Chapter 3

Ding-dong.

The sudden chime of the doorbell shattered the quiet morning, jolting Austin awake.

He walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Driven by some dark impulse, I crept over to the door and pressed my ear against the cool wood.

I heard the front door click open.

Then came a voice that was etched into the darkest corners of my memory—sweet, flirty, and brimming with entitled confidence.

"Austin! Surprise! I'm back! The highway from the airport was an absolute nightmare, I had to leave at dawn... Wait, why do you look so pale? Aren't you happy to see me?"

My breath seized.

Harper.

It was that Harper.

She was really back.

And she had come straight to our apartment.

Outside, Austin's voice shook with pure panic. "Harper? How... how did you find this place? Why didn't you call first?"

"I wanted to surprise you! What, is there a secret lover inside? Not letting me in?"

"No... it's not that, you just—" Austin was completely scrambling.

"Oh, wait," Harper's voice suddenly dropped, turning sly and provocative. "My sister... Chloe, she lives here, right?"

Sister.

That word was like a rusty key turning in an old lock, swinging open the dark, suffocating memories of my childhood.

Back in the yard, the brand-new swing set my dad had bought. Before I could even sit on it once, Harper was already on it, twirling in her pretty princess dress while our dad pushed her, her giggles filling the air.

When I ran over, our dad had brushed me off with an irritated sigh. "Chloe, let your little sister have it. She's younger."

She was only younger than me by a few days.

Dad's eyes had always followed Harper. He praised her for being smart, gorgeous, a little prodigy. I was always the background noise—the "difficult" child, the quiet one, the one who wasn't as clever or charming as her half-sister.

My drawings were tossed aside into the trash, while a few scribbled numbers from Harper were framed like masterpieces. My tears and hurt were met with only cold lectures: "You're the older sister. Grow up."

Harper's voice dragged me back to the brutal present.

"It's honestly hilarious, Austin."

"You chased after me for so long back then... How on earth did you end up with her?"

"Were you using my sister just to keep my ghost alive?"