“No. 00061, grab your things. Someone’s waiting outside for you.”

“Sign here and you can leave.”

“You’re on parole for three months. During that time, your supervisor is responsible for keeping an eye on you. If you break the law again, you’ll be sent right back in.”

So... she could finally get out?

At last, a tiny ripple stirred in Vivienne Ashford’s eyes, eyes that had been as still and dead as stagnant water for far too long.

“Clang!”

The iron door shut slowly behind her, leaving only that thin, fragile figure standing there alone.

The summer sun came down hard, hot enough to make anyone miserable. But Vivienne tilted her face up anyway, almost greedily, letting the light spill across her skin. It had been too long—way too long—since she’d felt sunlight like this.

The glow fell over her pale little face, making her look even fairer, even smaller. Her long curled lashes trembled faintly, like startled butterfly wings.

Before long, a fine layer of sweat had formed across her face. The heat was fierce, almost scorching, but it gave her something real at last—the sharp, dizzying sense that she was alive again.

She was out.

Not far away, a black Maybach was parked under the shade of a tree. The window slid down, revealing a cold, expressionless face touched with obvious impatience.

“Vivienne!”

Vivienne lowered her head and finally looked over at the car and the man inside—her eldest brother, Ethan Ashford.

She really hadn’t expected Ethan to come pick her up.

Then again... right. Ethan Ashford was her parole supervisor. Of course he had to come.

She’d wasted so much of his time. He was probably pissed already.

The moment she got into the car, before Ethan could even say a word, Vivienne apologized out of pure reflex, her tone soft and practiced.

“Sorry for making you wait.”

She didn’t want to be sent back in.

And her supervisor had the power to do exactly that.

So for these three months, she had to keep her head down and get through them in one piece.

Getting blamed for stuff that wasn’t hers? Vivienne Ashford had been used to that for a long, long time.

Ethan Ashford had been about to say something a little softer, maybe even ask how she was doing, but her one sentence shut him up cold.

After a long pause, he finally spoke, face tense and voice low, "You don’t need to apologize. You’re my biological sister. Coming to pick you up is the least I should do."

"Thank you."

Vivienne’s reply was still polite, still neat, still distant.

The words sounded nice enough, sure.

Too bad she didn’t buy a single bit of it anymore.

When she had first been brought back to that house, she really thought they wanted her there.

Thought they were happy she was finally home.

Thought blood meant something.

Later, she found out the truth the hard way.

Nobody in that house had actually been waiting for her.

She was the real daughter, the one born into the Ashford family.

And yet every single one of them, even her own mother, liked the girl who had been switched at birth more.

Her mother had once told her, "Celeste grew up with us from the time she was little. We just need time to adjust. It’ll get better slowly. You’re our real daughter, after all. If you’re obedient and well-behaved, how could we not like you?"

So she listened.

She behaved.

She bent herself into whatever shape they wanted.

She tried so hard to please them, tried so hard to squeeze herself into that family like she belonged there.

But every time she came first in her grade, what she got wasn’t praise.

It was blame.

"Don’t talk about grades in front of Celeste. What are you trying to do, show off?"

"Celeste isn’t worse than you. She’s just in poor health."

"You’re hurting her feelings doing this."

After that, Vivienne didn’t dare bring up her grades anymore. Even when she ranked first, she felt no joy at all, not even a little.

Because no one would ever be happy for her.

Back then, she still tried to comfort herself.

She was the older sister.

She should give in to the younger one.

Her parents and brothers just hadn’t fully accepted her yet.

As long as she stayed good, stayed docile, one day they would treat her the same way they treated Celeste.

But after all that waiting, what she got in the end was this—

Celeste Ashford drove without a license, killed someone, and they wanted Vivienne to take the fall.