My Rescue Was Their Reunion, My Hell Was Their Project Chapter 02

My Rescue Was Their Reunion, My Hell Was Their Project Chapter 02

Guilt. Worry. Fear. I expected at least one.

I got nothing.

Julian pinched the bridge of his nose, almost amused. “Three years in Ravens Hollow, and you still haven’t learned anything? All it taught you was how to fake being sick for sympathy.”

He flicked blood from his cuff without looking at me. “We’ve seen your medical reports. You’re perfectly healthy. What, you bit down on a blood capsule and put on a show? You think that’s enough to fool us?”

“I didn’t — it was real, I swear —” I was shaking my head, looking past him at Arthur, then Nolan. Searching.

Arthur looked at me like I was something too broken to fix.

“Our parents died young. I raised you.” His voice was flat. “So whatever you are now — that’s on me.”

Nolan wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’m ashamed I ever took a cent from you.”

Julian straightened his cuffs. “You can walk home. Consider it the price of lying to my face.”

“When you get back, keep your head down,” Arthur added. “Stay away from Chloe. Or I’ll send you right back where we found you.”

Nolan’s gaze landed on me, cold and final. “Don’t let me see your face again.”

Car doors slammed shut. The engine turned over, and the taillights shrank until they disappeared.

Just me and the empty road.

The memories came crashing back — every night in Ravens Hollow, every needle, every hand. I was shaking. My nails dug into my palms hard enough to bleed, but I couldn’t feel it.

All I could think was, They’ll send me back.

I started walking. One foot, then the other.

The rain came down hard before I’d made it half a mile. It soaked through everything. Wherever it touched open wounds — skin that still hadn’t healed — it burned like acid.

Every step was a fight. Three hours in the rain, and I finally reached my own front door.

The gate blurred in front of me. Blood came up again. Then the ground rushed at me.

I woke up in my own bed. Everything hurt.

Arthur sat beside me. For a second, something almost like concern crossed his face. Then my eyes opened, and it was gone.

“How long are you going to keep this up, Elena? Collapsing in the rain, coughing up blood — all to make Chloe feel guilty enough to relapse. That’s what this is, isn’t it?”

I stared at my brother and couldn’t find a trace of the brother who used to love me.

I came into this world when the real Elena was five.

Her mother found out about her father’s affair. They fought in the car — screaming, swerving — until it crossed the median and hit an oncoming truck. Both of them died on impact. Arthur barely survived.

Elena didn’t survive at all.

That’s when I took her place. The system gave me three targets — three people whose love I had to earn. Arthur. Julian. Nolan.

I poured everything I had into them. Late-night food runs when Arthur was studying for his boards. Days at Julian’s bedside when he was sick, refusing to leave until his fever broke. I emptied my savings so Nolan could make tuition.

When the mission was done, the system offered me a way home. I looked at the life I’d built — the love, the warmth — and chose to stay.

For ten years, they were mine. Arthur gave me the best of everything. Julian made me the center of his world. Nolan said I’d saved his life, and that nobody would ever touch me.

Then Chloe showed up.

I was fifteen when her mother died — the same woman whose affair had led to the crash that killed Elena’s parents. Chloe showed up at our door. She stayed out there for three days — on her knees, crying, begging us to let her in.

Arthur gave in. “She’s not her mother. We can’t punish a kid for what her parents did.”

He promised it was just a place to stay. I’d always come first. Julian and Nolan swore the same.

But Chloe knew exactly what she was doing.

She threw herself into the estate pool and told everyone I’d pushed her. I ran across the city in the rain to pull Julian from the wreckage after his accident — and Chloe told everyone she was the one who’d saved him.

Everything I did became hers. Every accusation landed on me.

Tears slid down my face. I didn’t bother wiping them.

“I didn’t do any of it.” My voice barely held together. “But you’ll always believe her over me.”

I held Arthur’s gaze.

“So we’re done. You and me — we’re not family anymore.”

He didn’t flinch. I didn’t look away.

“And my engagement to Julian is over.”