Chapter 3

The check for $50,000 arrived by courier the next morning. I cashed it immediately, the crisp bills in my hand feeling like the first breath of fresh air after drowning.

My next steps were swift and methodical. I went to the courthouse and filed the paperwork to have Barney and Debra Jones declared legally dead. The process was expedited by the police report and the confirmation from Carl' s insurance company. The state saw a tragic accident. I saw a clean break.

Then I sold the house. It was a run-down, two-bedroom box in a town that was slowly dying, but it was mine now. I took the first cash offer, not bothering to negotiate. I didn' t want the memories or the money as much as I wanted the erasure. I packed a few bags with essentials for myself and the baby, and left the rest of the Joneses' life on the curb for the trash collectors.

I walked through the empty rooms one last time. This was where I had suffered, where I had been lied to every single day of my life. I felt nothing. No nostalgia, no sadness. Just the cold, clean satisfaction of a plan in motion.

Finally, I went to the local children' s home. The building was old and smelled of disinfectant and despair. I walked in, holding a small, anonymous envelope. Inside was a file I had compiled on a girl named Stella. The real Stella. In my previous life, she had been my sister. In this one, she was just another piece on the board.

I found her file in the county records. The Joneses had abandoned her here right after the faked accident. I added a few documents to her file-forged, but untraceable-that would ensure she was adopted by a family I knew from my first life. A family that was cruel, abusive, and would guarantee her life was a mirror of the one I had been forced to live. It was a monstrous act, but my heart was a stone. They had made me this way.

I left the children' s home without a backward glance. My final act in that dead-end town was to go to the bus station. I bought a one-way ticket to Austin, Texas.

I strapped Gabrielle into her car seat on the bus, the rumble of the engine a lullaby of escape. She was so small, so innocent. I looked at her perfect face and felt a surge of protectiveness that was fierce and absolute. In my first life, I thought this feeling was for Stella. Now I knew it was for Gabrielle, my true sister. The Joneses thought they had left me with their burden. Instead, they had left me with my greatest ally.

"It' s just you and me now, Gabi," I whispered, tucking a blanket around her. "I' m going to give you the world. And we' re going to take back everything they stole from us."

The bus pulled out of the station, leaving the gray, struggling town behind. I didn' t look back. There was nothing there for me but ghosts.