Chapter 1

On my twenty-fifth birthday, my family held two votes.

In the first, by a count of four to one, they decided to lend my boyfriend, Chester Floyd, to my best friend, Wendy Pruitt, for a month.

In the second, by a count of four to one, they decided to throw me out of the house.

I dragged my suitcase through the pouring rain for three hours when a line of text suddenly popped up in front of me:

The Life Swap System has been activated.

You will swap bodies with Wendy Pruitt for one month.

She will experience for you a life ruled by family democracy.

The next day, I woke up in Wendy Pruitt's three-hundred-square-meter bedroom.

On her phone sat a voice message Chester had just sent:

"Wendy, when are you going to dump that loser Jordan Gilbert and officially be with me?"

I burst out laughing.

She only wanted to borrow a boyfriend from me.

Instead, I'd lent her the man and my whole family, all at once.

... ...

My family loves to talk about democracy.

Dad, Mom, my brother, my sister, and me—five people, one vote each.

It sounds fair enough.

The problem is, those four have four hands, and I only have two.

When I was seven, my sister took a liking to my birthday cake.

Dad asked, "Raise your hand if you agree to give the cake to your sister."

All four hands shot up at once.

I never even got a taste of what the frosting was like.

At seventeen, I was accepted into the gifted youth program at Northfield University.

My sister said she couldn't bear to have me so far from home.

The whole family voted.

Four to one.

My application was changed to the local state teachers' college. My sister hugged me, smiling. "I always knew you were the most family-minded one."

At nineteen, my brother was short of money to start his company.

They voted again and sold the gold bracelet my grandmother had left me.

At twenty-one, I finally scraped together eighty thousand dollars for grad school.

My mother said my sister couldn't get married without a dowry.

Four to one, again.

Looking at the eight dollars and sixty cents left on my bank card, I asked my dad for the first time:

"Since the outcome is always the same, what's the point of my vote?"

Dad held his tea and spoke earnestly.

"It gives you a sense of involvement."

After that, I finally understood.

So-called family democracy just meant the four of them could legally decide what I lost each day.

On my twenty-fifth birthday, they set out a whole table of food for me.

I was pretty surprised.

After all, in the past few years, they'd either forgotten my birthday or told me to go buy a cake for my sister.

It wasn't until Wendy walked in on Chester's arm that I realized this meal wasn't for me either.

Wendy wore a new white dress and, around her neck, the necklace I'd had my eye on for half a year but never let myself buy.

She pushed a small box in front of me.

"Happy birthday, Winnie."

I opened it.

Inside was a complimentary silk scarf.

The tag hadn't even been removed. It read: Free gift with purchases over one hundred thousand dollars.

Chester coughed softly beside her.

"Wendy picked this out especially for you, so don't turn your nose up at it."

I looked at him. "What did you just call her?"

Chester froze.

"We're all friends. What's wrong with using a friendly name?"

Wendy covered her mouth and laughed.

"Winnie wouldn't get jealous over something this small, would she?"

Halfway through the meal, she finally got to the point.

In a few days she was going to be on a couples' travel reality show.

But her fiancé, Jordan Gilbert, refused to go on the show with her.

"Winnie, Chester looks good and he's easygoing. Lend him to me for a month."

I almost thought I'd misheard.

"Lend you what?"

"Chester, of course."

She blinked, all innocence.

"I'll give him back once we finish filming. A sister's boyfriend is my boyfriend too—what's wrong with borrowing him for a while?"

I looked at Chester.

He wasn't angry. He rubbed his nose instead.

"It's just acting. Wendy has a lot of fans, so I can use the chance to promote the company."

"You agree to this?"

"Winnie, don't be so petty."

Mom set down her chopsticks.

"Wendy has helped your brother so many times, and you can't even lend her one boyfriend?"

My brother jumped in at once. "My company's counting on Miss Pruitt to invest next month."

My sister laughed too. "Relax, Chester's not some object. Lending him out won't take a chunk out of him, will it?"

I nodded.

"He's not much of anything, that's for sure."

Chester's face darkened. "Winifred Fox, do you even know how to talk to people?"

Dad tapped the table.

"Stop arguing. We'll decide by vote."

"Raise your hand if you agree that Chester should go on the show with Miss Pruitt."

Dad, Mom, my brother, my sister.

All four hands went up at the same time.