Chapter 1

After I made it as an entrepreneur, I finally found the younger sister I'd lost fifteen years ago.

When I went to bring her home, she was in the back of a diner, washing dishes, her hands soaked pale.

I told her who I was, brought her back to my downtown penthouse, and stroked her hair as I said,

"You've got a big sister now. I'll never let you suffer again. I'll give you the best of everything in the world."

The words had barely left my mouth when a few lines of text drifted across my vision,

"Wake up. She's not your sister. She's the one who killed your sister!"

"She found out you'd struck it rich, so she stole your sister's identity to live the good life."

"Your real sister's body is buried under the crooked pine tree on the hill behind the orphanage."

"She doesn't just want to take your sister's place. She wants to kill you and seize everything you own!"

1

I stared at those lines, frozen for a full half minute.

But the girl in front of me wore a hoodie washed nearly white, and her face was Leila's, down to the last detail, exactly as I remembered.

If this wasn't my sister, who was she?

She tugged timidly at my sleeve and said in a small voice,

"Sis? What's wrong?"

I shook my head.

When I looked again, the words were gone.

I told myself it was probably a hallucination, from a solid week of no sleep hunting for her.

I pushed down the strange feeling and pinched her cheek with a smile.

"Nothing. Come on, let's go home."

I took her to buy new clothes and a new phone, and cleared out the sunny master bedroom for her.

At dinner, she cupped her bowl in both hands, tears welling in her eyes.

"Sis, I never even dared to dream I'd get to live like this."

"Thank you. I've never had a room this nice in my whole life…"

My chest ached, and just as I was about to comfort her, another line flickered past.

"Don't fall for it! She's acting! The real Leila is already dead, she shoved her off the hill!"

My chopsticks stopped.

That was when I knew for sure this wasn't a hallucination.

Because the next second, the text came flooding in, dense and unbroken.

"Your sister has a crescent-shaped burn scar on the inside of her left arm! She got it as a kid when she knocked over a kettle of boiling water!"

"Hurry, pull up her sleeve and look, this is killing me!"

My fingertips went cold, and I lifted my eyes to Leila across the table.

She had her head down, eating, the picture of a sweet, well-behaved girl.

Fifteen years apart, and my memory of Leila was still stuck at the year she turned five.

That scar the messages mentioned, I'd watched her get it with my own eyes.

Because I was afraid our parents would blame me for not looking after her, I'd never told a soul.

The next morning, I carried a hot latte past her.

I let my foot slip on purpose, and the whole cup splashed square across her arm.

"Ah!"

She cried out from the pain.

I scrambled to blot it with napkins.

"I'm so sorry, so sorry, I was thinking about work and got distracted, I didn't see you."

"Take your jacket off, quick, I'll get you some ointment."

She bit her lip and pulled off the hoodie.

And there, on the inside of her left arm, was a crescent-shaped, pale brown scar.

The place, the shape, all of it matched my memory exactly.

Only the color was a good deal fainter.

I froze on the spot.

The text exploded.

"Holy crap! She actually made herself an identical one?!"

"This woman is ruthless, she'd burn her own arm for money!"

"Don't panic! A birthmark can be faked, DNA can't! Get her hair and run a test!"

I looked at that scar, my mind a tangled mess.

Fifteen years. A scar fading in color was perfectly normal.

But the messages were so vivid and specific I couldn't ignore them.

Leila was the only family I had left in this world.

Even if there was a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I had to find out the truth.

That afternoon, the clothes she changed out of after her shower landed in the laundry basket.

I plucked two long hairs from the collar, then pulled one of my own.

I sealed them together in a bag and drove them over to my assistant.

"Take this to get a DNA test done for me. Rush it. I need it fast."