Chapter 4

After the incident in the cold storage room, my parents clearly did more to protect me.

That only made Vivian more sullen.

In the locker room before a school sports event, she spotted the rescue inhaler in my bag and stopped in her tracks.

I'd been malnourished as a kid and sometimes had trouble breathing after intense exercise, so my doctor had told me to always carry one.

When no one else was around, Vivian took out something that looked like my inhaler and swapped them.

The girl with her went pale.

"Vivian, what if something happens?"

Vivian snapped my bag shut, irritated.

"She's the one breathing it in. How is that my fault?

"If she really gets sick, everybody will just say she's weak.

"Are they going to blame me for that too?"

She was actually smiling when she said it.

That afternoon, halfway through the race, my chest started to tighten.

I stopped to use my inhaler.

A few seconds later, my heart started racing so fast it scared me.

My vision went dark for a moment, and I grabbed the railing.

At the same moment, my father was in a meeting at his office.

He suddenly pressed a hand to his chest, and everyone around the conference table froze.

At home, my mother started struggling to breathe too.

By the time Nathan ran off the practice field, Alex was already calling me.

Nobody answered.

Ten minutes later, an ambulance rushed me to the hospital.

Vivian got there even before the test results did.

She walked into my room carrying a huge bouquet of white roses, looking worried.

"Elena, are you okay?"

I looked at the flowers and didn't say anything.

She set the flowers by the bed and turned to my mother with a sigh.

"Has she been under too much stress lately?

"Suddenly coming back to a family like this can't be easy."

Then she looked at me, her voice so gentle she sounded like a big sister who really cared. "If you're really having trouble adjusting, you don't have to push yourself to prove anything.

"Just take it slow."

My mother's expression slowly hardened.

Before I could say anything, the doctor pushed the door open.

"There was something wrong with the medication in Ms. Weir's inhaler."

The room went dead quiet.

The doctor set the clear bag containing the inhaler on the table.

"We've already sent it out for testing."

Vivian went still.

I looked at her.

"Didn't you say I was just stressed?"

Nathan was leaning against the wall. He scoffed, "Let's wait for the results."

Vivian froze for just two seconds before straightening up.

"Good.

"Find out the truth, so people can stop suspecting me every time something goes wrong."

She turned and left.

The second the door shut, I heard Nathan swear. "Where does she get the nerve?"

I didn't know either.

Maybe it was because, for 19 years, nobody had ever really made her pay for doing whatever she wanted.

Just then, Julian appeared in the hallway.

He handed my identification documents to my mother without asking what was going on in the room. When I stepped out for some air, he just sat with me for a while.

I asked him, "Do you think there's been a lot of trouble since I came back, too?"

He looked at me.

"You're not the one causing the trouble."

It was such an ordinary thing to say.

But for the first time, I felt like someone really saw me. Not the Weir family's long-lost daughter, not the walking problem who made the whole family hurt.

Just me.

The next day, the test results came back.

The inhaler really had been swapped.

In front of the whole family, my father looked at Vivian.

"Starting today, you stay away from Elena."

Vivian shot to her feet.

"You think it was me?"

"I didn't say who did it."

My father stared at her.

"Why are you so defensive?"

Her face went white, then red.

In the end, she shot me a vicious glare and slammed the door on her way out.

Ten minutes later, she cornered me.

"What exactly did you tell them?"

"I didn't say anything."

She laughed coldly.

"Right. Of course you don't have to say anything.

"All you have to do is play the victim, and they all come running."

I looked at her.

"Vivian, I'm warning you one last time. If you hurt me, they feel it too."

She looked at me like I was crazy.

"Enough.

"How long are you going to keep spouting that garbage?"

She leaned in close, her voice low. "Since I can't drive you away, I'll make you disappear for good."