The Princess Lives in a Truman World Chapter 02

The Princess Lives in a Truman World Chapter 02

I scanned the apartment. There had to be hidden cameras everywhere.

A faint scratching sound came from the corner of the kitchen. I knew the rats were running around again.

They used to terrify me, but I had long since stopped reacting to them. Of all the living things in that apartment, the rats had stayed with me the longest.

I opened the livestream again. The feed from my apartment still held the number-one spot and drew the biggest audience on the platform.

The dim apartment and the brightly lit estate looked like two different worlds.

The misery on my face stood in stark contrast to the happiness shining from another face almost identical to mine.

At that moment, I felt like one of the rats, hiding in the dark while I watched someone else’s happiness.

The next day was my birthday.

By the time I finished school and my restaurant shift, it was almost ten at night.

I carried a plastic bag into the apartment. Inside was a tiny cake that had cost only a few dollars.

I flipped the light switch, but nothing happened. The apartment remained completely dark.

The bulb had burned out again.

That was fine. The moonlight coming through the window was bright enough.

I sat beside the window and set the little cake on the table, using every bit of moonlight I could get.

I did not have a candle, so I pretended one stood in the center of the cake.

I closed my eyes, made a wish, and blew across the empty spot where the candle should have been.

My wish was simple. I wanted to ace the state merit-scholarship exam and escape this miserable life for good.

The moment I opened my eyes, someone began hammering on the door.

“Open up! Pay what you owe!”

“Open this door, or we’ll break it down!”

The men outside had come to collect Mom’s gambling debts. She had lost a huge amount of money.

I hid inside, biting my lip to keep from crying out.

When no one answered, they began battering the door.

With one deafening crash, the door gave way. Three huge, rough-looking men stormed inside, yanked me to my feet from the corner, and snarled, “If your mother won’t pay, we’ll take you instead.”

I dropped to my knees, tears streaming down my face.

“I don’t have any money. My mother hasn’t been home in days.”

“Then we’ll take whatever you do have!”

They tore through the apartment, throwing everything into disarray. They even dumped out my backpack and found the forty dollars in cash inside.

I pressed a hand to the corner of my mouth as the metallic taste of blood spread across my tongue.

That forty dollars was the money my manager had handed me after my shift.

“This wouldn’t even buy a carton of cigarettes!”

Despite sneering at the amount, they still shoved every dollar into a pocket.

One of them kicked over the table. My untouched cake hit the floor and was crushed under his boot.

They stripped the apartment of anything worth taking and stormed out, leaving destruction behind them.

That was how I spent my birthday, surrounded by wreckage.

I crouched on the floor, crying quietly in fear, then pulled out my phone and opened the livestream replay of Aria’s birthday celebration.

Inside the brightly lit Corleone estate, Mom and Dad had thrown her an extravagant party.

Aria wore a custom designer gown and looked elegant and refined.

“My beautiful girl, you look stunning!” Mom exclaimed, gazing at her with open admiration. “You look just like I did at your age.”

Happiness shone in Aria’s eyes.

A five-tier birthday cake covered in fresh flowers stood on the dining table.

Birthday presents were piled in one corner of the great room.

It was a picture of perfect happiness, and the contrast was merciless.

We had the same birthday, but Aria had both our parents beside her.

I had always been alone.