The Fake Heiress Cured My Depression, And Led Me to My Death

Three years after I was diagnosed with severe depression, my parents still couldn't bring themselves to leave me alone.

Three years ago, my adopted sister took my photos and used them for online dating. The man on the other end turned out to be a stalker.

He mistook me for her, and he assaulted me.

After it happened, my parents threw her out of the house.

Mom nailed every window in the house shut. For three whole years, she never let me go near one.

Dad quit his job to stay home with me, and locked away every knife in the kitchen.

Then, three years later, my sister came back holding a counseling license.

She knelt at the door and cried, saying everything that had happened was her fault.

She said she'd thrown herself into studying psychology all those years for one reason: to come back and heal me, to make it right with her own hands.

In the end, my parents let her in.

She said sealing the windows for three years had only pushed me deeper into despair.

So Mom pried the nails out and pushed every window wide open.

Dad took the kitchen knives that had been locked away for three years and put them back where they belonged.

"You have to learn to press those dark thoughts down on your own."

Until the last session of desensitization therapy.

My sister called back the man from three years ago and locked the two of us inside my bedroom.

I pounded on the door, begging them to let me out.

Through the wood, I heard her murmur:

"Just get through this one last time, and everything will be fine."

My parents let out a sigh.

"That's right."

"Once we get past this, we'll all be free."

Tears in my eyes, I slowly let my hand slide off the door.

Looking at the wide-open window, I gave up struggling entirely.

The door finally opened, and the man dressed himself, taking his time.

Before he left, he glanced back at me, his smile full of malice.

"You made such a scene back then, got me sentenced to ten years, and in the end your mom and dad signed a letter of forgiveness and paid to get me out anyway."

"Guess I treated you too well three years ago. After all this time, you still wanted me back."

He pinched a fistful of my already bruised waist and narrowed his eyes, satisfied.

"I took some photos for my buddies. They're dying with envy. One of these days I'll bring them along to come see you."

With that, he laughed loudly and shoved the door open on his way out.

The next second, my parents rushed in almost immediately.

The first thing Mom saw was me sitting on the edge of the bed.

My clothes were a mess, every inch of bare skin covered in marks.

But I wasn't crying, and I wasn't making a scene.

I only stared blankly at that window she had reopened with her own hands.

The color drained from Mom's face in an instant.

She hurried over to me, her voice trembling.

"Bev?"

"Why are you why are you so quiet?"

I didn't answer.

My sister suddenly clapped her hands behind me.

"It worked!"

She looked at our parents, her face bright with delight.

"This proves the desensitization therapy worked!"

"Bev can face the old trauma calmly now. She's accepted what happened!"

"She's recovered!"

Mom froze for a couple of seconds.

The fear that had filled her eyes moments ago slowly drained away, replaced by the wild, relieved joy of a weight lifted.

"Really?"

She let out a sharp breath.

"Thank goodness. These three years, you've dragged us down so"

She cut off halfway, as if she'd suddenly realized something, and clamped her mouth shut.

The room went quiet for a beat.

But Dad acted as if he hadn't heard a thing, patting my shoulder with obvious relief.

"As long as you've come out of it, that's what matters."

"Since you can face the past calmly now, and it really was your sister who healed you, then let's leave the old business here."

He glanced at my sister, whose eyes had gone red.

"She hurt you back then, but now she's the one who brought you back. Call it even."

"From now on, nobody brings up what happened three years ago."

"And don't keep holding it over her, forcing her to live her whole life in guilt."

I kept my eyes lowered and said nothing.

My sister's eyes rimmed red in an instant.

She bit her lip, watching me warily.

"Bev, you still haven't forgiven me, have you?"

"If seeing me makes you miserable, then I'll leave today."

"I'll never come back again. You'll never have to see my face."

She turned as if to go.

Mom panicked at once and grabbed her.

"What nonsense is this!"

Dad's eyes snapped to me too, his brow furrowing.

"Beverly Fox, back then we were afraid that seeing her would remind you of what happened, so we drove her out of the house for three whole years."

"She had a home she couldn't return to. She endured three years out there all alone. That's suffering enough."

"You're all better now. What's left that can't be put behind us?"

Mom gripped Hilary Fox's hand tightly and pressed:

"Hurry up and tell your sister you don't blame her anymore."

Something inside my chest was being crushed, bit by bit.

I suddenly thought back to three years ago.

The night they threw my adopted sister out of the house, Mom held me and cried until dawn.

She said:

"I only kept her back then so you'd have a companion. I never imagined I'd be raising an ungrateful snake that would destroy my own flesh and blood."

"Beverly, I will never forgive her as long as I live."

Dad locked every kitchen knife away in a cabinet, and he said too:

"Dad needs you to live well. I swear I will never let you be hurt again as long as I live."

