Chapter 1 THE GIRL WHO CAME BACK FROM HELL

SUMMER'S POINT OF VIEW.

What would you do if the person you were supposed to trust most stabbed you in the back?

I watched as the prison gates opened automatically, granting me the freedom I had stolen from me for the last five years. If there was anything prison taught me, it was how to hide a knife behind my smile.

And patience... so much fucking patience,

The events of the past five years burned fresh in my memory. I was sentenced to the worst prison in all of America, and all for a crime I never committed. The murder of the homeless man I always saw patrolling the streets close to our house.

*FIVE YEARS AGO*

"No! I swear I didn't do this." I screamed, tears running down my cheeks as the hefty officers behind me gripped my arms, forcing me to stay in a spot as I tried to reach my mother. It felt like no one was hearing me, like I was all alone on the other side of a room separated by glass as I screamed, but no one could hear me.

"Mom, please tell them you believe me." I sobbed out, my tongue becoming dry as the thought of going to prison at the age of twenty fully dawned on me. Yes, I was the troubled kid. I was always around the wrong crowd, the alcoholics, the drug addicts....all of them.

And my family considered me a disgrace for it.

My mother didn't look at me. Rather, her nose was stuck in the air, her eyes closed, as she clutched onto Sophia's hand. My identical twin sister glared at me with an evil glint in her eyes, her pale face contorting in a false innocent look that always worked on everyone around us.

"Please, Mom," I begged, my heart breaking with each second that passed as I watched my mother ignore my pleas and act like I didn't exist. I swallowed and turned to my sister. I didn't care about how it would look, about how humiliating it felt; I went on my knees before her and begged.

"Sophia, please tell them. You were there that day, we were both in the car, and you were the one driving. Please tell the court it wasn't me."

She didn't say a word for a moment, her eyes flickering with a twinge of guilt. It sent a feeling of hope through me, as I finally, after such a long time, thought I would obtain some semblance of mercy from someone after these long weeks.

All of a sudden, the malicious look was back on her face again, the mask slipping off easily as she said the words that slammed the nail in my coffin. "She was the one who killed that poor man, officers. I remember pleading with her before we got into the car, not to drink since she would be the one driving. But she didn't listen to me."

"You're lying!" I screamed, still on my knees as sorrow washed over me.

"She has always been a bad influence on our family, and now, she's tainting our reputation even further." She spat, her lips curled in a nasty snarl. "She ran that poor man over multiple times, and now she acts as though she's innocent.

She deserves the worst punishment, your honour."

I watched on in shock, my mouth wide open as I wished desperately that all this would be some sick nightmare. God...if you're real, if you're up there, please save me from this.

I swear I'll get my act together. I'll be the most upright citizen in this country, just please. I don't want to go to prison."

"Rise, Ms Rodriguez." The judge said from behind me, and on shaky knees, I trembled as I rose to my feet. My face became pale as I waited for him to give the final verdict. Everyone in the world thinks I'm a murderer, a waste child, the problem of the reputed Rodriguez family. It was like that within the family, but now that the case blew up around the nation, the crowd of protesters had gathered outside the courtroom, chanting for my sentence to be a hanging for the fifth time this week.

"After reviewing all evidence presented before this court - including the eyewitness statements, forensic reports, and your own testimony - this court judges that you are guilty of vehicular manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and fleeing the scene of a crime."

Gasps ripple throughout the courtroom, the words of the judge landing like a hammer against my soul as my chest constricts. It was becoming increasingly harder to breathe, as I felt both hot and cold at the same time.

"You are hereby sentenced to five years at Blackwell Correctional Facility, with no possibility of parole before serving the full term. May this time teach you remorse and reflection."

I didn't know when my knees betrayed me. All I knew was that I fell to the floor with a thud and wailed. From the corner of my eye, I saw the prosecutor bow and say, "Justice has been served!" And in that moment, I realised something I should have accepted when my mind whispered it months ago.

I was never meant to be.

My mother clutched onto Sophia, her hands going around her neck in a tight hug, as if she were the one being sentenced, and not me. All of a sudden, the tears dried up, as steel filled my belly. I would get my revenge, no matter what.

Sophia killed that man. I might have been drunk and practically passed out, but I remember vividly her shaking as she realised what she'd done. All I'd felt alongside the buzzing in my ears from the alcohol was my body lifted to a different side of the car, something wet and sticky smeared on my body. Even in my haze, I felt like it smelled like blood.

She framed me, and now, she thinks she gets to live her life while I rot behind bars. I would come for her, but I'd make sure it was when her life seemed so perfect.

And then I'd strike!