Chapter 1

1: 1

I'm mute, but Mom never let me learn sign language.

All because my twin sister was born able to "hear" the voice in my head.

She said it was a gift from heaven, given to my sister so she could look after her defective older twin.

But that gift became the source of my nightmares.

The first time, I had a high fever and wanted to go to the hospital.

My sister claimed I was just playing sick for attention, and I nearly went deaf from the fever.

The second time, I wanted to go to a top high school.

My sister put on a troubled face again and said I wanted to slack off at a vocational school.

Because of that my allowance was cut off, and I had to take under-the-table jobs just to keep myself fed.

I once tried to confront them, only to have Mom cry and turn it back on me: [If your sister weren't so considerate, helping me take care of you, I'd have given up on living long ago!]

So I never let my thoughts show again.

Until it was almost college move-in day, and my sister said I was sleeping around, that I was determined to marry and have a baby.

Mom exploded, tore up my school file on the spot, and in the name of punishment sold me for twenty thousand dollars to a thug from across the street.

This time, I didn't fight it.

Because not long before, the mother from eighteen years ago, the one who loved me most, had found me.

She said that in seven days, she would take me away.

......

[Good thing you're not pregnant.]

[Otherwise your sister's future would be stained.]

Mom turned the exam results over in her hands, reading them again and again.

Only then did she let out a breath, glaring at me as she spoke.

My sister tugged her mask up higher, hurrying Mom to leave.

[Ivycrest University cares most about personal conduct!]

Her eyes slid over me, full of blame: [If someone sees I've been to the OB-GYN and reports me for being pregnant before marriage,]

[Dad's old boss from before he passed will definitely revoke my special admission!]

After all, my sister's grades were mediocre. She'd only been let in through a special exception, riding on the achievements Dad left behind.

The moment she said it, Mom went tense.

She quickly dug out a mask and put it on, then carefully scanned the area around us.

Catching sight of me standing there in a daze, she snapped and tossed a mask at me: [Wear it!]

[If I'd known you'd cause this much trouble, I never should have had you.]

That line, I'd heard more times than I could count, my whole life.

But my eyes still stung before I could stop them.

I opened my mouth, wanting to argue back, but all that came out was an ugly, whimpering sound.

When I lifted my head again, Mom had already taken my sister's hand and vanished into the hospital lobby.

And me, I was left standing there again.

By the time I got home, five whole hours had passed.

The second I walked in, Mom's face was dark, and she dumped the steaming food into the trash.

[Sis, you really went too far today.]

[After Mom left the hospital, she blamed herself for coming down too hard on you. She spent forever making a whole table of your favorite dishes.]

My sister sighed. [She waited for you even though her stomach was acting up, wouldn't eat a bite, kept reheating everything over and over.]

Seeing me frozen in place, my sister slipped into her usual role as peacemaker.

She nudged me forward. [What are you standing there for? Go apologize to Mom.]

[But I didn't do anything wrong!]

I shot back instinctively, in my head.

[Don't you two know better than anyone why it took me five hours to get home?]

Hearing my sister repeat it, Mom shot up from her seat and fixed me with a cold stare.

For a long moment she just looked, and then it was as if all the strength drained out of her.

She waved a hand. [Forget it. In seven days you'll be married off anyway.]

[After that I won't be able to control you either, as your mother.]

I pressed my lips together, and couldn't help thinking of that gentle mother from eighteen years ago, the one who loved me like her own life.

She wouldn't scorn me for being mute. She wouldn't resent me as her stain.

At that thought, the tears I'd been holding back spilled over.

[You're the one who was ashamed of me and wouldn't let me out. You're the one who was scared I'd get on the internet, so you never gave me a phone!]

[So every time you dumped me at the roadside, all I could do was stare at the road signs, trial and error, over and over, until I found my way back!]

Crying, I raised my hands and signed frantically.

But the instant I lifted them,

Mom clicked her tongue and frowned. [Haven't I told you? You are not allowed to communicate in sign language!]

[Whatever you want to say, Kitty Fox will pass it along for you.]

Seeing this, my sister looked at me, helpless.

But I clamped down on the voice in my head at once and chose silence.

A moment later, my sister carried over the trash can, the one filled with food, and held it out to me.

Just like before, she coaxed me softly: [Eat it.]

[If you eat it, Mom won't be angry anymore.]

I looked at the trash can, at the scraps of shrimp and fish, and my throat heaved.

Eighteen years. Everyone knew these things made me throw up the moment I ate them.

It was my sister who especially loved them.

But in Mom's eyes, we were twins, so of course we liked and disliked the same things.

At that thought, my brow furrowed.

For the first time, I refused my sister's so-called "help."

Under Mom's shocked stare, I snatched my sister's phone and quickly typed out a line.

I tapped the text-to-speech: [I hate eating this!]

[And I never slept around. My sister's been lying the whole time!]

The mechanical voice rang out in the empty living room, eerie and crystal clear.

My sister panicked instantly.

She'd just opened her mouth to explain when there was a sharp crack.

Mom's eyes went wide with rage, and her hand came down across my face in a slap.

Her expression twisted. [Still lying!]

[Melody Fox, forget that you never once thanked your sister for taking care of you all these years. Now you're actually biting the hand that fed you!]

[If Kitty couldn't read minds, you'd have died from that fever when you were eight!]

I cupped the cheap hearing aid she'd knocked loose, biting down against the stabbing ring in my ear.

And suddenly I laughed.

I didn't die, no. But my ears nearly went deaf, and I became a complete cripple.

Maybe I should have accepted long ago the simple fact that I wasn't loved.

In the middle of the standoff, the doorbell rang out of nowhere.

My sister, curled up on the couch bingeing a show, sprang up, her voice cheerful: [Mom, the delivery's here!]

[I ordered from that place we both love, the home-cooked stir-fry!]

At the sound of her voice, the anger in Mom's face softened considerably.

But when the door opened, it was an uninvited guest dragging a suitcase.

A thoroughly ordinary-looking man shoved my sister aside and strolled right in.

He looked at my stunned mother, a smirk curling his lips. [My place sprang a leak. Mother-in-law won't mind if I crash here, will she?]

[Oh, right, Mother-in-law. Which daughter is it you're marrying off?]

The man's appraising gaze crawled over every inch of skin like a cold, venomous snake.

The moment I made out his face, the wanted poster I'd seen on the way home surfaced in my mind.

My breath shook, and I yanked Mom behind me.

I turned to my sister, screaming inside my head: [He's a murderer, call the police, now!]