When Joy Staton, my adoptive sister, fainted in the freezer on her birthday, William Staton, my brother, checked on the security footage in rage. The moment he saw that I was the one who took Joy into the freezer, he kicked me inside without hesitation.

Before shutting the door, he stared at me in disgust. “You’ve been pushing your luck a lot these days, huh? If I’d been a second too late, Joy would’ve died!”

I wanted to defend myself, but William refused to listen and slammed the door shut.

I heard him talking to the bodyguards outside.

“If she doesn’t apologize, don’t let her out!”

But he did not know that Joy had set the freezer to –58 °F. I did not even have the strength to complain about the freezer being cold.

William did not know that the sister he once loved dearly had stopped breathing in the freezer. He had killed his only blood relative left in the world.

“Well? Has she apologized?” William swirled the wine in the glass with a cold look in his eyes.

“I didn’t hear anything from the freezer.” The bodyguard shook his head.

William’s movements stilled for a moment before he scoffed. “And she had the nerve to say she was scared! She didn’t even cry! It looks like Joy was telling the truth.”

The bodyguard was taken aback. He stammered, “But Miss Violet has always been frail. Could she have fainted because of the low temperature?”

“Fainted?” William chuckled. “She accidentally got into the freezer once when she was a kid, and she was perfectly fine, even though she stayed in there for two days. It’s been less than half an hour. How could she have possibly fainted? The freezer isn’t that cold.”

He spoke in such a flighty manner that it was clear he did not take the bodyguard’s words seriously.

But he had forgotten that when I was first shut in the freezer, it permanently damaged one of my legs, even though I had survived it.

He had also forgotten how badly he broke down when he found me unconscious in the freezer for the first time.

“Enough! Just forget about her! We have more important things to do now.”

He put down the wine glass and walked to the woman at the center of the banquet hall. He held her hand. He looked at her affectionately. “How do you feel, Joy? Do you still feel cold?”

Joy shook her head.

William sighed in relief before patting her shoulder. “Plenty of socialites came today. You need to seize the chance to befriend as many of them as you can. That way, Violet won’t be able to mistreat you anymore.”

Joy pursed her lips, then said in a conflicted way, “Should we let Violet out? The freezer is really cold. I almost started to cry before I fainted in there. Violet’s so frail. She definitely won’t be able to handle it. I’m so worried about her getting hurt that I can’t even think about making friends.”

She gripped William’s sleeve tightly and pretended to be worried. She lowered her head in sadness, but as my spirit drifted beside her, I saw her lips curl up in a malicious smile.

William immediately consoled her. “Joy, you’re just too kind! If I hadn’t arrived on time, you wouldn’t be standing here talking. Since she dared to lock you in, it’s a fair price she needs to pay.”

He held Joy’s hand gently. “Alright. Forget about her now. It’s your birthday today. Stop frowning.”

Then, with a wave of his hand, a servant pushed a ten-tier cake into the hall.

Joy covered her mouth in shock, and her face lit up in delight.

William smiled at that. “Make a wish. I’ll give you whatever you wish for.”

She shut her eyes and whispered, “I wish that Violet would treat me better this year.”

I wanted to laugh.

When she mentioned my name, the tenderness in William’s gaze turned to hate. It was as if I were his mortal enemy, even though I was his real sister and was formerly his only blood relative left.

Since one of my legs was permanently crippled, my body became really frail. I could not even go to school, so my parents adopted Joy from an orphanage. She was the same age as I was, and they wanted her to keep me company.

In the beginning, we were the best of friends, and I treated her like my own sister, but after my parents passed away in an accident, everything changed.

For a while, I cried every day.

William was younger than fifteen back then, and he was busy with taking care of my parents’ company and the huge fortune they left behind. Even in his darkest day, when he was totally exhausted, he still found the time and energy to comfort me.

But one day, when I was crying, he stopped by my room no more. Instead, he went straight to Joy’s room.

It was at that moment that I learned that Joy was the only person who comforted him after my parents’ passing.

To him, I was a burden, while Joy was the one who helped him through his darkest hour.

After gaining William’s affection, Joy no longer played with me like before. To gain William’s complete devotion, she did everything she could to set me up. She even kicked down my wheelchair once.

The moment I tried fighting back, she complained about it to William. She told him that I had hurt myself while trying to chase her down because I was afraid she would steal his affection.

I thought that William would side with me, but he sided with Joy without hesitation.

He even gave all the beautiful dresses to Joy that my parents had bought for me.

When I demanded an answer from him, he just stared at my wheelchair and said, “You don’t need it anyway.”

It was then that I truly realized that William and Joy’s relationship had changed.

I always thought that William would marry Joy one day. He never talked about it, but I knew that he treated her like his sister only in public.

