When my body is engulfed in flames, my firefighter father is watching a new movie with my sister. My mother is baking them a cake. I hear laughter in the living room, and I can smell the caramel popcorn in the kitchen.

Today is my family's weekly family day—it's a day for my sister and parents to be with each other.

The doorbell rings, and the perpetrator gives me a chance to ask for help. My limbs are bound, and stones fill my mouth. I stand at the door and desperately wait for my parents to open it.

They don't get up. Instead, they sit on either side of my sister and hug her. "We promised you we'll only be with you on our family days. No one can disturb us."

"What if it's Danica?" Ravenna Sutton, my sister, asks.

"Her? She hasn't answered her phone in days—who knows where she's off being wild? I'll think of her as dead if she still doesn't return tomorrow!"

Ravenna giggles. Mom feeds her some popcorn, and Dad discusses the movie's plot with her.

The perpetrator drags me back upstairs and laughs mockingly in my ear. "Looks like I did something unnecessary. They genuinely don't care about you."

Smoke permeates every corner upstairs, and the flames start to lick at my body. Mom and Dad protect Ravenna as they run downstairs.

They have no idea their birth daughter is screaming in pain amid the blazing fire.

When Mom and Dad ran downstairs with my younger sister, Ravenna Sutton, a crowd of neighbors and onlookers had already gathered outside.

Everyone was discussing how the empty apartment upstairs had suddenly caught fire.

Dad seemed to hear a scream. His instincts as a veteran firefighter made him want to rush upstairs immediately, but Ravenna grabbed his arm.

"I didn't hear anyone scream. Don't go, Dad. It's too dangerous."

Mom nodded in agreement. "She's right. The flames are already spilling out from the window—it's too dangerous."

Finally, the fire truck arrived. Dad geared up and ran upstairs to put out the fire.

In the middle of the charred room sat a burned corpse. That was me.

My eyes were shut, my head hung low, and my entire body was totally burned and curled up from the fire.

But because my hands and feet had been bound to the chair with iron chains, I remained in a sitting position.

Soon, Mom came upstairs as well. She was the best doctor in the city. With just one look, she could tell—I had no signs of life. I had been burned alive.

Her eyes instantly turned red as she murmured, "That inhumane criminal… Being burned alive must be unimaginably painful."

It was.

The murderer had pierced my body with a blade. It had been excruciating. The fire spreading across my skin had been agonizing.

Hearing my parents protect Ravenna and flee had hurt even more.

I gazed at Mom longingly. There was a rare trace of pity in her expression.

This was the first time she had ever looked at me so gently. Even though I knew she was only pitying this corpse, not me.

The police soon took my body away for an autopsy, and the apartment was sealed off.

Although the fire didn't spread downward, it had blackened the exterior walls, and the fact that a murder had occurred affected the property value of the building.

Mom and Dad immediately called my older brother, Leo Sutton, back home so he could act as their legal representative and sue the landlord upstairs.

Leo was a partner in a law firm. He was also the only one in this family who never treated me like an outsider.

The forensic team examined my body overnight. By the next day, the police arrived with photographs, asking questions to determine my identity.

Inside my tightly shut mouth, they found a silver pendant with an engraved date. It was a pure silver necklace given to me by an old priest I met on a trip to a farm, something I had always worn close to my heart.

The date engraved on it was the most important date to me—October 3, 2015.

When the murderer dragged me away from my own doorstep, I knew I wouldn't make it out alive.

So, while they weren't looking, I hid the necklace in my mouth. That way, Mom and Dad wouldn't lose me completely.

They'd be anxious if they couldn't find me, right?

That date wasn't actually my birthday. I shared the same birthday with Ravenna.

But she once cried and said, "I shouldn't have shared a birthday with Danica. I stole her birthday. I should go back to the orphanage."

Seeing her cry, my parents immediately hugged her tightly and scolded me. "You're the older sister—don't fight over these things with Ravenna.

"Even though you're our biological child, Raven is the one we've raised for over ten years. From now on, just treat the day you came home as your birthday."

I never understood why I was being blamed when I hadn't done anything—why I couldn't even keep something that was originally mine.

