A dim light seeps through the crack in the door. My head feels unbearably heavy, as if it weighs a ton, and I can’t lift it. A sharp, splitting pain tears through my skull. Where am I?


    A sudden stab of pain in my lower abdomen jolts me back to reality, and only now do I realize—I’m completely naked. A sob rips from my chest, and my thoughts race like mad, colliding in a chaotic whirlwind, making it impossible to grasp onto a single one. With trembling hands, I fumble around, searching for something—anything—but there’s nothing. No clothes.


    Slowly, I slide off the couch onto the cold floor, my fingers desperately searching for my jeans and hoodie. My hands shake as I dig into the hoodie’s pocket and find my phone. The screen’s harsh glow stings my eyes.


    Seven in the morning.


    Fragments of last night flash in my mind—the club, the music, the swirling haze of bodies. But they offer no answers, no explanation for where I’ve been for the past four hours. My fingers struggle to pull on my jeans and hoodie, my breath ragged, uneven. I fumble through my contacts, frantically searching for Ana’s number.


    The dial tone blares in my ears, so loud it feels like it’s splitting my skull, amplifying the pounding pain in my head.


    “Adele?” Ana’s voice is distant, muffled, as if I’m hearing it through layers of water. “Are you getting ready?”


    “Ana…” My voice trembles, breaking on a sob. “I don’t know where I am…” Another sob shudders through me, cutting off my words. “I—I don’t understand… everything is spinning.” I swallow, my throat tightening around the words I can’t bring myself to say. I think…


    The thought refuses to form, strangled by an invisible knot that tightens with every second. A quiet, desperate sob racks my chest, stealing the air from my lungs.


    Ana’s voice, sharp with panic, startles me.


    “What?!” The sheer urgency in her tone makes me jump. “Hang on, I’m tracking your phone through the app! Just give me a second!”


    There’s a hint of uncertainty in her voice, but I can tell she’s trying to hide it—for my sake. She doesn’t want to scare me any more.


    A brief pause. Then her voice returns, calmer now, but firm, leaving no room for argument.


    “Got it. I see your pin. I’m on my way, do you hear me? Stay where you are. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t talk to anyone. Do you understand me? I’ll be there soon!”


    Her words bring a small relief, but the tears won’t stop. They keep pouring down my cheeks, hot and relentless.


    “Adele, are you listening?” Her voice rises slightly, and I jump at the way it amplifies the pounding in my head. I force myself to answer, even though forming words feels like dragging stones uphill.


    “Y-yes… I’m… here. Please… hurry.”


    “I’m coming, sweetheart. Just hold on. I’m almost there!”


    I end the call, my hand falling limply to my side. The world around me continues to blur, but the thought of Ana running to find me is the only thing keeping me tethered.


    The flashlight on my phone cuts through the darkness, casting wobbly beams across the room. It’s a small VIP lounge in a nightclub. I catch my breath. How did I get here? Why can’t I remember anything? And worst of all— who did this to me?


    I pull my knees up to my chest and shiver. The fabric of my hoodie is damp with unstoppable tears. My back pressed against the couch, I sit motionless, drowning in thoughts that threaten to consume me.


    I can’t believe how much my life has changed in just a month. Not long ago, I was happy—surrounded by the love of my parents, my sisters, my boyfriend, and my friends. And now, everything is in ruins.


    A month ago, my parents died, setting off a chain of horrific events that have left deep wounds on my heart—wounds that will never heal. My older half-sister has drowned herself in endless drinking, and now I’m here, lost in the unknown, with no idea what was done to me or where I am. How am I supposed to live with this? My thoughts tangle into knots, pulling me deeper into the darkness.


    A sudden noise. Sharp slaps against my face. A blinding light cuts through my closed eyelids, stinging like a blade. A face hovers above me, blurred and shifting.


    “Adele, please, wake up!” A rough, desperate voice reaches me, thick with worry. Hands clamp down on my shoulders, shaking me hard, refusing to let me slip away. “Somebody help me! Get her up!”


    “No…” I try to scream, but it comes out as nothing more than a strangled whisper.


    “Don’t be scared, sweetheart, it’s me. It’s Ana. You’re safe now. Let’s get you out of here.”


