Chapter 7

• I didn’t know how long I’d been walking. I didn’t even know where I was going.
• The city’s noise felt like it belonged to another world.
• I walked barefoot in my pajamas down the sidewalk, ignoring the stares.
• My world had shrunk to a gaping hole in my chest. I could still hear the long, unbroken beep of Grace’s monitor screaming in my head.
• Grace was dead.
• That thought chewed me up over and over.
• We’d promised to leave together. To go somewhere without pain, without torture.
• In the end, she’d gone first and left me here to face this world alone.
• I sat on a bench in a park.
• Dusk turned the sky orange, just like when Grace handed me that note.
• I reached into the hidden lining of my bra and pulled out the note she’d left me.
• There was a tiny line on the back.
• “Ella, go to the bottom drawer of my desk. The password is your birthday. Take what’s inside and live.”
• My birthday?
• What day is my birthday?
• Mom said they found me in winter and brought me home on New Year’s Day, so my birthday became January first.
• A new life. What a sick joke.
• Grace’s desk drawer… My heart clenched.
• I’d seen that drawer. Grace had guarded it like it had treasure. She had never let anyone touch it.
• What the hell was inside?
• An urge slammed into me.
• I needed to go back and get whatever was in there. That was the hope she left me to survive.
• I got up from the bench and ran home, trusting my memory.
• By the time I stood at the mansion door again, night had fallen.
• Lights blazed inside, but it was quiet.
• I pushed open the front door. It hadn’t been shut all the way.
• The living room was a wreck—papers still scattered. Nobody had cleaned up.
• Mom and Dad weren’t on the first floor.
• Holding my breath, I tiptoed up to the second floor.
• The master bedroom door was shut tight. There was no sound coming from inside.
• Grace’s door stood open. The room was empty too.
• They’d probably taken her body away.
• I rushed into Grace’s room, went to her desk, crouched, and found the drawer with the combination lock.
• The password was my birthday….
• With shaking hands, I punched in 0101.
• The lock didn’t open.
• No? That can’t be right.
• My brain spun.
• How would Grace know my real birthday? I didn’t even know it.
• Wait.
• I remembered the time I’d had a high fever and Martha had secretly taken me to the community clinic.
• The doctor had asked my age and birthday. Martha couldn’t answer.
• Grace, sitting in her wheelchair, had passed the doctor a note.
• He’d read it, then filled out my info on the chart.
• Could it be…?
• A thought surged up.
• Had Grace known where I came from? Had she known all along?
• I shut my eyes and searched my life for any other special date besides 0101.
• Nothing.
• My life was a flat line. No ripples, except when they dragged me off to ‘treat’ Grace.
• Wait! The orphanage!
• The paperwork said I was sent to the orphanage fifteen years ago.
• That year, Mom and Dad’s small factory had gone under. They’d been drowning in debt.
• Grace had been diagnosed with a heart defect.
• Then Mom got pregnant.
• My mind went blank.
• I wasn’t picked up off the street. I was sent away.
• I was born just to be thrown out, to be cashed in for Grace’s treatment.
• So my birthday…
• I opened my eyes and punched in another set of numbers on the lock.
• Grace’s birthday.
• 0912.
• Click. The lock opened.
• My heart almost stopped.
• She’d used her own birthday as the password to my “new life.”
• I pulled the drawer open.
• Inside were only a plush bunny and an MP3 player.
• A small key hung around the bunny’s neck.
• I picked up the MP3 player, put on the earbuds, and hit play.
• After a burst of static, Grace’s voice came through.
• Not her usual voice—a tear-choked confession.
• “Ella, if you’re hearing this, I might already be gone.”
• She paused. “I overheard Mom and Dad talking. I heard it a long time ago.”
• “I know everything,” she revealed.
• “I know you weren’t found,” Grace continued. “Mom gave birth to you. You’re my real sister.”
• “That year, they sold you to pay for my first surgery,” she confessed.
• “Later, when they had money again, they pretended they didn’t know and ‘adopted’ you back from the orphanage.”
• I stared at the MP3 player, trying to take it all in.
• “They treated you like my walking blood bank and organ backup,” Grace said.
• “I’m sorry… Ella.” Her voice shook with guilt. “I was too much of a coward… I didn’t dare say it out loud….”
• “I was scared they’d throw you away again. I was scared they’d… they’d kill you….”
• Grace took a deep, shuddering breath. “I could only protect you in my own way.”
• “I saved money in secret and rented you a small place under my name,” she said.
• “The key is hanging on the bunny.”
• I stared at the key.
• “I also got you a new debit card. It’s hidden inside the bunny.”
• My hands tightened around the bunny. I could feel the card inside.
• “It has all the allowance I’ve saved up over the years.”
• Grace’s voice softened.
• “It’s not much, but it’ll keep you going for a while.”
• Then she added gravely, “Ella, leave this place and never come back.”
• Tears formed in my eyes as the recording kept playing.
• “Forget us. Forget everything here.”
• Her voice held me to my spot, clinging to every word.
• “Promise me you’ll keep living,” she said.
• “Live for me, too. Live for both of us.”
• At the end of the recording came a gut-wrenching scream from Grace.
• “I’m sorry… my sister.”
• Tears flooded my eyes.
• I curled up on the floor, clutching the bunny, sobbing until I was shaking and couldn’t breathe.
• So she knew everything.
• In this whole damn world, the only person who truly cared about me, who fought like hell to protect me, was my Grace.
• And I didn’t even get to see her one last time.
• Just as I was drowning in grief, the master bedroom door opened.