Chapter 4

I started clumsily copying Helena. I dressed like her and talked like her.

She would bend down to rescue stray cats on the street, so I did the same.

I thought Pierre might like me even a little bit if I did that. But it only made him despise me more.

I still remember how coldly he looked at me when I was holding a dirty stray cat:

"You just make me sick."

After that, I stopped trying. I went back to being the quiet girl with thick glasses, walking with my head down at school.

During my freshman year of high school, a group of popular, mean girls blocked my way in an alley:

"Hey, I heard you’ve been clinging to Pierre. How can you be so shameless?"

Another girl snickered:

"Look at her. She's so ugly. Where does she get the nerve?"

"She's delusional. She's living in a fantasy world."

They surrounded me, mocking my looks. I gathered my courage and yelled back:

"No! I'm not clinging to him! I'm his sister!"

The girls laughed even harder:

"We've only ever heard of his cousin, Helena. Who the hell are you?"

I cried and argued with them. Just as one of them was about to slap me across the face...

Pierre suddenly appeared at the entrance of the alley. For the first time in my life, I felt a wave of warmth.

Pierre, did you know I was in danger? Did you come to save me?

The leader of the girls saw Pierre and casually put her hand on my shoulder:

"We saw this girl bothering you, so we wanted to teach her to stay away."

Pierre stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking at me coldly. I shrank back, too scared to speak.

But my eyes were wide with hope. He still cares about me, right?

But in the next second, my hopes were shattered.

The girl next to me asked Pierre:

"She says she’s your sister. Is that true?"

Pierre's cold face turned completely dark. He said coldly:

"She is not my sister. I’m an only child. I don't have a sister."

Then, he turned around and walked away without looking back, ignoring my desperate cries.

I don't remember how many times I screamed his name that day. The girls slapped me over and over again.

They eventually stripped off my clothes, poured hot candle wax onto my skin, and recorded a video.

In the video, my hair was a mess, my face was swollen, and my clothes were torn.

They forced me to kneel and call myself a worthless piece of trash over and over.