The night before my engagement party, my sister Victoria appears at my door, tears streaming down her face.

"I have leukemia, Emily. Six months to live."

My parents stand behind her, nodding gravely.

"Daniel already agreed to switch brides. It's her dying wish."

I stare at my fiancé Daniel Matthews in shock. He won't even look at me.

"It's just temporary, Emmy. Once she's… gone, we'll have our real wedding."

When I refuse to surrender my engagement ring, my parents haul me to our family cabin.

They shove me into the basement. "We'll let you out after the party."

But they never return.

Instead, a stranger breaks in and murders me.

By the time anyone bothers to remember I exist, I’m already decomposing.

————————

1

I was a ghost, hovering at what was supposed to be my own engagement party.

All eyes were on the center of the room, where my sister, Victoria Carter, was wearing my engagement ring and standing beside my fiancé, Daniel Matthews, as they announced their own engagement.

“Victoria has finally found her happiness!” my parents whispered from the crowd, their eyes brimming with tears of joy.

Amid the cheers, the happy couple glowed with bliss, spinning a fabricated tale of their whirlwind romance for the guests.

A chance encounter? A love for the ages?

There was no room for me in their story. I had been completely erased, as if I’d never existed at all.

The diamond ring, which had always felt a little clunky on my finger, now glittered on Victoria’s, as if it were made for her.

My spirit hovered, a bone-deep chill piercing my very essence.

So, this was the truth. The person standing here today, getting engaged to Daniel, was never supposed to be me.

No wonder Daniel had been so distracted while we were planning the party, always smiling secretly at his phone.

What I didn’t understand was, if they loved Victoria so much, why did they have to drag me into all of this?

Not long ago, I had died in our family’s vacation cabin.

My parents had locked me in the basement, sealing the door with a heavy wooden plank. I was powerless, forced to watch as a masked man broke in.

I was pregnant, and he assaulted me before ending my life.

My death was horrific. He slit my wrists with a knife and watched as my life dripped away.

Before my parents left, they had even taped my mouth shut, terrified I might call for help.

I died without ever making a sound.

Growing up, my parents’ love had never been for me.

The snacks we both liked? They were always for Victoria.

The dress I dreamed of? It always ended up on Victoria.

When money got tight and they could only afford to send one of us to college, they chose Victoria without a second thought. I had to work my way through school.

But I never imagined their favoritism could go this far. When Victoria claimed she had leukemia and didn’t have long to live, they actually asked me to give her my fiancé.

The most crushing part was that Daniel, who had been my shadow since college, had betrayed me too.

I watched coldly as the sham of a party came to an end.

When they packed their bags for a celebratory trip, I followed them.

At a winery in Napa Valley, Daniel and Victoria strolled through the vineyards, bathed in golden sunlight.

A gentle breeze rustled their hair.

Victoria wrapped her arms around Daniel’s neck, and they shared a passionate kiss among the vines.

Tourists nearby looked on with envy, applauding them.

Even my parents, usually so reserved, stood by, raising their glasses in a toast.

In that moment, who would remember me, the girl locked away to die in a cabin basement?

And who cared if anything they had done to me was fair?

“Daniel, do you think Emily will hate me? She still hasn’t returned any of my calls…” Victoria asked, leaning against Daniel’s chest like a fragile flower.

“Of course not. She’s your sister, and you’re so sick. This was your only wish. She’s not that thoughtless. We’ll make it up to her later,” Daniel soothed her gently.

Victoria nodded, her spirits instantly lifting. She excitedly dragged Daniel and my parents to a high-end steakhouse.

The meal cost over a thousand dollars. My parents winced at the bill, but Victoria acted as if she deserved it all.

After dinner, I floated back to the hotel with them.

“Daniel, don’t you want to see what’s under this new lace nightgown?”

Victoria, wearing a nearly sheer silk robe, traced circles on his chest, her voice cloyingly sweet.

“I want you tonight.”

But Daniel pushed her away. He walked out to the balcony alone and lit a cigarette, his expression troubled.

I drifted into my parents’ room.

As I expected, they were still awake, stewing over the expensive dinner.

They sat on the bed, sighing.

My mom pulled out her phone to call me, only to find my number was disconnected.

Their faces grew even darker.

To them, whenever we fought, all it took was one phone call to smooth things over. It was their grand gesture, and I was always expected to fold.

Too bad. This time, no one would ever answer that call.

“David, did you see how Victoria spends money? We can’t count on her to take care of us when we’re old. We still need Emily to pay the mortgage. But she’s not answering her phone… Do you think she really hates us?” my mom asked my dad, her face etched with worry.

My dad took a long drag from his cigarette and scoffed. “We raised her. Her sister is dying. What’s the big deal about her giving in a little? What right does she have to hate us?”

I sat in the corner, listening to their words without expression, feeling the deep, bitter irony.

In that moment, I almost felt that death was a relief.

Two weeks later, their celebratory trip ended, and they returned home.

Victoria, wearing my pajamas, sprawled across the bed I used to share with Daniel, acting as if she owned the place.

Daniel, however, paced the room, searching for something. He looked around and was stunned to realize that not a single trace of my recent life remained in the house.

He stood dazedly in front of what used to be my art studio.

“Daniel, I’m your fiancée now. I don’t want another woman’s things in our house,” Victoria cooed, wrapping her smooth arms around his chest.

“I bought a lot of new makeup. Let’s turn this studio into my vanity room, okay?”

Her voice, sweet and cloying, was like a hook in Daniel’s heart.

But he gently pushed her hands away, a flicker of reason still alive in him. His face was a mask of turmoil. “Victoria… Emily, after all… I only did this to grant your wish. This studio, can we just…”

“No!” Victoria shrieked, cutting him off. Tears welled in her eyes, a look of hurt and entitlement on her face. “I am your fiancée now! You’re not allowed to have anyone else in your heart!”

In the end, Daniel gave in. He agreed to let her turn my studio, the room that held all my dreams, into her personal vanity.

“That one, move it out!”

“That one, throw it away!”

“And that one, get it all out of here!”

Inside the studio, Victoria commanded the movers like a queen, clearing out my treasured easels, paints, and canvases, one by one.

Daniel just stood to the side, watching in silence.

He knew. He remembered how many times I had told him that my biggest dream in life was to have my own art studio.

Daniel knew how much my parents favored my sister. He knew how much I had suffered my whole life, and he knew how desperately I needed his unwavering love.

Yet he still cast me aside to be Victoria’s hero.

This studio held my heart and my dreams. The sense of accomplishment from every finished piece still lingered in the air, but now that feeling was being devoured, bit by bit, about to vanish forever.

Soon, my art studio was gone, replaced by a room cluttered with jars and bottles—just like my life, completely invaded by Victoria.

In a corner, a forgotten snapshot of me lay on the floor.

When Daniel saw it, he quietly walked over, picked it up, and carefully tucked it into his wallet.

Back at the advertising agency, a subordinate reported to Daniel that I hadn’t shown up for work in days. As the creative director, I hadn’t even submitted the proposal for a major project we had landed.