Even though Chloe shared no blood with them, because she had grown up in their home, they treated her like their true daughter.
They gave Chloe all their tenderness and love.
And neither my biological parents nor Daniel Reed knew that I was already dead.
Thinking of this, I clenched my fists tightly, the pain and suffocation in my chest threatening to tear me apart.
Half a year ago, when I thought I was being welcomed back by my real parents, I believed what awaited me would be love and atonement.
But instead, I became Chloe Miller’s living substitute—bearing her burdens, suffering in her place, and in the end, not even leaving behind ashes of my own, as she personally scattered them to the wind.
Even then, she refused to let me go.
Wearing the wedding dress that should have been mine, she married my fiancé.
She even went out of her way to gloat in front of my photograph.
“Emily Carter, what makes you think you could ever beat me?”
“Mom and Dad are mine, Daniel is mine. Even in death, you’ll only ever be Ryan Brooks’s woman. You’ll sleep underground forever.”
Throughout the ceremony, Daniel’s eyes scanned the guests, but he never found me. His brows furrowed in frustration.