Four years ago, Edna and I competed in the same skiing championship.
The third and final round.
Her ski snapped mid-run, and the fall left her paralyzed.
From the moment I took the gold, my life plunged into darkness.
My mother, the woman who once loved me more than anything, came to despise me to her core. She threw me out of the house.
My brother, determined to avenge Edna, personally erased every record of my achievements and forced the ski team to cut me loose.
In the end, I was blacklisted. Permanently banned from competition.
After he'd destroyed my dream completely, he still wanted me to apologize.
But why should I apologize for something I never did?
Edna rolled forward in her wheelchair, the crowd parting to let her through.
She beamed at me, clasping both my hands in hers. Her fingers were soft and pampered, the skin white as cream.
Nothing like mine. I'd been working multiple jobs just to cover my medication, and my hands had turned rough and cracked, covered in cuts.
"Annie, this card has over a hundred thousand dollars on it. It's everything I've saved up over the past few years. Take it. Please don't be angry with Logan, okay?"
Logan's expression shifted instantly. "Edna, what are you doing? That's the money Mom and I gave you every year for the holidays. Why would you hand it to an outsider?"
His face darkened, and he glared at me with open hatred.
"Anna, it's been four years. Are you really going to stand here and bully Edna right in front of us?"
"You'd stoop to anything for five thousand dollars. You have absolutely no shame."
I didn't have to do a thing.
The moment Edna opened her mouth, I became the villain.
But once, a long time ago, he'd been the brother who adored me.
The worst fall I ever took during training gave me a concussion. The doctors said whether I woke up was in God's hands.
Logan climbed nine hundred and ninety-nine temple steps on his knees, just to pray for me.
I remembered the day I opened my eyes.
His eyelids were so swollen from crying they looked like walnuts.
That was before everything changed.
Before Dad and his driver died in the accident.
Before Mom brought home the dead driver's daughter, Edna Willow, and gave her our family name.
After that, everything changed.
All Edna had to do was say a few words in front of Mom and Logan, and suddenly I was the jealous, wicked sister.
No matter how I tried to explain.
They never believed me.
Edna spoke again, her voice thin and fragile.
"Logan, five thousand dollars isn't even what you spend on snacks for me in a month. Just let her have it."
Logan let out a cold laugh.
"Edna, you're too naive. That's why people take advantage of you. Can't you see Anna's just putting on a sob story to con you out of money? I'm sick of watching her perform."
"Four years. This time, I'm going to make sure you get the justice you deserve."
I watched my brother shield Edna with every fiber of his being.
My hand drifted to my pocket without thinking, and a wave of bitter irony washed over me.
But Edna's sharp eyes caught the movement.
Mockery flickered behind her gaze.
"Annie, what's that in your pocket? Is it a present for me?"
Before I could answer, she reached into my pocket herself.
What she pulled out was a grimy little rabbit keychain.
Logan's eyes froze for a split second.
He'd sewn it for me by hand when we were kids. I'd treasured it like nothing else in the world.
When I left the Maddox estate, it was the only thing I took with me.
But now I unclipped it and tossed it to Edna.
"It's yours now."
The truth was, I'd stopped caring about any of them a year ago.
That was when I'd been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Desperate to scrape together enough for surgery, I'd panicked and run to the Maddox offices to find Logan.
And overheard his conversation with our mother.
"Logan, you've spent three years making sure every company in Southport refuses to hire your sister. A skiing champion, reduced to scrubbing floors for strangers. Don't you think that's gone too far?"