    Her arms wrap around me, tighter this time—warm, protective. Another pair of hands lifts me up, carrying me forward. Cold air slashes against my skin, sharp enough to drag me back to the edge of consciousness.


    “Put her in the backseat,” Ana orders, flinging the car door open and motioning to the guy holding me.


    The door slams shut with a heavy thud, sealing us inside. Ana turns to me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, her gaze scanning my face with raw concern.


    “What happened, sweetheart? Are you hurt? How do you feel?”


    Her fingers tighten around my frozen hand, as if trying to anchor me back to reality.


    “Take me home, please,” I manage to whisper, using the last of my strength.


    “Should we go to a doctor instead? You…” Ana flinches, her eyes catching the rips in my jeans, and she gasps, stifling a sob.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    “No, home… please…” I barely grip her hand in return, before slipping once again into darkness.


    Bright light seeps through the curtains. My body shivers uncontrollably, every limb aching. The awful nightmare I had last night still lingers in my mind, like it might just be a dream. But within a moment, I realize it’s no longer a dream. It’s my reality.


    Tears roll down my cheeks, my body wracked with quiet sobs. Inside, it feels like I’m twisted into a massive knot of pain, slowly but relentlessly tearing me apart from the inside. The buzz of my phone snaps me back to the present, pulling me from the endless torment of my thoughts. It’s been buzzing for over an hour now, messages pouring in one after the other. It’s probably because I’m missing from the main meeting, where they were supposed to announce who would take over the leadership role from my parents.


    Grabbing the phone with one hand, I wipe my face with the other, smearing the tears across my cheeks. I know I have to respond. These people don’t deserve my silence, no matter what’s happened to me.


    As I open the messages in the work chat, I freeze. For a moment, I forget how to breathe. Just then, the door slams open, and Ana bursts into the room. She sobs, furiously waving her phone in front of my frozen face. I realize she’s seen it too. She understands what it means.


    “It’s all Natalie! Steve called me,” Ana’s voice is trembling with anger and fear. “Natalie leaked the photos and videos! She’s been planning this with Patrick for a while, and apparently, they’re the ones who drugged you. Steve went to that club, trying to find any evidence that it was their doing, that you had nothing to do with it. But they wiped the cameras—they planned everything. The only thing left is the part they sent to the board of directors.” Her voice shakes, but there’s resolve in it despite the fear visible in her eyes. Taking a deep breath, Ana continues, almost shouting through her tears.


    “You have to leave! I’ll take you to your parents’ house. You can’t stay here.”


    “Natalie?” I can’t comprehend what Ana just told me. The pain in my head begins to throb, spreading from my chest. My heart refuses to believe it, but deep down, I already understand the truth. “No, that’s impossible! She wouldn’t do this to me! She couldn’t! Why would she do this?”


    “I think it’s to ruin your reputation in front of the board. After those compromising photos and videos, they won’t even consider you for the board. They won’t want to drag the company into such a scandal.”


    “All because of the company?” It feels like I’m shouting the words, but in reality, my lips barely move, and only faint gasps escape from my mouth.


    “Yes…” Ana whispers.


    “But she’s older than me, she would have gotten all of it anyway, at least while I’m still studying.”


    “The thing is, Steve talked to your father a couple of weeks before the accident. Your father made it clear that he saw neither Natalie nor me in the board, but only you. That’s why he was going to write the will with your mom, but he didn’t get the chance.” Ana’s voice is quiet but firm.


    “Why didn’t I know about this?” The words escape from my lips reflexively.


    “Only Steve knew, and somehow, Natalie found out. Steve told me about it today.” Ana’s voice shakes. “He was your father’s right hand and his best friend. I always thought of him as almost family. But now, I realize I can’t trust my judgment about people anymore. I didn’t notice the worst traitor, who was right beside me. Right under my nose.”


    I sit there, frozen, unable to move. My gaze locks onto a single point. A deafening ringing fills my head, so loud and piercing that it feels like my ears are blocked. I try to focus, but everything around me turns into a blurry, indecipherable mess. Through the noise, I hear Ana’s words, but their meaning slips away from me. I don’t know how much time has passed, but when I come to, I’m in the backseat of a car. Ana is driving me somewhere. Where exactly, I don’t care. If someone had asked, I would’ve chosen the cemetery. What’s the point in moving a corpse to another place? All that’s left of me is a shadow of who I once was. I’m no longer a person; I’m just a shell.


