At the case briefing, everyone looked grim after listening to my father’s preliminary autopsy report.

My face was a wreck, making visual ID impossible.

The pier wasn’t the primary crime scene, which made the investigation a whole lot harder.

My mother, Rebecca, ordered her team to check every security camera in the area.

“Have the lab do a full workup, see if they missed anything. And rush the DNA sample to the state lab.”

She left my dad with that command and stormed out with her team.

They showed more concern for this Jane Doe than they ever did for me.

I remember Dad once stroking Madison’s hair, telling her that being a medical examiner was about giving a voice to the dead.

Madison nodded sweetly, but the second he turned away, she took out a wet wipe and scrubbed at her hair with a look of disgust.

I saw it and slapped her. My mom grounded me for a month for that.

Now, my dad’s gloved hand moved over my inner arm.

There was a row of old, faded cigarette burns there.

When I first came home, he had seen them, his face twisting with disgust. “Lainey, who the hell have you been running with?”

Would he recognize me because of these scars?

I watched him nervously.

But a second later, he spoke into his recorder, his voice flat. “Old injuries. Not relevant to the current case.”

His assistant suddenly gasped. “Dr. Celine, there’s something in the victim’s stomach!”

My dad’s eyes narrowed. He used forceps to pull out a piece of paper, mostly dissolved by stomach acid. “Send it to forensics,” he sighed.

Just then, his phone rang. It was Madison.

Dad immediately took off his gloves and stepped away, his voice instantly warming up.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Dad’s busy.”

“What? Your school counselor wants to see us?” Dad paused, then his brow furrowed. “Is it about Lainey again? What trouble has she caused now?”

Madison’s syrupy voice came through the phone. “Dad, don’t blame Lainey. She’s probably just… having a hard time adjusting. I really wish she could come to my final. If she were cheering for me, I know I’d absolutely crush the other team.”

“Someone like her would only be a distraction. You focus on your game. Forget about her.”

Madison and I never got along. From the day I came back, she saw me as a threat.

But in front of our parents, she was always the kind, understanding sister.

I knew what was coming next.

Sure enough, his voice turned harsh. “You are my precious daughter. Lainey is worth shit. She gets into fights, skips school, and hangs out with those lowlifes. She doesn’t deserve to be my daughter.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t even blink if she turned up dead.”

Madison giggled. “Mom told me to be careful today. Dad, maybe you should remind Lainey, too.”

“You just take care of yourself,” he said. “As long as Lainey doesn't end up on my table, I don't give a damn where she is.”

Maybe the daughter they got back wasn’t “respectable” enough for their elite world.

They hadn’t even bothered changing my last name back to Celine.

In their hearts, Madison was their only daughter.

They were worried about her safety, but no one remembered that I was their flesh and blood.

I wonder what their faces will look like when they find out how I died.

After all, Madison was the one who killed me. And they were her accomplices.

After telling Madison to focus on her game, my dad got a call from my mom, Rebecca.

“Marcus, Tyler just called. He was asking if Lainey came home,” she said, her voice tight with annoyance.

My dad sounded confused. “Lainey? Isn’t today Madison’s final? Why is he asking about Lainey?”

“Who knows!” my mom snapped. “Madison is his sister! I’ve told him a million times, Lainey is a wild-child with a bad attitude. She doesn’t belong in this family.”

I could picture my brother, Tyler, on the other end of the line, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He was studying psychology at Northwestern, and he never understood our parents’ hostility towards me.

“Mom, you can’t believe everything Madison says. Lainey is a good person, she’s just struggling. If you’d just pay attention…”

“I texted Lainey and she didn’t reply. Has she really not been home?”

My mom scoffed. “She comes and goes as she pleases. What am I supposed to do, put a leash on her? She’s probably out getting into trouble again.”

“Today is Madison’s big day. If he can’t make it, that’s fine.”

She paused, then added viciously, “And tell Tyler to stop worrying about Lainey’s drama. Honestly, it’s quieter around here without her.”

Tyler tried to argue, but my mom hung up on him.

She walked into the break room, where another detective asked her, “Rebecca, any leads on the Jane Doe? That poor girl.”

My mom shook her head, complaining, “Don’t even talk to me about it. It’s Lainey again. She probably whined to Tyler, and now they’re playing this disappearing game together.”

“She knows how busy we are. So damn selfish.”

She tried calling my phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

“That ungrateful brat. We would have been better off if we’d never found her. She’s nothing but trouble.”

Another detective overheard and sighed. “Rebecca, I remember when Lainey was taken. You and Marcus nearly tore Chicago apart looking for her. Now that she’s back, you treat her like an enemy.”

A bitter taste filled my mouth.

The daughter they got back wasn’t the princess they had imagined. I was withdrawn, rebellious, and covered in scars.

I was fifteen when they found me. In our sterile, modern house in Lincoln Park, my parents were cooing over a crying Madison.

I stood in the doorway in a cheap, worn-out t-shirt, staring at my beat-up Vans.

Madison saw me and stopped crying. She looked me up and down and asked with fake innocence, “Who’s the little hobo?”

My parents’ faces fell. Not because of what Madison said, but because of me.

I was their disappointing daughter.

“Detective Thompson, I checked the missing persons database. No reports filed in the last few days match the victim’s description,” an officer reported.

“You’re telling me this kid’s family didn’t even notice she was gone? That’s messed up.”

“What kind of parents wouldn’t care if their kid went missing?”

Listening to their conversation, I felt a wave of sadness so heavy it was hard to breathe.

My parents were sympathizing with the family of a stranger, never once considering if I, their own daughter who had been missing for days, was safe.

When I was kidnapped, they dropped everything to find me. Now, they just assumed my disappearance was a cry for attention.

Maybe I should have never come back to this family.

This was Madison’s home. Not mine.

The years they spent loving me were long gone, replaced by Madison.

The love and affection that should have been mine was never coming back.