Chapter 2

The guest room door creaked open.

Before I could react, Ashton wrapped his arms around me, his body hot against mine.

My skin prickled with revulsion as nausea climbed up my throat.

His hand slid down my back, fingers restless and invasive.

I shoved him off with all my strength, grabbed a pillow, and stormed out of the room.

He stood frozen for a moment, his expression unreadable in the shadows.

We grew up together in the same close-knit community. Our parents were lifelong friends, and our bond was unshakable.

The summer after sophomore year in college, he confessed his feelings. We started dating soon after.

But that same year, my father came home with the news: a mix-up at the hospital years ago. The daughter he brought home wasn’t his biological child—Macy was.

Macy entered our lives, delicate and teary-eyed, clinging to my father like a lifeline.

"Dad, why is she still here? Don’t you love me?" she sobbed.

"Sorry, sis," she whimpered, voice trembling with practiced innocence. "I know I’m intruding. I'll go if you want me to leave—no matter how hard it gets out there. I’m used to suffering."

My father, overcome with guilt, told me to leave instead.

I laughed bitterly, packed the savings my mother left behind, and walked out.

A year later, Macy showed up at my university, courtesy of my father’s connections.

She played nice on the surface but undermined me at every turn.

She sabotaged my friendships and got my graduate scholarship offer rescinded using my father’s influence. She even got me evicted from my dorm.

Her petty schemes didn’t faze me—I refused to waste energy on someone so cheap.

I believed I had something she could never take: Ashton.

Macy relentlessly pursued him, even publicly confessing her feelings.

She cozied up to his friends, tried to learn his routines, and orchestrated run-ins on campus.

On Instagram, she chronicled her infatuation, obsessively documenting every interaction.

Ashton dismissed her as clingy and pathetic, openly humiliating her more than once.

For three years, Macy stuck to him like glue.