Chapter 1
My twin sister shredded every piece of clothing I owned just to force me into a bikini for our 18th birthday party. She even held my private journal hostage, eager to humiliate me in front of our entire senior class. But she had no idea that the secret I was hiding under my heavy bathrobe was about to shatter her perfect reality.
The pounding music, splashing water, and carefree laughter of nearly two hundred teenagers came to an abrupt halt when a burst of microphone feedback sliced through the afternoon.
Standing at the edge of the pool was my twin sister, Olivia.
She looked flawless.
Her metallic gold bikini, perfectly bronzed skin, and effortless smile made her seem born for attention. Every camera was pointed at her.
I stood at the opposite end of the patio.
I wore a neon-green bikini. No one knew.
Because I had hidden it beneath a thick white bathrobe despite the scorching summer heat. It was the only piece of clothing Olivia hadn't cut to ribbons that morning.
Sweat trickled down my back. Not from the temperature. From fear.
"Harper!" Olivia called brightly into the microphone, waving a small leather book in the air. My journal.
Every face turned toward me.
"You've been hiding in that robe all afternoon," she mocked. "Take it off, or I start reading page forty-two to the crowd."
She pointed directly at me.
"What's wrong?" she asked sweetly. "Too embarrassed to let everyone see what you really look like?"
A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd.
Then one of her closest friends started clapping. Slowly. Mockingly.
Within seconds, the entire backyard echoed with the same chant.
"Take it off!"
"Take it off!"
"Take it off!"
To them, it was entertainment. A few boys even climbed out of the pool, walking toward me to rip the robe off themselves.
Inside the house, I caught my father's horrified reflection through the glass doors.
He was slamming his fists against the glass. He couldn't save me. Olivia had wedged a thick wooden dowel into the track, locking our parents inside.
I had nowhere left to hide.
I stood.
Every step toward Olivia felt impossibly heavy. The chanting grew louder. More phones appeared. People were already recording, expecting my ultimate humiliation.
I stopped only a few feet from my sister. She smiled victoriously. Certain she had already won.
Right then, a sudden gust of wind hit the patio BBQ grill, sending a thick plume of gray smoke and the acrid smell of burning rolling directly over the pool.
I looked into my sister's eyes. Then slowly untied the belt around my bathrobe.
The knot loosened.
The robe slipped from my shoulders...
Down my arms...
And fell silently onto the hot concrete.
A deafening gasp swept across the yard.
Someone dropped a glass. It exploded against the pool deck.
The chanting stopped instantly. The boys who were coming toward me froze. Every smile disappeared.
From my collarbone to my thighs, my body was a violent landscape of thick, raised burn scars. Deep keloids stretched across my ribs and wrapped around my back.
For twelve years, I had carried a map of fire across my body.
Olivia's confident smile vanished. The smell of the smoke and the sight of my ruined skin collided. Her face turned chalk-white as she staggered backward.
It was as though a repressed memory she had buried twelve years ago was suddenly detonating in her mind.
I didn't try to cover myself. I stepped forward and ripped the microphone from Olivia's trembling hand.
My voice echoed across the silent, smoke-filled backyard.
"You always wanted to know why Mom and Dad looked at me differently..."
I paused.
"You thought they loved me more."
Olivia couldn't answer.
She simply stared.
I looked around at every guest before returning my eyes to my sister.
"These aren't birthmarks."
"They aren't a disease."
I rested one hand against the largest scar across my chest.
"These scars are the reason my sister is alive."
Silence.
No one moved.
May you like
No one breathed.
Tears filled Olivia's eyes before she even realized she was crying.