So a whole lifetime turned out to be only three years.

I lifted my head slowly.

Hilary stood there, eyes red, waiting for my answer.

Mom and Dad watched me too, tense.

As if the moment I refused to speak, this family could never truly be whole again.

I looked at them for a long time.

In the end, I dragged the corners of my mouth into a numb curve.

"Fine. I forgive you."

Hilary's tears spilled over at once.

Mom pulled her straight into her arms.

"I knew it!"

"You two are sisters, after all. What hurdle could ever be too big for that?"

Dad finally smiled too.

"That's more like it."

"From now on, our family starts fresh."

Our family.

I bowed my head, looking at the bruises still fading on my wrist, and said nothing.

Mom had already flung the closet open, delighted.

"Oh, that's right, today happens to be your sister's birthday."

"We were worried you weren't doing well, so we didn't dare tell you."

She picked out a dress and handed it to me, her tone light and breezy, as if nothing at all had just happened.

"Everything's fine now."

"Go get yourself ready."

"Tonight we'll all go celebrate your sister's birthday."

My whole body went rigid.

The color drained clean from my face.

Three years ago, the thing that destroyed my entire life was also a birthday party.

Back then, I'd only just been reunited with my parents.

After years lost and apart, I'd finally made it back to my birth parents. I'd gotten into my dream university, won a full-ride scholarship, and I even had a brilliant, top-of-his-class boyfriend that everyone envied.

I truly believed my life was only just beginning.

But the night of my sister's birthday, she secretly arranged to meet a man at a hotel, someone she'd been online dating for months, keeping it from everyone.

And the whole time she'd been talking to him online, she'd been using my photos.

The moment that man showed up, he was certain I was the one he'd been chatting with for months.

He dragged me into a room by force.

By the time everyone found me, all they saw was a wrecked, ravaged room, and me, broken and undone.

My sister stood in the crowd, her face bone-white, and to the very end she never dared speak the truth.

So everyone believed it. That I had been fooling around with a strange man behind my boyfriend's back.

My boyfriend broke up with me in front of everyone, and not long after, he left the country.

The rumors at school spread everywhere.

The same people who once envied me began to whisper and point, and even my teachers looked at me differently.

I couldn't bring myself to set foot on campus again. In the end, all I could do was drop out.

It wasn't until the whole thing blew up beyond control that my sister finally broke down and dropped to her knees in front of me.

"Bev, I'm sorry."

"I was so insecure that I used your photos for online dating. I only wanted to meet the person I loved on the happiest day of my life, so I invited him to my birthday party."

"I truly didn't know he was a stalker, and I had no idea he'd mistake me for you"

She sobbed and apologized to me, over and over.

But I only looked at her.

That one word of hers. "Didn't."

What it destroyed was my university, my love, my reputation, and the whole life that should have been mine.

Her apology couldn't buy any of it back.

That night, I broke down completely.

Mom got up in the middle of the night and found me sitting in the kitchen with a knife in my hand. She burst into tears on the spot.

The next day, Dad threw my sister out of the house.

Right in front of me, they struck her from the family records.

Mom held me and promised, again and again.

"Beverly, from now on she has nothing to do with this family."

Dad's eyes were red too as he said:

"You'll never see her again. You never have to be afraid anymore."

But now.

Today, three years later.

Mom stood in front of me holding a dress, urging me to go to her birthday party.

When she saw me shaking uncontrollably from head to toe, the smile on her face finally faltered.

She reached out to steady me.

"Maybe we should just skip it today"

"No."

But my sister cut her off at once.

She looked earnestly at our parents.

"Bev is afraid right now precisely because the memories from three years ago haven't truly faded."

"The more she avoids it, the worse it gets. She has to go back into a similar environment. That's part of exposure therapy too."

Dad was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Right."

"We've come this far. We can't give up halfway."

Before I could get a word out, they had already taken hold of me from either side and led me into the banquet hall.

The door had barely opened when a wave of cheers erupted inside.

"The birthday girl is finally here!"

"Happy birthday!"

"Come on, come on, the guest of honor's arrived!"

Everyone laughed and clapped, calling out my sister's name at the top of their lungs.

But standing in the doorway, when I made out the faces inside, the blood in my whole body went cold.

This wasn't at all what my parents had told me, that only a few close relatives and friends had been invited.

The room was packed with people, almost all of them from the same school as me three years ago.

Former classmates from my own class.

There were even people who, back then, had watched with their own eyes as I was led out of that room.

My breath caught, and I instinctively stepped back.

Just then, the crowd suddenly parted.

A man walked out from the very back.

I froze where I stood.

Lee Harding. My first love.

The same man who, three years ago, after everyone believed I'd betrayed him, walked away from me without a backward glance.

Three years apart, and he'd grown so much more mature.