I just never thought that their secret affair would be more important to him than our twenty-year relationship as siblings.

The person who did his best to save me from the freezer had thrown me inside it because of something so minor.

Back then, he had thanked God for saving me, but this time, he killed me with his own hands.

I drifted beside them and stared at William as he smiled. Suddenly, a thought struck me.

I wondered if he would cry at my corpse. Would he cry like last time?

If he learned that the woman he treated like a princess had lowered the temperature in the freezer to kill his own sister, how would he react?

I had never thrown Joy into the freezer. On the contrary, she was the one who took me in there.

Since she had framed me up far too many times, I was very cautious and had never intended to go to her birthday party.

But before her party, she threw my mother’s favorite necklace into the freezer and threatened me.

“If you don’t go in to get that, I’m going to destroy all of Mom’s clothes.”

Because of my past experience, I was terrified of freezers. For the first time ever, I spoke to her meekly. “Please, couldn’t we do something else? I won’t bother you and William anymore.”

She ignored my request. She smashed my mother’s memorial photo.

With no other choice left, I endured my fear as I wheeled myself in.

The moment the chill settled on my skin, my heart raced so fast that I could not even breathe. It was as if a hand was squeezing down on my throat, and those horrible memories rose in my mind.

I searched with every ounce of energy that I could muster. In the end, I finally found my mother’s necklace in a corner.

I saw Joy’s sinister smile right as I wheeled myself out of the freezer with the necklace.

She shut the door slowly and locked herself inside.

At that moment, I finally knew what was going on, and alarm bells rang in my mind.

I immediately rushed over to open the door, but it was locked.

Just as I tried to call William, Joy’s maid rushed to him.

Fortunately, he made it in time. It had been less than an hour in the freezer, but Joy acted as if she had just escaped death. She trembled like a leaf and threw herself in his arms and sobbed.

“Why did you lie to me? If you don’t want me to attend my own party, I won’t! But I don’t want to die!”

She grabbed William’s collar as she cried at the top of her lungs.

Rage burned in William so fiercely that the veins on his temples bulged, and he glared at me. “Did you do this?”

I shook my head and cried, “I didn’t! It really wasn’t me…”

William shot me a doubtful glance and told his bodyguards to check the security footage.

The security footage did not show the whole thing. All it showed was me touching the door just as the door locked Joy and me inside, even though I had tried to hold open the door.

With a dark face, William grabbed my chin so hard that it hurt. “Violet, it looks like I spoiled you too much after Mom and Dad passed away. How could you try to kill someone?!”

My face twisted in pain. I cried as I tried to defend myself. “It really wasn’t me! Even if I wanted to hurt her, I wouldn’t have chosen a freezer!”

William was stunned at that. He knew I was terrified of freezers.

Just then, Joy’s maid said, “But the security footage showed you shutting the door!”

“No! She closed the door herself! I was trying to hold it open!”

“Enough, Violet!”

Furious, William kicked me into the freezer. “Did you really think I’d believe in such an outrageous lie? The evidence is clear! Nothing you say matters anymore!”

He called several bodyguards to stand guard over the freezer’s door and ordered them coldly, “If she doesn’t apologize, don’t let her out even if she dies.”

When the door shut in my face, the cold and the darkness enveloped me.

In the beginning, the freezer was at a normal temperature, and I could endure it.

But ten minutes later, the temperature dropped so quickly that I trembled in the cold and cried out for help.

In just a moment, I felt as if my blood had frozen over, and I could not breathe anymore. My heart, too, stopped beating.

In the end, I died in the freezer.

This time, no one kicked the door open and called out to me.

William stood at the center of the dance floor as he held Joy by her waist and relished in everyone’s jealous gazes.

Meanwhile, I could not even make a sound. The icy air that seeped out from under the gaps of the freezer door made the bodyguards tremble in the cold.

They exchanged glances, and one of them asked, “Don’t you think that the freezer’s temperature is colder than usual?”

Another said through chattering teeth, “Y-yeah. Why is it so cold? We’re already freezing. Miss Violet hasn’t even let out a peep. Do you think she’s okay in there?”

The captain of the bodyguards felt uneasy. He ran to the banquet hall to talk to William.

But Joy’s maid stood in his way. “Mr. Staton is enjoying himself. Don’t bother him, and just do as you are told.”

The bodyguard captain wanted to say something, but the maid interrupted him again. “Don’t forget who’s going to be the lady of the house in the future. Even if something happens, Miss Joy can vouch for you.”

He gave her one long look before returning to his post in resignation.

I watched them leave as I floated in the air. I exhaled long and hard before turning to face my smiling brother.

His gaze was full of desire as he stared at Joy.

