The Day He Learned the Truth, I Was Already Dead Chapter 06

The Day He Learned the Truth, I Was Already Dead Chapter 06

He had said it back at the orphanage, after he’d found me bruised up from fighting other kids and started cleaning my cuts like it mattered.

Even now, I still remembered the look in his eyes. Back then, I’d really believed I was getting a home, a family who truly loved me. I’d been happy all day, even laughing in my dreams.

Then came the first time Ava framed me. She’d cried to Brandon, swearing I’d ripped her dress.

He hadn’t yelled. He’d just crouched down and said patiently, “You’re the elder one. You can’t bully your little sister.”

The second time, Ava came home from school a mess, covered in bruises. She threw herself into his arms sobbing, claiming I’d had people beat her up.

Brandon’s brows had knitted tight, and when he looked at me, there was a new edge of annoyance. He punished me by refusing to let me eat for an entire day.

The third time, Ava “jumped” from a building at school. After they saved her, she opened her eyes and dropped to her knees in front of me.

She slammed her forehead to the floor over and over. “Sylvia, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have scored higher than you. You pushing me was my fault. I deserved it!” As a result, Brandon exploded and locked me in a dark basement for a full week.

The more Ava accused me, the more his eyes changed. That warmth drained out completely, until all that was left was hatred.

Recalling the painful past, I floated in the air with a relieved smile.
Maybe death really was a kind of freedom.

In front of me, Brandon gently wiped Ava’s tears and spoke like she was his whole world. “Hey, hey. I promised I’d take you shopping today, and we’re going.”

Then he added, soft and indulgent, “Since Sylvia’s still acting wild, we’ll leave her out there for one more month, okay?”

Ava’s big eyes brightened, and she laughed through tears like she’d just been handed a crown.

I followed them into a high-end mall. The second we walked in, I forgot everything else. I stared around in disbelief, taking in the lights, the storefronts, the gleaming floors.

So places like this really existed, just like those videos on a phone.

This was my first time here. At the orphanage, even a trip into the city had felt like a fantasy. A place like this might as well have been another planet.

Later, after Brandon “found” me, I never got to come either. Ava once accused me of stealing her purse, and Brandon decided I was “vain” and needed to be taught a lesson, so he never gave me a dime.

I was so busy absorbing the world around me that I did not even notice Ava’s arms were full, shopping bags stacked so high she could barely carry them.

Brandon looked distracted, walking the wrong way more than once, like his mind kept slipping. Eventually he stopped in front of an ultra-luxury jewelry boutique.

He hesitated, then went in. Somewhere in his head, a thought flickered: he should buy Sylvia a gift. She’d suffered enough these past years.

If she came home and behaved, if she stopped being “like that,” he’d spoil her like a princess. That was what he told himself.

He picked up a full diamond set and told the clerk to wrap it.

Ava blinked, confused. “Brandon, why pink? I don’t like that color.”

His eyes darkened, and his voice went flat. “Sylvia likes it.”

He remembered it clearly. On the first day he took me home, I’d hugged a pink bunny so tightly I refused to let go.

My soul trembled, sharp with disbelief. He was buying it for me.

But… I was gone.

I had no clue why I couldn’t leave his side. Any time I drifted too far, it was like an invisible hook yanked me right back to Brandon.

I let out a long breath. There was nothing I could do. I could only follow him

While they shopped, Brandon’s phone kept lighting up with calls from the yacht staff. He declined the first few, then blocked the number when they wouldn’t stop.

Then a new number came through. “Hello? Are you Sylvia Wilcox’s family? We can’t reach her, and he listed you as her emergency contact.”

“It’s about the cemetery deposit. She paid a few hundred dollars, but her identity was revoked so we can’t finalize anything.”

“Could you come pick it up?”