Introduction

The heavy iron gate groaned open, spitting me back into a world that felt alien. Three years in hell, for a crime I didn' t commit. I thought it was finally over.

My adoptive brother, Ethan, and my former fiancé, Noah, picked me up, not with comfort, but with an invitation to a celebration. For Chloe, my adoptive sister, the golden child. The celebration of her new album, filled with my songs.

The whispers followed me into the glittering ballroom. "Is that Sarah Miller? The one who went to jail?" "She looks terrible." Chloe, radiant in a dazzling gown, welcomed me with venomous whispers, flaunting her stolen life. Ethan' s cold righteousness and Noah' s pity were suffocating. They justified my sacrifice, claiming my career was over anyway.

They said I owed her. They said I was responsible. But I knew the truth. I was an orphan adopted by the Bennetts, then easily discarded when their biological daughter, Chloe, reappeared. Chloe, who had built her career on my talent, who then drove drunk and struck a pedestrian, begging me to take the fall.

I was a fool. They promised to visit, to support me. The visits stopped. The pleas of "Think of it as paying back the family" and "Once you' re out, we can get married" echoed like cruel jokes. Now, as I lay bleeding from Chloe's latest attack, they chose her again, leaving me to die.

Why did I blindly sacrifice myself for them? Why did they choose a manipulative liar over the truth, over me? What twisted words did Chloe whisper to make them so utterly blind?

My phone buzzed. An unknown number. "Is this... Sarah Miller?" a warm voice asked. "My name is Alexander Hayes. I think... I think you' re my sister."