Chapter12
Maddie proudly gave Chase a tour of the house.
When they passed by Sierra’s old room, she brushed past it quickly.
But Chase paused.
Sierra’s room was tiny. Smaller than the maid’s quarters at his house.
Meanwhile, Maddie’s was huge-like a full-on princess suite.
They were twins. And yet, their rooms looked like they belonged to people from completely different worlds.
At dinner, Chase casually brought it up. “Why is there such a big difference between your rooms?”
Maddie answered quickly, “Oh, Sierra doesn’t like big spaces. She says smaller rooms make her feel safer.”
Mrs. Hayes chimed in right away. “We love both our daughters equally. But Sierra’s always been… odd. Not like Maddie.
Maddie’s always been sweet and obedient.”
“She always acted like we owed her something. At school she never focused, always pretending to be a model student,
but she’s just a cheater.”
Chase’s jaw tightened. He pushed back, calmly but firmly.
“Really? I always thought Sierra was one of the top students in the school.”
“And if what you say is true, how did she get recruited by the Northwest Institute of Science?”
Silence.
That shut everyone up.
Chase looked around, really seeing the house for the first time.
There was almost no trace of Sierra here.
Not in the décor. Not in the family photos.
It was like she’d never existed.
And suddenly, everything made sense.
He used to think she was just being dramatic, trying to guilt him into paying attention.
But now… it hit him just how lonely her life must’ve been.
He didn’t know what he was feeling-but he couldn’t stay.
He put down his chopsticks. “Thanks for dinner, but I should get going.”
Maddie panicked and rushed after him.
“Chase, wait! It’s not what it looks like, I swear-”
But he was already gone.
Fuming, Maddie turned to her parents. “This is your fault! You just had to keep bringing up Sierra in front of him. Now he’s
gone. You happy now? You ruined everything!”
Mrs. Hayes looked hurt. “We didn’t want to bing her up. Chase was the one who kept asking about her.”
“And now that your sister’s been recruited by a national university, we’re technically a ‘model family.’ What’s so wrong
about mentioning her? I thought you used to look up to your sister.”
Hearing her mom defend Sierra and seeing Chase walk away because of Sierra-Maddie snapped.
“Oh, so she got a better SAT score and got into some top-tier school, and suddenly she’s the favorite? If you like her so
much, maybe you shouldn’t have had me!”
“You two are just suffocating-no wonder Sierra walked away from all of you.”
She stormed into her room and slammed the door shut.
Mrs. Hayes stood frozen, turning helplessly to her husband.
They hadn’t even said anything that harsh. Why had Maddie overreacted?
Mr. Hayes sighed. “She probably didn’t get the results she wanted. She’s sensitive. We should stop bringing up Sierra
around her.”
Mrs. Hayes nodded. Sierra was gone, unreachable. All they had left now was Maddie-and they had to take care of her.
Meanwhile, in her room, Maddie wasn’t thinking about them at all.
She was too busy typing on her phone.
[Chase, I’m sorry if my parents upset you. I’ll apologize on their behalf, okay?]
[We really do care about Sierra. She just left so suddenly-Mom and Dad were shocked. But we all love her. We really do.]
She had worked too hard for this image.
She couldn’t let it all fall apart now.
She stared at the screen, watching the little “typing…” bubble flicker for what felt like forever.
Finally, a new message popped up.
[Maddie, let’s just call this off.]
