“Dad’s inheritance is for my wedding,” my sister screamed from behind. I felt hands on my back, then falling. Fifteen concrete steps. My head hit every third one. the spine specialist marked “ᴀssᴀᴜʟᴛ-related vertebrae fracture.” The emergency scan went to administration. “Hospital CEO admitted with ᴛʀᴀᴜᴍᴀᴛɪᴄ ɪɴᴊᴜʀɪᴇs.”

I walked toward the door and opened it. “You should leave.”

Olivia stared at me for a long moment before speaking again. “You will regret this.”

Two weeks passed filled with phone calls from relatives trying to pressure me into giving Olivia what she wanted, and eventually she appeared at my house again late one evening with smeared makeup and desperation in her voice.

“The venue is giving my date away if I do not pay the deposit by Friday,” she said urgently. “Please just help me this once.”

For a brief moment I almost believed she was truly desperate, yet when our eyes met I saw something colder behind the tears.

“Olivia, I cannot do that,” I said gently.

Her expression hardened instantly and the softness vanished. “You are going to regret this decision,” she said quietly before turning and walking away.

The next afternoon I was carrying a basket of clean laundry up the narrow basement stairs inside my house when I heard footsteps behind me.

“It is my inheritance,” Olivia’s voice said suddenly from the darkness below.

Before I could fully turn around her hands slammed into my back with violent force, and the world tipped sideways as my foot slipped off the concrete step.