They Promised Every Birthday, They Kept None Chapter 10

They Promised Every Birthday, They Kept None Chapter 10

“Get out.”

“You blocked those calls,” he said.

“You hid everything. She died because of you. You don’t get to stay in this house.”

Ashley turned to Derek, crying.

He didn’t even look at her.

He just pulled his arm away.

“You took everything she had. Now give it back.”

Ashley was kicked out.

A few days later, she posted a long, tearful essay online, claiming she’d been a mistreated orphan, that Mia had always been jealous of her, and that the Carsons were blaming her for a death that

wasn’t her fault.

The internet didn’t believe her.

Soon, everything came out.

All the old photos. The birthday posts. The designer bags. The concert tickets.

People did the math.

[She was never the victim. She lived off Mia’s life, right down to her birthday.]

[The real daughter was bleeding in a rented room. The adopted one lived in a penthouse with a

Platinum Amex and all the love in the world.]

[Ashley isn’t innocent. She’s the one who profited from every single favor meant for Mia.]

The same photos Ashley had once flaunted now became evidence against her.

Every cake.

Every gift.

Every luxury item.

People asked under each one:

[Was that Mia’s birthday?]

[Was that Mia’s bracelet?]

[Was that bought with Mia’s life?]

Ashley was terrified.

But this time, there were no brothers to shield her.

No Derek to stand in front of her.

The Carsons didn’t fare much better.

Ethan’s business partners dropped him one by one.

Nobody wanted to work with a man who had driven his own sister to the

grave.

Liam’s design exhibition was canceled.

His fans turned on him overnight.

Derek lost his medical license under the weight of public scrutiny.

They all changed after that.

Ethan stopped going to the office.

Liam stopped drawing.

Derek moved into Mia’s old apartment.

The landlord had cleaned it, but the smell of medicine and blood never truly faded.

On the couch, the three rag dolls still sat there.

Derek sat in front of them every night and repeated the same word over and over.

“Sorry.”

Sometimes Ethan and Liam came over.

They would sit in the tiny living room in silence, three grown men surrounded by three little dolls.

And every year, they made the long drive to Lake Serenity on her birthday.

But retracing the path was only scratching the surface of an old wound.

You can’t find a twenty-year-old girl by going back to the place where she left forever.