Chapter 3

Their offhand words shattered the last hope inside me.

For eighteen years with the Tuckers, I’d lived as Deseera.

A name tied to being overlooked, to being laughed.

I’d truly believed finding my biological family would let me leave all of that behind.

But my desperate wish to rebrand myself, my pain, my hunger to escape my past—

None of it mattered to them at all.

Annabelle’s eyes brimmed with tears. Her lower lip quivered.

"Deseera, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't know. It’s all my fault. If I hadn't come back, none of this would have happened."

"I’ll get on my knees right now and beg for your forgiveness—"

She moved as if she was about to sink to her knees.

Jasper quickly reached out and grabbed her arm to hold her up. His thumb brushed against her forearm.

"Ah!"

Annabelle cried out in agony, flinching violently.

Eleanor gasped and shoved Annabelle's sleeve up to the shoulder.

Vicious, raised whip‑marks stretched across her fair skin, impossible to ignore.

Once they learned Annabelle had endured daily beatings after being sent back to the Tuckers’ home,

Eleanor’s eyes filled with fresh tears. She pulled Annabelle tight into her embrace, heartbroken.

"My poor Annabelle. My baby we raised for eighteen years, how could you suffer like this?"

Richard, normally calm and composed, also grew teary‑eyed.

"Call the police! We'll have the county sheriff drag that hillbilly monster Dale Tucker straight to jail!"

Jasper shot me a cold, silent glance.

That look said everything: Annabelle's pain was anyhow my fault.

After they’d finished comforting the sobbing Annabelle,

Eleanor wiped her eyes and spoke in a tone that left no room for argument.

“Deseera, you can see how hurt and fragile Annabelle is tonight. You’ll have to make do and sleep in the kitchen.”

I subconsciously touched my own arms, where layers of old scars lay beneath my sleeves.

Neither Mom, Dad, nor Jasper had ever asked to see beneath my sleeves.

My heart turned ice‑cold.

I gathered my pillow and blanket without a word and headed for the small, frigid kitchen.

The kitchen smelled faintly of roasted turkey and pumpkin spice.

It was the feast they had prepared for Annabelle’s arrival.

Past midnight, dad came to find me.

"Deseera. Tomorrow, you should take that money Jasper sent and stay in a motel."

"If we hadn’t pushed to swap you two, Annabelle would never have ended up abused. We owe her this much."

"Annabelle won’t fight you over anything. Be reasonable and give her some leeway.”

An invisible fist squeezed my chest. I could barely draw breath.

For the Vances, I was nothing but a cold symbol for their guilt.

Annabelle was the daughter they cherished above everything else.

I swallowed the sharp ache rising in my throat and whispered one quiet word. "Fine."

After Richard left, a Reddit ping flashed across the lock screen.

Jasper had updated his thread. Attached was a photo of the whip‑marks on Annabelle’s arm..

[My adoptive sister returned to her biological parents and was abused like this after only three months.]

[My heart is completely shattered. I regret ever agreeing to bring our biological sister back into our home.]

A searing pain tore through my chest.

My thumbs flew across the keyboard, typing a response directly beneath his post:

[Your adoptive sister suffered for three months, and your heart is shattered.]

[Your biological sister endured eighteen years in that living hell. Did any of you care for a single second?]

Eighteen years. Dale Tucker drank away every dollar he had, beating me whenever he lost a poker hand.

Brenda Tucker worshipped her golden son, Travis, making me scrub the trailer floors on my knees while withholding food for days.

I was slapped, starved, and whipped until my skin turned purple and bled.

Maybe my Mom, Dad, and Brother, had once felt guilty when I was first broughr back.

Yet the moment Annabelle shed a single tear, their guilt evaporated into thin air.

My heart died right then and there.

I opened my email, composed a new message to my department advisor:

[Dear Professor Davis, I officially accept the Fulbright Exchange Fellowship for the upcoming term. Please finalize my enrollment in Europe.]

I clicked send without hesitation.