Coma, Cruelty, and Caleb's Betrayal

e my brother, a rare complication

replaced me. They had a new daughter,

e atone, my fiancé, Caleb, and my brother locked me in an isolated villa for three years. I was their prisone

y was failing, but my tormentors decided on one last act

and well, drinking champagne. I overheard their plan. My torture wasn't pe

on the island, left behind my medical diagnosis a

pte

light was too bright, a sterile white that made my head t

e y

donated bone marrow to my brother, Fitzgerald, a rare comp

ched with new lines I didn't recognize. My father, Franklin, stoo

face pale with a relief so deep it looked like pain. And my brother, Fitz, the reason I

here. My world

en I s

to be in her early twenties. She had my hair, my eyes. The resemb

I asked, my v

red. "Oh, honey. This i

been with us for a while, Ericka. Your p

" my father supplie

red a shy, nervous smile, a performance t

s comfortable. She was the one my father praised for her grades, her demeanor. Fitz treated her like a cherished little si

ife. A relic they had dusted of

plained one afternoon, her voice soft. "She needed a f

hollow. It felt

said, my voice finall

in the roo

easonable," C

my parents'. "I am not a placeholder. And

ate and ugly. Hailie burst into tears, a dramatic, gut-wrenching display.

ld demanded, his voice sharp. "After

n stubborn refusal to back down. Finally, they a

Fitzgerald were taking her. I stayed in my

Alone. Their faces were gr

leb said, his vo

I asked, a knot of uneas

ng with a hatred I had never seen before. "A car crash. It

rocess the lie,

n she was in the foster system... they've found out where she was. They're making threats. Because of

. Hiding? Threat

rce of their conviction was a ba

erald said, his words like ic

eous anger. "And now, you will pay for it. You will do penance u

. They moved me to an isolated villa owned by Caleb. There w

er and m

ame my t

e safe but that their continued safety

hing that made sense of the nightmare. I scrubbed floors until my hands were raw. I at

made my suffering a prayer, hoping it would reach

wracking, painful thing that left me breathless.

day, Caleb reluctant

ntence. Terminal lung cancer

hat was already dead. It was just anot

al, twisted act of "kindness." For my birthday, they wer

ite, telling me to wai

filled me. I picked the lock with a hairp

en I s

hered on a terrace. My mother, Beverley, and my father, Franklin, laughing, holding

eaming like a queen, was Haili

tilt. It shattered i

y heart hammering against my ribs.

ll her!" Hailie was saying, gigglin

champagne. "It's the only way she'll finally accept y

e full of the same righteous tone he'd used for three

't from the cancer. It was from a betrayal so ab

suffering... it was a ga

er loved revealed as a lie, I knew what I had to

he day of thei

m them, a ghost t

e that spanned a deep, churning channel between th

e crisp envelope containing my medic

e, in a moment of supreme arrogance, had visited me in my room to

mbed onto t

ow was dark a

in three years, I f

ump