Her Cold Mother, His Bloody Betrayal

“The first gunshot in the library deafened me to everything but my brother Ethan' s jolt and the dark red staining his white t-shirt. He looked at me, mouth open, no sound. He slumped. My body moved before my brain could. I turned and ran. I didn' t help him, didn' t scream his name. I just ran, leaving him there. Because I had done this before. In my last life, I' d called our neurosurgeon mother, Olivia. "Mom, Ethan's been shot!" I' d sobbed. Her reply, cold: "Stop being so dramatic, Chloe. I' m busy getting my nails done with Ashley." Ashley, our adopted sister, was her perfect princess. Ethan and I were afterthoughts. She hung up. Ethan bled out waiting for a mother who thought he was a lie. At the hospital, she arrived, nails perfectly pink. When he was pronounced dead, her world shattered. She lunged at me, screaming. "You did this! You just watched him die! You were jealous!" She shoved me down the hospital staircase. My head hit the marble floor. I died there, just like Ethan. But then I was back, in the library, the nightmare starting again. This time, I knew. Trying to save Ethan would only lead to my own death, blamed, hated, destroyed by a family that was never truly mine. My parents were incapable of love for their biological children, consumed by Ashley. So, for the first time, I chose me. I ran, leaving them and that broken life behind. Let them live with their choices. I wouldn't be their scapegoat. This time, I' d be a spectator. But when they called, crying about Ethan, I knew what I had to do. Not for them, but to reveal their monstrous truth. Heading to the hospital, I wasn't a grieving sister. I was an executioner, ready to make sure everyone saw the final act.”