Chapter 1

I'd danced in the company for eight years, and I'd finally earned the right to become its principal.

All I needed was one more win as "Best Dancer."

Before the competition, the costume I'd stayed up whole nights sewing by hand was gnawed to shreds.

My husband pulled me into his arms to comfort me. "We got mice in the house. I should've kept a better eye on your costume."

"Don't worry. There's always next year."

The second year, my costume was fine, but a car crash happened on the way there.

By the time I rushed in, the competition was long over.

Dad's eyes went red with guilt. "It's my fault, insisting on driving you. I made you miss the whole thing."

The third year, I finally made it onto that stage.

The instant the music started, the chandelier overhead dropped straight down.

When I woke again, both my legs could no longer move.

But the TV was playing an interview of my little sister winning the principal spot.

In the video, the whole family stood proudly behind her, beaming, celebrating her.

And there was no one at all beside my hospital bed.

Through the blur of tears, line after line of live comments scrolled in front of me.

【Clementine Fox's so pitiful. This family will pull any dirty trick to clear a path for the little sister.】

【First they ruined her costume, then staged that crash, fine, but now they've wrecked her legs too!】

【This family is absolutely sick!】

My legs throbbed in waves, red seeping crimson through the bandages.

So it turned out everyone was an actor.

And I was the only clown in the play.

1

Before I could even take it in, the messages in the family group buried me all over again.

【Mom: My Madison Fox is just the best!】

The photo attached showed Madison laughing, hugging the trophy, hand in hand with my husband, Herbert Gilbert, close and cozy.

Herbert had turned his head to look at her, his eyes soft.

Below it, the relatives wouldn't stop.

【Aunt Deb: Madison really is something. Just a shame your Clementine has amounted to so little.】

【Aunt Deb: After all these years, how is she still no match for Madison?】

【Mom: Madison's got the talent, the brains, worlds better than that dead-weight Clementine.】

【Mom: See, today she went and got her own legs broken. Nothing but trouble!】

My parents had favored my sister since we were kids, and I'd long gotten used to them hitting me or cursing me over nothing.

I thought those words would land on me and stir up nothing at all.

But I'd still underestimated the hold they had on me.

The hand gripping my phone was shaking, my fingertips trembling out a few lines of text.

The second the message sent, a red exclamation mark stabbed into my eyes.

They'd kicked me out of the group.

Then my sister sent a picture out of nowhere.

The moment I saw it, my breath caught.

In the picture, Herbert was smiling, indulgent, reaching up to wipe a smear of cake from the corner of Madison's mouth.

He had never once done anything that tender with me.

Madison sent a few more messages.

【None of them love you. Now even Herbert loves me more.】

【You'll never measure up to me.】

I stared at the words on the phone, and it was as though a dark cloud had smeared itself across my sight.

Black, heavy, no light anywhere.

I swept everything off the table onto the floor.

Glass shattered, flying, leaving a streak of blood across the back of my hand.

Hearing the noise, Herbert rushed in.

He set down the chicken soup he'd just bought, cupped my hand, and blew on it gently.

"How could you be so careless?"

"I know you're hurting inside, but you can't take it out on yourself."

"Wait, let me put something on it."

The concern on his face didn't look faked.

He looked like a good husband, considerate of his wife.

But his face felt stranger to me by the second.

As if he'd always been wearing a mask.

I flung his hand off, held the photo up to his eyes, and demanded an answer with tears streaming down my face.

"You tell me what this is."

Herbert snatched the phone away, his expression flustered.

Seeing my face turn worse, he caught on, and his face darkened as he explained.

"I was just wiping the corner of her mouth. Don't be so paranoid, seeing things that aren't there."

"One photo doesn't prove anything."

I was paranoid?

Something was blocking my chest, pressing down until I couldn't breathe.

I shoved away the hand reaching for me again and slapped him across the face with my backhand.

The stabbing in my legs nearly swallowed me whole.

I wiped the tears from my face, and the scream tore out of my throat before I could hold it back.

"So it wasn't you who cut up my costume?"

"It wasn't you who crippled my legs along with them?"

"Herbert, what did I ever do to you, that you'd team up with them to destroy me?"

"My legs are ruined. I can never dance again!"

The live comments scrolled again.

【It doesn't stop there!】

【Your second year in the company, he was the one who drugged you, so you'd be off your game and lose the solo slot.】