But I was happy. At least, I had a birthday of my own.

So, that date on the pendant—they had to recognize it. They had to know it was me!

I watched them anxiously.

They stared at the photo, murmuring the date to themselves, as if trying to remember.

After a long while, they shook their heads.

"I have no memory of this date."

Then the police expressionlessly slid the photo back into their file and stood up to leave.

I should have never expected anything. Mom and Dad would never remember anything about me; even though I was their own flesh and blood.

By the time I found my way home, Ravenna had already been living there for 18 years.

On the first day, Mom and Dad wouldn't even let me through the door.

Mom said I was dirty and probably carrying a virus. Dad said I was a scammer.

However, the DNA results forced them to admit that I was their biological daughter.

An investigation revealed that Ravenna and I had been born in the same hospital and mistakenly switched at birth.

But her mother had died in childbirth, and no records of her father could be found.

Leo tried to comfort me, saying Mom and Dad were just overly suspicious because of their professions, but they still loved me.

But I knew I had always been an outsider in this family.

Soon, the police released their findings on the case.

The victim was a young woman, around 20 years old. Her body bore signs of abuse and her face had been smashed in with a blunt object, leaving it unrecognizable.

She had suffered 40 stab wounds. All ten of her fingernails had been forcibly removed.

There was soot in her mouth and nose and her eyes were shut tight. Traces of an accelerant were found on her body—she had been burned alive after being doused in it.

Dad lit a cigarette. He only smoked when he was in a terrible mood.

"This murderer is ruthless. It won't be easy to catch them. But the landlord upstairs insists on waiting for the killer to be caught so they can get compensation from them."

Even in death, I was just another annoyance to my parents.

At that moment, Leo reminded them, "She was 20 years old, the same age as Raven and Dani. We should tell them to be careful."

Dad cut him off impatiently. "Raven's obedient. Danica is a wild child from the countryside. She's completely uncontrollable. I haven't seen her in a week."

Leo knew how our parents had always treated me, so he chose not to argue.

Noticing that Mom was clutching her stomach with a pained expression, he quickly changed the subject.

"Your stomach hurts again? You haven't had an episode in years—why is it acting up now?"

Mom waved him off. "It's nothing. Probably just stomach pain from skipping breakfast. It happens when I get too busy at the hospital. A few years ago, Danica used to make me breakfast or sandwiches every morning…"

She trailed off mid-sentence, stunned.

The wild child they always talked about had always cared about their health since coming home.

Leo immediately followed up, "Danica is a good kid. Every time you worked overtime, she'd ask me if you had eaten. If you hadn't, she'd cook and bring you food right away."

Mom and Dad clearly had no idea. They had always assumed Leo was the one ordering takeout for them.

That was because they made me leave the food at the security booth instead of letting me inside.

But instead of acknowledging it, they brushed it off.

"She only did that for show," Dad scoffed. "Two days ago, it was Raven's birthday, and she didn't even come home. She was just throwing a tantrum and refusing to come back.

"The last time Raven saw her, it was at some shady bar. She was probably out fooling around. Honestly, I'd rather she were dead than out there embarrassing us with whatever she's doing."

Even after hearing that all those late-night meals they ate were made by me, they still refused to acknowledge anything good about me.

In their eyes, treating Raven poorly was the greatest crime of all.

But Mom, Dad—I wasn't out partying at a bar. I was working there to earn money to buy Raven's birthday gift.

If Raven hadn't gone drinking that night, she never would've noticed me washing glasses behind the counter.

And the wild child you speak of… It was not that I didn't want to come home.

It was just that I could never do that again.

Because I had already died—on the same day you and Raven were celebrating her birthday.

I was right in front of you. And you didn't even recognize me.

Mom and Dad were deeply concerned about the progress of the investigation—after all, catching the murderer was directly tied to how soon they'd receive compensation.

So, Leo contacted a police officer he knew and got a copy of the case report.

They flipped through the photos—crime scene images, pictures of the corpse. My charred body was exposed right in front of them.

As a firefighter, Dad immediately identified that the fire had started from the body itself, and he knew that the accelerant used could reach temperatures of up to 750℉ in an instant.