    No, I didn’t die. I was killed. Cruelly, hypocritically, and greedily.


    Was life preparing me for this? To be honest, absolutely not. If a month ago someone had asked me to write an essay on “the worst outcome of my life,” I wouldn’t have come up with a scenario like this. I would’ve probably chosen an incurable disease slowly draining the life out of me—that seemed like the scariest thing. But now, I would be grateful for it. Grateful to the universe for allowing me to leave that way, without making me do everything myself.


    “My face felt numb, and all I could feel was a wet spot under my right cheek on the upholstery of the car seat. Maybe it was my tears, or maybe saliva. I don’t know. My body wasn’t obeying me; it simply refused to move, and I couldn’t blame it for that. I had failed it, just like I had failed my soul—if it could even still be called that.”


    Thoughts kept dragging me back to Natalie. How could I not have seen it? How did I miss what now seemed so obvious? There had always been something in her eyes that I never paid attention to.


    Perhaps it was the love I felt for her that acted like a veil over my eyes, preventing me from seeing the truth. Now, when I had nothing left—no emotions, no anger, no hatred—I finally saw everything clearly. I saw it all.


    We were half-sisters on my mother’s side, but now, Natalie felt like a stranger to me, like I had never known her at all. She was the oldest of the three of us: Natalie was the eldest, I was the middle child, and Ana was the youngest. Natalie last saw her father when she was only four and a half years old, and that memory was tainted with terror, a fear she carried with her her entire life. She once told me that he had tried to do something monstrous to her. They say children at that age forget traumatic events, but Natalie remembered everything: how her body tensed with fear, how every movement felt wrong, how those moments were burned into her memory like a film reel that could never be erased, no matter how hard she tried.


    “When Natalie shared this with me, her tears flowed like a bottomless stream of pain. She trembled so violently that it seemed she would suffocate. My heart broke for her, but I didn’t know how to help. The worst didn’t happen—our mom came home just then and stopped the bastard. Sarah, our mom, defended her daughter with the fury of a tigress, for which he brutally beat her, leaving her lying in a pool of her own blood. Natalie said that even now she could clearly draw that horrifying moment as if it happened yesterday. Mom, gathering her last strength, left that night, grabbing a little clothing and food, leaving that man in his drunken sleep in a pool of his own vomit. Natalie never knew if he tried to find them or simply erased them from his life.


    The next year was no less hard for Natalie, leaving painful memories. Mom barely made ends meet: almost all the money she earned went toward the rent for a tiny apartment. There was barely enough food, and Natalie often recalled how the terrible hunger brought them to the brink of exhaustion. Even the walls seemed cold and hostile, soaked with despair and hopelessness. In the evenings, Natalie would hear quiet sobs from behind the closed door, as mom fought helplessness. It was unbearable for her to see that she couldn’t provide her daughter with even the most basic needs.


    The fear of returning to her old job, where Natalie’s father might find her, and the impossibility of getting a new one due to the need to constantly care for her sick daughter weighed on mom like a heavy burden, one that seemed impossible to bear. She tried as hard as she could, but the loneliness and lack of any support broke her. Mom, who had grown up in an orphanage, never knew what family warmth felt like. Her only support was her best friend, but even she could only help to a limited extent, as she herself struggled with life’s hardships.”


    “But a year later, their lives changed drastically: mom met our dad, Torres. A young and promising architect, he fell hopelessly in love with mom and immediately loved Natalie as his own daughter. They met at a banquet, where mom worked part-time to make ends meet. That meeting turned out to be fateful. Dad wholeheartedly strived to become the best husband and father. Just a year after their wedding, I was born, and a year later, Ana came into the world. Our parents loved us dearly, surrounding us with care and support. Dad never gave Natalie a reason to doubt his fatherly love.


    So why, after going through all of that and having everything she had, did she do this to me? Though at that moment, I didn’t care anymore—I just wanted to end it all, once and for all.”