2
I floated upstairs and saw Chloe in the
dressing room, the makeup artist touching up
her slightly smudged eye makeup.
She clutched Dad’s hand, her eyes glistening
with tears. “Dad, is Ashley really not coming?
She’s my sister. I really wanted her blessing
on my most important day.”
My dad, always stern and distant with me,
patted her shoulder and softly reassured her,
“She’ll be here. I’ve got Zach contacting her. I
won’t let you have any regrets.”
He found Zach in the hallway, his face grim.
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“Tell Ashley if she doesn’t come today, we’re
disowning her.”
“Dad, she’s not answering my texts, not even
Mom’s calls.” Zach said through gritted teeth.
“I knew it. Someone like her, she’s just
heartless. She probably only agreed to come
at first to mess with us, to ruin Chloe’s big
day.”
Today was Chloe’s big day. She was about to
marry the man she’d been dating for two
years – Finn.
Two years ago, I brought Finn home, and
Chloe fell for him instantly.
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I still remember how her eyes lit up when she
saw him. That night, she made up an excuse
to go for a walk with me.
She bought me a latte and linked her arm
through mine.
‘Ashley,” she said, her voice sweet, “I really
like Finn. You’re so amazing, you can
definitely find someone better. Why don’t you
just let me have him?”
I refused.
But back at school, not long after, Finn
dumped me.
<
When I pressed him for a reason, he finally
snapped, pushing me away. I landed hard on
the ground, scraping my palms. He didn’t
even flinch, just looked at me with disgust.
“Still trying to hide it? Even your family
couldn’t stand it anymore. They told me
everything.”
One morning, Mom had suddenly asked me to
go grocery shopping with her. My brother,
Zach, had taken the opportunity to pull Finn
aside and tell him some “truths” about me: I
was a terrible person, I stole money from our
family, I bullied classmates, I’d slept around
and had an abortion in college. Zach finished
with a sigh, “Ashley’s my sister, and I want to
defend her, but… I can’t just watch you fall
<
into this trap.”
My scraped palms still stinging, I sat on the
ground, looking up at Finn as he repeated
everything Zach had told him. When he
finished, I started to laugh.
He frowned. “What is there to laugh about?”
I shook my head, still laughing. “They’re
right.”
Finn hadn’t been that serious about me
anyway. And it was my own family who’d told
him how awful I was. My own flesh and blood.
When I was alive, they didn’t care about me.
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So of course, they didn’t know I was dead.
