Chapter 3

Guests had filmed the confrontation at the wedding.

Before long, videos of me causing a scene at Rosalie's wedding spread across the internet.

Some accused her of stealing her sister's fiancé. Others demanded to know how the five “dead” people were all still alive.

My family neither apologized to me nor planned to reveal the truth.

They only wanted me to record a statement clearing their names.

Tristan had even written the script for me.

I was to admit that severe depression had caused me to hallucinate three years ago. I had imagined not only that my family had died, but also that Alaric was my fiancé.

In reality, Alaric had never proposed to me. He and Rosalie had always been together.

Mom pushed the script toward me.

“Once you admit to all of it, the controversy will end.”

I refused.

The next day, the memorial park called.

The five people who should have been lying beneath the headstones were demanding that their empty graves be removed.

But the plots and headstones were registered in my name. Without my signature, no one could touch them.

Tristan handed me the documents to terminate the plots.

“Sign these and record the video. We'll arrange treatment at the best hospital available.”

“Afterward, we'll still be a family.”

I didn't take them.

The flowers I had replaced on the third anniversary were still in front of the graves.

Beneath each headstone, I had buried the last “personal effect” they had supposedly left me.

Mom's prescription bottle and farewell letter.

The belongings supposedly recovered after the plane carrying Dad and Tristan crashed.

And the ring Alaric had placed on my finger when he proposed.

I had survived three years by clinging to those things.

Now I knew they were all props prepared to deceive me.

Mom took the farewell letter from her memorial box and tore it in half in front of me.

“It was fake to begin with. What's the point of keeping it?”

Scraps of paper fell in front of her own headstone.

In the letter, she had said the greatest regret of her life was failing to protect both her daughters.

I had blamed myself for those words for three years.

But to her, the letter was only a fake piece of paper she could tear apart without a thought.

Alaric took out the engagement ring and placed it back in my palm.

“Let yourself move on. And stop harassing me.”

Rosalie stood beside him, tears streaming down her face.

“Lenora, I never meant to take anything from you.”

“But I truly can't live without Alaric.”

She covered the old scar on her wrist and looked at me through her tears.

“You've always been stronger than me. Even without him, you can start over.”

“I can't.”

It had always been this way. As long as she appeared fragile enough, everyone forced me to surrender everything to her.

Mom pressed the pen into my hand again.

They all waited for me to give in.

I didn't sign. I only picked up the prepared statement.

“Fine.”

“At the post-wedding reception, I'll make everything clear.”