Chapter 3

Later that night, long after Ethan had "reluctantly" left and Lily was cooing at the dog in her room, I couldn' t sleep. The house was quiet, but my mind was racing. I crept out of my room for a glass of water.

As I passed my mother' s bedroom, I heard her voice, low and angry. She was on the phone.

"I don' t care what you think. The deal is the deal," she hissed into the receiver. "I paid good money for her all those years ago. She' s my daughter now."

I froze, my hand on the kitchen doorway.

"No, they' ll never find out," Brenda continued, her voice sharp. "The Blackwoods? They' re rich, not gods. They gave up looking for their precious lost daughter years ago. Sarah is mine. She' s useful."

My blood turned to ice. My glass of water slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor.

The Blackwoods' lost daughter.

Brenda' s door flew open. She stood there, her face a mask of fury. "What are you doing, sneaking around?"

But I wasn' t listening. My mind was reeling, pieces of a puzzle I never knew existed clicking into place.

Vague, dreamlike memories I' d always dismissed as childhood fantasies suddenly felt real. A different house, a bigger one, with a sunny yard. A woman with kind eyes and a man with a warm laugh. A boy, a little older than me, who held my hand and called me "Sari."

It was Ethan.

I was Sarah Blackwood.

I looked at Brenda, but I didn' t see my mother. I saw a monster. A trafficker. The woman who had stolen my life. The years of neglect, the constant belittling, the way she always favored Lily-it all made a new, horrifying kind of sense. I was never her daughter. I was a purchase. A possession.

"Who were you talking to?" I asked, my voice shaking with a rage so profound it felt like it would tear me apart.

"None of your business," she snapped, grabbing a broom to sweep up the glass. "Get back to your room before I give you something to really cry about."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to run to the police, to tell them everything. But what proof did I have? Just a half-overheard phone call and fragmented memories. Brenda would deny everything. She would call me crazy, unstable, jealous of Lily. She' d done it before.

No. I couldn' t act yet. Ethan' s plan was in motion. He was a powerful man, and he was targeting my fake family for a reason. Justice was coming. I just had to be patient and wait for the right moment.

I turned to go back to my room, my heart a leaden weight in my chest. I had to be quiet, to pretend I' d heard nothing. But my foot caught on the edge of the rug. I stumbled, knocking over a small table in the hallway with a loud crash.

A light flicked on. Lily stood in the doorway of her room, her expression unreadable in the dim light.

"Well, well," she said, her voice eerily calm. "You' re even clumsier in this life."

My breath caught in my throat. "What did you say?"

A slow, malicious smile spread across her face. "Don' t play dumb with me, Sarah. I knew it the moment you agreed to my plan. You came back too, didn' t you?"

The world tilted on its axis. She remembered. She remembered the rooftop, the fall, everything. This wasn' t just a second chance for me. It was a second chance for her too.

Fear, cold and sharp, gripped me. Before I could process this new, terrifying reality, she moved. She was faster than I expected. She lunged, not with a push, but with a fist aimed at my temple.

A burst of pain exploded behind my eyes, and the world went black.