivy must’ve done something to deserve it. Otherwise, why would they target her out of everyone?” “Hmph.” My father’s voice thundered through the air like a storm. “Margot, do you see? This is the girl you’ve doted on for over ten years—the girl you’ve coddled at the expense of your real daughter!”
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