Familiar enough that I recognized him in an instant, and yet strange, as though I'd never known him at all.

Before I could even react, my sister had already gathered up the hem of her dress and thrown herself into his arms like a butterfly.

Lee slipped an arm around her waist as naturally as breathing.

At once, a chorus of teasing whoops rose all around them.

"Three years together, and he's finally willing to bring the little bride-to-be out to meet us!"

"Little bride-to-be? After today she'll have to be called Mrs. Harding, won't she?"

"Lee's already got the ring ready. Who doesn't know he's proposing today!"

Three years of dating.

Something exploded inside my skull.

An impossible thought surfaced in my mind, and the pain set me shaking in convulsions I couldn't stop.

My sister, nestled in Lee's arms, listened to it all, gave a bashful little smile first, then let her eyes go red.

"Today is the happiest day of my life."

"So there's someone very important to me that I want here to witness it, with her own eyes."

She finished and turned to look at me.

The color drained from my face all at once.

"No"

But she was already striding over, seizing my wrist in one hand.

I shrank back with everything I had, my legs too weak to hold me, until I was nearly curled up on the floor.

My sister only gripped me tighter.

"Sis, don't be scared."

"Everyone here is someone you used to know."

She hauled me up off the floor by force and dragged me, step by step, into the crowd.

"It's time you faced them again too."

The bustling ballroom went abruptly silent.

Everyone finally got a clear look at my face.

The next second.

Those smiles froze, bit by bit, on every face in the room.

Contempt, disgust, and whispers no one bothered to hide.

"How does she still have the nerve to show up?"

"After that whole scene three years ago, the depression, the suicide attempt, all to win Lee back, she's not still trying to cling to him, is she?"

Cold ran through me, the voices drifting farther and farther away, while something clamped down on my chest and wouldn't let go.

My sister, eyes red, came to stand in front of me.

"Sis, I know about what you and Lee had before."

"But today, I really do want your blessing."

Her voice caught.

"Only if you bless us with your own mouth will I believe you've truly let the past go, that you're truly better!"

I opened my mouth.

But my throat was stopped up, and not a single word would come.

Then Lee let out a cold laugh.

"Forget it."

The look he turned on me carried disgust he didn't bother to conceal.

"A blessing from someone like her would only feel dirty to me."

My head snapped up.

Lee stared at me and spoke, one word at a time.

"Actually, I should thank you."

"If that thing hadn't happened three years ago, I'd never have seen you for what you are, and I'd never have met the person truly worth loving."

He paused, as if he wouldn't be satisfied until he watched the words cut into me.

"You letting me off the hook is what gave me the chance to meet the one I really love."

A wave of jeering broke out around us.

And there, under everyone's eyes, Lee dropped to one knee.

The moment the ring box opened, my whole body locked up.

That ring.

Three years ago, hunched over a table in the library, I had drawn it stroke by stroke, over and over, in my notebook.

A band that curled like a vine, with a tiny round diamond set at its center.

Back then Lee had snatched the notebook from me and said with a grin:

"When we graduate, I'll have it made exactly like this, and I'll slip it on your finger myself."

Now he really had made it.

And with his own hands he had slipped it onto my sister's ring finger.

My sister threw herself into his arms in tears, and the whole room was applauding.

Then she suddenly turned and ran over to me, lifting her hand to show me the ring.

"Sis, look."

"Lee says this design means something really special."

She threw her arms around me.

"Thank you for making this happen for us."

My body was as stiff as a block of wood.

Then she leaned close to my ear, her voice so low only I could hear it.

"Oh, by the way."

"Mom and Dad told you I got kicked out and struggled for three years, right?"

She let out a soft little laugh.

"Actually, they shipped me overseas the second month. Tuition, an apartment, living expenses I never went without a thing."

"These three years have been wonderful for me."

My pupils shrank to pinpoints.

My sister added another line, taking her sweet time.

"And that man."

"You really think Mom and Dad had the pull to get him out that fast on their own?"

"It was Lee who arranged it."

"He was afraid you'd keep clinging to us over what happened three years ago. So he said to make you face it head-on, once and for all get it out of your system and stop hanging on to us."

The last thread in my mind snapped with a roar.

I shoved her away hard.

She stumbled back two steps and suddenly crumpled to the floor.

She clutched her stomach, her face gone white.

"It hurts"

"Lee, my stomach hurts so much our baby"

Lee's expression changed in an instant.

He rushed over and swept her into his arms. When he looked up at me again, his eyes held nothing but fury.

"Are you insane?!"

"You didn't know she's pregnant?!"

I stood frozen where I was.

Mom lost it too. She charged at me and slapped me across the face.

My head snapped to the side.

"Your sister already apologized to you! Why won't you let her go?!"

"You won't be happy until you've driven her to her death, is that it?!"

