Chapter 6

• The space that used to be mine was completely unrecognizable.
• My furniture was gone, from the bed I used to sleep in, the desk where I'd studied, the bookshelf filled with research texts I'd collected since I was fifteen. All of it had been ripped out and replaced with something that made my stomach turn.
• It was a trophy room now. But not for me.
• Display cases lined the walls, filled with Vanessa's accomplishments. Piano competition medals. Art show ribbons and medals from whatever prestigious Lycan Academy program she was pretending to attend overseas. A massive portrait hung on the far wall of Vanessa in a flowing white dress, looking like some kind of angel.
• I stood frozen in the doorway, and my wolf let out a low, mournful sound inside my chest. I had known they didn't love me the way they loved her. I had accepted that years ago. But this was something different. This was deliberate erasure. They wanted to pretend I had never existed at all.
• "Oh, you didn't know?" Kieran's voice came from behind me, dripping with satisfaction. "We converted it a few months ago. Vanessa needed more space for her things, and since you're married now, it's not like you need a room here anymore."
• I didn't turn around. I couldn't stop staring at that portrait of Vanessa, at her perfect smile and her perfect hair and her perfect life built on my suffering.
• "Where did my things go?" My voice came out flat and hollow.
• "Storage, I think. Or maybe the trash. Does it matter?" He laughed like this was funny. "It was all junk anyway. Old books and ugly furniture. Nothing worth keeping."
• My engineering textbooks. My research notes. My grandmother's quilt that she'd made me before she died. She was really the only person in this family who had ever truly loved me.
• Now all of it gone. Thrown away like garbage because Vanessa needed another room to display her trophies. Something cold and sharp settled in my chest, but I didn't let it show on my face. Instead, I turned to Kieran with soft eyes and a trembling lip.
• "You're right," I said quietly. "I don't belong here anymore. I've been so focused on myself that I forgot what matters." I took a shaky breath. "Mom's birthday is coming up. I want to do something special. I'm transferring one of my properties into her name, but I need her Pack Civil ID and Moon Registration Number to complete the claim. Could you get it for me? I want it to be a surprise."
• Kieran's eyebrows rose. He clearly hadn't expected me to roll over so easily. For a moment suspicion flickered across his face, but his desire to believe I was finally submitting won out.
• "Fine," he said. "Wait here." He disappeared down the hallway, and I let the wounded expression slide off my face like water. My wolf was pacing now, restless and ready.
• When Kieran returned with the small envelope, he actually looked pleased with me for once. "Don't mess this up," he said as he handed it over. "Mom deserves something nice from you for once."
• I tucked the envelope into my purse and gave him a grateful smile that didn't reach my eyes. "Thank you, Kieran. This means a lot."
• He nodded and headed back downstairs, probably eager to return to worshipping Vanessa's image on the television screen. I followed a few steps behind, my heels clicking against the marble floors.
• The dining room was exactly as I'd left it, my family was still clustered around the screen like Vanessa was delivering a sermon, hanging on her every word. The mess from the spilled soup was still on my chair. No one had bothered to clean it up.
• "There you are." Damien turned when he heard me approach, his brow furrowed with mild concern that I knew was just performance. "Are you feeling better? We should probably get that burn looked at when we get home."
• I didn't answer him. Instead, my eyes landed on the ice bucket at the center of the table, where an expensive bottle of champagne sat chilling. Dom Pérignon, which was my father's favorite, probably worth more than what most families spent on groceries in a year.
• I walked toward the table slowly.
• "Evelyn?" My mother's voice was sharp with suspicion. "What are you doing?"
• I picked up the champagne bottle and turned it over in my hands, studying the label. "This is the 2006 vintage, isn't it? Dad's been saving this for something special."
• "Put that down," my father commanded. "That bottle is for Vanessa's graduation celebration."
• Of course it was. Everything in this house was for Vanessa.
• I looked up at the screen, where my sister's face was frozen in confusion. Then I looked at my family, at the people who had chosen her over me at every turn, who had covered up her crimes, who had erased me from their home like I was a stain they needed to scrub out.
• "You know what?" I said softly. "I think tonight is special enough."
• I popped the cork.
• The sound echoed through the dining room like a gunshot. Before anyone could react, I upended the bottle over the entire spread of food. Champagne splashed across the roast lamb, soaked into the bread basket, pooled in the vegetable dishes. Thousands of dollars worth of Dom Pérignon, ruining thousands of dollars worth of catered dinner.
• My mother screamed. My father lunged to his feet, his face purple with rage. Julian's phone clattered to the floor. Kieran stood frozen with his mouth hanging open. And on the screen, Vanessa's perfect composure finally shattered.
• "What the hell is wrong with you?" my father roared.
• I set the empty bottle down gently on the ruined table and wiped my hands on a cloth napkin.
• "I used to wonder what was wrong with me," I said, my voice cutting through the chaos like a blade. "Why you could never love me the way you love her. Why nothing I did was ever good enough. Why you looked at me like I was a stranger who had wandered into your home."
• "Evelyn—" my mother started, but I kept talking.
• "I thought if I just tried harder. If I was smarter, kinder, more obedient. If I gave up my career and my dreams and my entire identity to become the perfect daughter, the perfect wife, maybe then you'd finally see me." I laughed softly, and there was no humor in it. "But that was never going to happen, was it? Because you don't want me to be part of this family. You never did."
• "That's enough," my father snarled. "You're embarrassing yourself."
• "No." I met his eyes without flinching, and I watched something flicker in his expression. It could be surprise, maybe, at the tone of my voice. They had never seen me like this. "I'm done embarrassing myself for people who would rather see me dead than treat me with basic decency."
• The words landed like a slap. Celeste's hand flew to her chest and Julian actually made eye contact with me for the first time all evening. Kieran's face went pale. On the screen, Vanessa couldn't even pretend to smile anymore.
• "I'm leaving now," I said calmly. "And I want you all to understand something."
• I picked up my purse and walked toward the door, my heels crunching over shattered glass from when the champagne bottle had knocked over a wine glass. I paused with my hand on the frame and looked back at them one last time. At this family that had broken me and discarded me and erased every trace of my existence from their home.
• "You didn't ruin me," I said. "I'm not the problem here. I never was. And I'm done pretending otherwise just to make you feel better about yourselves."
• I walked out before any of them could respond. Behind me, I heard my mother's outraged sobbing, my father's furious demands to know what had gotten into me, Kieran insisting that I had finally lost my mind. However, Damien's calm voice was promising to bring me back to apologize.
• I stepped out into the cool night air and pulled my mother's details from my purse.
• The first piece of my freedom, stolen right from under their noses while they were too busy worshipping Vanessa to notice. They thought I was throwing a tantrum. They thought I would come crawling back like I always did, apologetic and desperate for their approval.
• But as I walked outside the door, my wolf felt calm and certain inside my chest. Even she knew we were never setting foot in that house again.