Mom pointed at the photo, detailing all the suffering I had endured before death.

I knew—Mom had always wanted to be a forensic doctor. But when she became pregnant with me, she felt that coming home to hold me after handling corpses in the hospital wasn't right, so she gave up that dream.

I once overheard her holding Ravenna and saying, "Being a forensic doctor is a great profession. If you ever want to become one in the future, I'll be the first to support you."

I watched as Ravenna smiled and nodded at Mom, then turned away and brushed off her shoulder in disgust.

That was the first time I ever laid a hand on my sister. I twisted her arm. Mom had given up her dream for me. I wouldn't allow Ravenna to treat her that way.

In the end, I was punished. I was made to kneel in the snow for three hours.

If Leo hadn't come home and taken me inside, Mom and Dad would have left me out there all night.

Now, looking at their pained and regretful expressions as they examined my corpse, I let out a bitter smile.

They seemed devastated over a lifeless body in a photograph, but if they knew it was me, would they still feel this way?

After all, they had always said it would be better if I died somewhere far away, rather than embarrassing them.

Mom turned the page and saw the scar on my foot—an indentation from when I had stepped into a hunting trap back on the farm in the countryside.

I remembered on the day I came home, Mom wouldn't let me inside with my dirty clothes.

I had to strip down at the door and wait for her to disinfect me. Only after putting on new clothes was I allowed to enter the house.

That was the first time she saw my scar.

She was a doctor who had seen countless gruesome injuries. Yet when she saw mine, the only thing she said was, "Disgusting. From now on, no skirts in this house. Always wear socks—I don't want Raven to see it and get scared."

From then on, I never wore a skirt again.

Maybe—just maybe—Mom would recognize me from that scar?

But she simply flipped the page and said indifferently, "An old wound."

Just then, a phone rang. It was Ravenna's voice—her pre-recorded ringtone for Mom's phone.

There were still many pages left in the report, but Mom immediately tossed it aside and picked up the call.

Her voice was impossibly gentle. At that moment, the murder case, the compensation—everything was forgotten.

The charred, nameless corpse upstairs could never compare to her precious daughter.

"Hello? Raven, sweetheart, what's the matter?"

"Tomorrow is Family Day at your school?"

"Of course, we will be there! Leo is busy, though—he won't make it."

Ravenna's voice rang sweetly from the speaker. "I know! That's why you're the best! Will Danica come? My classmates don't believe I have an older sister—they say she's never visited me.

"But it's okay if she doesn't want to. I know she doesn't like me. I stole your love from her."

Mom and Dad had always been indifferent to me, at most just annoyed by my presence.

But Ravenna—she was cruel. From the very first day I returned home, she had watched me like a wary predator.

She bullied me whenever no one else was around. Yet in front of Mom and Dad, she would cry like a helpless little girl, pretending to long for my affection.

And as always, Mom and Dad wouldn't bother figuring out what actually happened.

It was always my fault.

Sure enough, the moment they heard Raven's slightly aggrieved voice, they immediately defended her.

"That's right—how dare she ignore your calls? I'll find her right now! If she doesn't come, I'll cut ties with her. From now on, you'll be our only daughter."

Ravenna finally laughed in satisfaction.

Before hanging up, she even remembered to remind them to tell me to be careful—playing the role of the concerned, affectionate sister until the very end.

After the call ended, Mom and Dad exchanged pleased smiles.

"She really is the daughter we raised—kind and considerate. So what if she's not our biological child? She's even more thoughtful than our real daughter. I should never have let Danica in when she came back."

Maybe because I grew up on a farm in the countryside, I had to learn many things about their world from scratch.

But to Mom, that just made me seem crude and unsophisticated. Having a daughter like me was an embarrassment.

That was why they never let me change my last name.

Whenever someone asked, they always said they only had one daughter.

I wondered whenever they got worried about Ravenna's safety, did they ever think that I was a girl as well?

That I, too, could be in danger.

I wondered what they would do if they ever found out that their beloved, obedient daughter, Ravenna, played a part in my murder.