The room dissolved into chaos.

"That's so vicious."

"He's proposing to her today, and she has to make a scene like this."

The voices bore down on me from every direction.

Before Lee carried my sister out, he suddenly turned back and looked at me.

There was a chilling cruelty in that single glance.

But I couldn't see anything clearly anymore. The ringing in my ears grew louder and louder.

The figures in front of me twisted, one face after another.

The birthday party three years ago. The birthday party three years later.

Lee's retreating back. The ring on my sister's hand.

My body suddenly lost all control, warmth sliding down between my legs.

The roar of the room fell dead silent in an instant. Everyone sucked in a sharp breath and covered their noses in disgust.

I stood there under all those eyes, my body seized up so rigid I'd lost control of it, unable to hold on to even the last shred of dignity.

Everything went black, and I collapsed heavily to the floor.

When I woke again, I was lying in a hospital.

Outside the door, Mom and Dad's voices carried in, clear as day.

Mom sighed.

"That night three years ago, I saw Beverly sitting in the kitchen holding a knife. It scared the soul right out of me."

"She hated Hilary so much back then. How could we dare keep Hilary in the house? All we could do was send her overseas to study first."

I lay there with my eyes open, staring at the ceiling.

So the whole cutting-her-off thing had just been a show, staged for me to see.

Mom went on.

"I really thought after three years, Beverly would be better. Who knew she'd still try to hurt Hilary yesterday, in front of all those people."

"Hilary's about to marry Lee, and she's carrying a baby. She has to stay close to us."

Dad was quiet for a moment.

"Then the only thing we can do is send Beverly away."

"But she'd be all on her own. I can't rest easy with that."

Mom hesitated.

Then Dad said,

"Then let her marry that man. That way someone will look after her for the rest of her life."

My fingertips went ice-cold in an instant.

"Back then he was tricked too Hilary used Beverly's photos, and he thought Beverly was his girlfriend the whole time. That's how it ended up such a mess."

"When you get right down to it, you can't put all the blame on him."

Mom actually murmured her agreement.

The strength drained out of my whole body, my fingertips digging hard into my palms.

Toward evening, the nurse said someone had come to see me.

Lee Harding walked into the room, his face like ice.

"I hear your parents are planning to marry you off to that man. Take my advice and go along with it quietly. Get married, and soon."

He looked at me and said, one word at a time,

"That way you'll finally settle down, stay away from Hilary, and stop hanging on to us."

I said nothing the whole time, but my silence seemed to enrage him.

"Beverly, how much longer are you going to keep this up?"

"Hilary's about to be my wife. She's carrying my child."

"Are you going to drag out this depression and these suicide threats until you've ruined everyone's happiness?!"

Before he left, he threw out one last cold line.

"No matter how much you act out, I'm still going to marry her."

"Beverly, I'm begging you. If you don't want to live, then go die. Just let the rest of us go, okay?!"

I watched his back and said softly,

"Fine."

He seemed to hear it, but his steps didn't slow.

That night, when Mom and Dad came back, I'd already changed my clothes and combed my hair.

I sat at the edge of the bed, bright-eyed, smiling.

Mom grabbed my hand, delighted.

"Bev, are you are you really better?"

I nodded gently. "I'm better."

Just then my sister came in with that man.

He was holding flowers, and Hilary's whole face glowed with anticipation.

"Sis, he wants to propose to you."

"Lee and I have set our date too. Why don't we get married on the same day?"

Mom and Dad watched me nervously.

Mom was about to say something, but I spoke first, smiling.

"Sure."

Everyone froze.

I said it again.

"I'll marry him."

Mom's eyes went red in an instant.

"Wonderful."

"From now on, our whole family can start over."

On the wedding day, the two hotels were only a street apart.

Hilary stood beside Lee Harding in her gown, Mom and Dad at her side, every face wreathed in smiles.

And as I looked at them, my heart didn't ache at all.

When it was my turn to leave, Dad placed my hand in that man's.

Behind him trailed a pack of groomsmen with leering faces.

Mom fixed my veil, and at last a flicker of reluctance crossed her eyes.

"Bev, have a good life from now on."

But I suddenly turned my head and looked at them one last time.

"Dad. Mom. Goodbye."

For some reason, Lee Harding's chest clenched hard.

He watched me being led away by that crowd, glancing back again and again, and almost turned to ask my sister,

"That man is he really reliable?"

But the next second, he tugged at the corner of his mouth in self-mockery.

Why should he care anymore. Whatever became of Beverly from now on, she'd brought it on herself.

The ceremony went on, and the officiant told them to exchange rings.

Lee Harding had just picked up that ring, the one that had once lived in my dreams,

when a huge crash came from across the street.

Screams broke out downstairs.

"Something's happened!"

"The bride at the hotel across the street jumped!"