When I woke, it was dark. Something felt… wrong. I got up slowly, my legs shaky. I made my way to my closet—and froze. The shelves were in disarray. My drawers were torn open. Boxes had been dumped out like someone had ransacked my room. And the velvet case that held my mother’s bracelet—gone
My pulse spiked. My stomach twisted with dread. I ran out of the room, heading for the backyard.
That’s when I saw her. Bianca. She stood by the pool in her swimsuit. Smiling. Wearing my bracelet.
The last thing my mother had ever given me before she died.
Something inside me snapped. I stormed over to her, grabbing her wrist with all the fury that had been building inside me for months.
“That’s mine,” I growled.
Bianca yanked her arm back, a defiant smirk twisting her lips.
“It looks better on me,” she taunted.
“You broke into my room.”
“So what?” she sneered.
The bracelet snapped in half during the struggle. The pieces scattered to the ground with a sickening crunch.
I saw red. The rage was all-consuming. I shoved her—hard.
She shrieked as she lost her balance, stumbling backward before plunging into the pool with a splash.
The sound echoed through the night. Water churned violently. And then… silence.
I stood there, breathing heavily, staring at the ruined pieces of my mother’s memory clutched in my hand. I didn’t regret it. Not for a second.
But then I heard her. Bianca. She was flailing in the pool, her arms waving wildly as she screamed for help. Her voice was panicked, desperate. “Help! Help! I can’t swim!”
I stood frozen, watching her flounder in the water. Her cries echoed, but I didn’t move. I didn’t offer her an ounce of sympathy.
She wasn’t a child. Not anymore. And in that moment, I realized I didn’t care if she drowned.
I watched Bianca flounder in the pool, her arms thrashing wildly. She was screaming for help, but I stood there, frozen. Every inch of me wanted to leave her there, to let her drown. After everything she’d done to me, she deserved it. The lies, the manipulation, the way she’d tormented me… I had no reason to save her.
But I couldn’t.
Troy would never forgive me if I let her die. He’d never forgive me if I let something happen to her, no matter what she’d done. I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk him turning on me, not when I was already hanging by a thread.