Chapter 2

"Jules, look what I've brought you!" Just then, Jessica walked in. Her eyes flickered over my plaster statue before halting the butler, Tom Williams, in his tracks. "Just leave that here. He's too disobedient. He needs to watch and learn from Jules on how to be a good son and a good brother."

Then, she lowered her voice. "Don't even think about destroying our family. You'll never fit in, and you'll never replace Jules."

For a moment, I thought that Jessica had stopped Tom from moving my statue out of some small shred of kindness for me.

It turned out that she was just helping Julian put me down. She just wanted me to see how happy their family was without me.

I wanted to tell her that I would never bother them again.

I wanted to tell myself not to care.

But the words stuck in my throat. My heart constricted painfully, making my soul convulse.

It took me a while to recover. Then, I saw Dad placing something in front of Julian like it was a precious treasure. "Look what I got you, Jules. It's the limited-edition sneakers you asked for last time! And those figurines too!"

Soon, gifts piled up on the table.

"Wow! Thanks, Jess! Thanks, Dad!" Julian exclaimed as he started unwrapping the gifts excitedly.

Just then, Maria Wren, our housekeeper, came in with a bag of groceries. She asked with a smile, "What about John's presents?"

At her words, the cheerful atmosphere froze, like someone had pressed the pause button on the movie.

Maria's question was jarring and made them extremely uncomfortable.

Julian's smile froze. When he spoke again, he sounded close to tears. "Mom, Dad, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to take John's place. If I hadn't, he wouldn't have hated me to the point of breaking my arm."

As he cried, he pushed the gifts away. "I don't want these anymore. Give them to John as an apology from me."

"Maria, mind your own business," Dad said coldly.

Maria stiffened. She bit her lip and left with the groceries. Before she left, she couldn't help but ask, "I thought John left with you. Isn't he back yet?"

Maria was the only one in this family who treated me well.

She had been my grandmother's housekeeper before this. My grandmother had passed away not long ago, but she knew full well how my parents and sister treated me. Therefore, she sent Maria to care for me after she passed and forbade my parents from firing her.

The day I died, my parents had given her the day off.

The family's expression changed again.

Sensing the disquiet, Julian suddenly stumbled over the couch and fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Oh! I saw John glaring at me earlier. I'm scared!"

He curled into a ball, clutching his head as he whined in fear, "Why doesn't John like me? I'll give him everything. I'll give him all I have. Please don't hit me! Don't break my arm! It hurts so bad…"

"Jules!" Jessica quickly rushed forward and cradled him in her arms. "Don't be afraid, Jules. Mom, Dad, can't we just kick that troublemaker out? Since returning, he's spent all his time bullying Jules and scaring him. He wanted him dead!"

"What a scoundrel!" she finished, ripping a pendant from one of the gift boxes and hurling it aside with fury.

I stared at the red pendant that had landed by my feet. Tears prickled in my eyes.

I had several of these pendants, all gifts from Jessica.

I'd treasured the pendants, but it turned out that they weren't gifts—they weren't even freebies from other purchases. They had just been decorations on gift boxes.

What a joke.

I hadn't even said anything, yet all the blame was put on me.

Was all this really my fault?

I broke down, questioning myself.

Was it my fault that I had been kidnapped, sold, and crippled?

Was it my fault that I hadn't known proper etiquette when I returned and was mocked?

Was it my fault that Julian had broken his own arms just to solidify his place in the family?

Was it my fault that I had lost my family?

The last vestiges of light disappeared behind the closed door.

In the pitch-black living room, I felt suffocated. The despair brought me back to the day I was sealed into the plaster.

That had been the first time I had felt warmth from my family after Julian had broken his arms. They treated me with affection, and I enjoyed the rare tenderness.

But just as I was tentatively drowning myself in their honey trap, Jessica's next words hit me like a hammer. "We need a real model so that Jules can win the competition."

But Julian's competition was for plasterwork!

"That's why we need a real person for the modeling. That's the only way the statue can look real, which will help Jules win. If you hadn't broken his arms, we wouldn't need to resort to this tactic!" she said.

No matter how much I begged them not to do it, the cold, gleaming hammer still came down on my legs.

In order to make the statue more striking, Mom broke my newly healed legs and twisted me into a grotesque position before sealing me in the plaster.

Trapped in eternal darkness, I suffocated to death, despaired and helpless.