Whenever someone tried to flirt with Joy on the dance floor, he stormed over with a dark expression and held Joy tightly in his arms.

“Joy’s still young. She doesn’t have any plans to date right now.”

The newest person, who had tried to talk to her, was stunned for a moment before he chuckled and took out a gift box from his bag. “Mr. Staton, you misunderstand me. I was wondering where Miss Violet was. I brought her a gift.”

At the mention of my name, Joy’s smile froze.

William frowned and took the gift. He said indifferently, “I’ll take it. I can give it to her later.”

He turned around and threw the gift into the trash without hesitation. He said to Joy affectionately, “They’re all blind! Don’t mind them. It’s just a worthless gift. I’ll buy plenty of other great gifts for you.”

As they stared at each other, the air between them became rife with tension.

William drew his face closer to Joy’s. As they were about to kiss, a bodyguard rushed in. He mumbled, “It’s freezing… If I stay there any longer, I’ll die!”

William scowled in annoyance and snapped at him, “Didn’t I ask you to keep an eye on Violet? Why are you here?”

The bodyguard’s lips had turned blue from the cold. “Mr. Staton… I think that there’s something wrong with the temperature in the freezer. It’s much colder than usual. Why don’t you take a look?”

William instinctively took a step forward. Just then, Joy said softly, “The freezer was really cold. I was just there for a short while, but I felt like someone was cutting into my flesh with a cleaver.”

When he heard that, William stopped in his tracks and checked his watch. “Violet did something awful, and it’s only right to teach her a lesson. Shut her inside for another thirty minutes.”

At that, the bodyguard had no other choice but to go back and guard the freezer.

Once he left, Joy suddenly teared up. “You’re so good to me, William! When I was locked in the freezer, I thought that I was going to die. But that didn’t scare me as much as the thought of never seeing you again…”

She sobbed, and William could not bear it. He pinned her against the wall and kissed her.

The feelings he had kept suppressed for years finally burst forth.

I watched him caress Joy’s body and suddenly felt like laughing.

My parents might be rolling in their graves at this.

They broke their kiss after a long time.

William patted Joy’s hair, and his gaze turned sickeningly sweet. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you suffer anymore. Once the company is completely stable in a few years, I’ll marry you.”

He took out a small box from his pocket and put the ring on Joy’s ring finger. “This is my real birthday present for you.”

Joy was so touched that she teared up again, but when William turned around to entertain the guests, her expression turned venomous. “I’ve been lurking around for so long, and now, the Staton family’s wealth is finally within reach!”

She spread her hand wide open and stared at the diamond ring before chuckling smugly. “It really was quite difficult. To get this ring and everything belonging to the Staton family, I had to kill three people.”

‘Three?’ I thought.

My eyes widened in disbelief.

“If those old coots had listened to me, I wouldn’t have cut off their brake lines. What a pity. I treated them like family, but they only ever saw me as Violet’s plaything. They deserved it!”

At that moment, it felt as if lightning had struck me. Once I understood, I immediately rushed forward and tried to strangle her.

But my spirit just phased through her, and I could not do anything. I could only watch as she sashayed around the banquet hall.

I watched her in stunned silence.

‘William, if you knew that you just proposed to your parents’ murderer, how would you feel?’ I thought.

Dejected, I drifted about the banquet hall. Watching William making eyes at Joy across the sea of people felt unbearably ironic.

Thirty minutes later, a bodyguard hurried over. “It’s time, Mr. Staton. Should we let Miss Violet go?”

William nodded and called Joy over. “Come, let’s go. I want her to apologize to you.”

They walked to the freezer in the backyard, but even before they got closer, William felt the cold attack his body.

Immediately, he thought that something was wrong and started walking faster.

As I drifted behind him, I saw his anxiety. I wanted to laugh.

No matter how fast he ran, I would not come back to life. My dead parents were not coming back either.

In his anxious state, he tried to push the door open, but the freezing temperature had frozen the door shut. He could not open it.

“What’s going on?! Why’s the door frozen shut?”

In an even more worked-up state, William kicked at the door.

“Violet!” he shouted my name but received no response.

Then, he pointed at the bodyguards and roared, “Why are you standing there?! Hurry, and break the door down!”

They instantly moved and tried to break down the metal door.

William pitched in to help. His fingers bled from trying to pry the door open, but he did not care. He shouted, “Faster!”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The loud thuds as they banged at the door sounded grating to the ears in the quiet backyard.

Finally, the metal door budged.

A cold gust of air flowed out and almost made them freeze.

But that did not stop William. He was the first to rush in. He looked around, and his gaze finally landed on the frozen body in the corner.

That body, of course, was mine, his sister’s.