I Stole My Sister's Life for Ten Years, and She Never Woke Up

I have a secret: my "sister" and I share the same body. During the day, I'm the timid, cowardly younger sister. Whenever something frightens me, she steps in and handles it. At night, after I fall asleep, she takes control. It was the perfect balance between us, until we each fell in love with someone different. I fell for a college athlete who once saved me. She fell for an untouchable heir from the city's most powerful family. We had a terrible fight. "Why won't you give me back my life? I wish you'd disappear for good!" I hurled the cruelest words I could at her. And then she really did disappear. I thought I was finally free. But when a secret from ten years ago came to light, I understood the devastating truth. The one who should have disappeared was me all along. Chapter 1 I stood outside the gym, soaked to the bone, clutching a pair of limited-edition sneakers I'd waited three hours in line to buy. My boyfriend Brandon walked out with Vivian on his arm, the two of them sharing a black umbrella. Vivian was wearing the women's version of the same limited-edition sneakers. Together with the men's pair in my hands, they made a matching couples' set. I clenched my jaw and hid the shoebox behind my back. Brandon spotted me, his voice dripping with annoyance. "Sophie, what are you doing here? Vivian's afraid of the dark. I'm walking her back to the dorm." Vivian nestled closer against him, her voice syrupy and delicate. "Sophie, don't blame Brandon. I twisted my ankle and couldn't walk." I looked at her perfectly steady stance, and the hurt welled up inside me. Today was the third anniversary of the day Brandon and I first met. He'd promised to take me out to dinner. I took a deep breath, trying to force a smile. "Brandon, you promised me today..." "Enough. Stop making a scene." Brandon shoved me away. My feet slipped out from under me and I crashed into a puddle of muddy water. The shoebox tumbled away, and those expensive sneakers were caked in mud. Brandon didn't even glance at me. He turned and walked off with Vivian. Despair swallowed me like ice water rising over my head. And then a sharp pain lanced through my skull. My vision flickered, and suddenly I was watching from the inside. Hailey had surfaced. "You pathetic little thing. Get back in there and stay put." Hailey's cold voice echoed through my mind. I watched "myself" climb out of the mud, brush the dirt off my hands, and stride toward Brandon. She grabbed his shoulder and wrenched him around. Crack! Brandon's head snapped to the side. He stared back in total disbelief. "Sophie, have you lost your mind?" Hailey let out a cold laugh and backhanded Vivian across the face. "A dog and his little tramp. You two deserve each other." Vivian shrieked, clutching her cheek. Brandon raised his hand to hit back. A firm grip caught his wrist. Ethan stepped forward, a clear umbrella shielding Hailey from the rain. "Hitting a girl, Brandon? Not a great look." Brandon recognized the one person on campus nobody dared cross. Ethan was the heir of the city's most powerful family. His face twitched, and he slunk away with Vivian in tow. I expected Hailey to say thank you. Instead, she grabbed Ethan's tie, rose on her toes, and kissed him hard. I screamed inside my own head. Ethan didn't push her away. He tilted the umbrella just enough to block out the wind and rain, hiding both their faces from view. Hailey pulled back and licked her lips. "Ethan, take me away." Something complicated flickered in Ethan's eyes. He slipped off his jacket and draped it over "my" shoulders. "Okay, Hailey." He called her Hailey. I froze completely. How did Ethan know my sister's name? That was my deepest secret. Chapter 2 For as long as I could remember, whenever I was too scared to face something, Hailey took over. I was afraid of pain, so she was the one who sat through every injection. I was afraid of the dark, so she was the one locked in the dark during punishments. I'd always believed she was a protector I'd created for myself. Sitting in Ethan's Maybach, Hailey spoke to me inside our shared mind. "Sophie, did you see that clearly enough? Brandon is garbage." I pushed back. "Brandon saved me once. He's just too kind for his own good. Vivian's like a little sister to him." Hailey scoffed and went silent. Ethan parked in front of a luxury apartment building. "You were reckless tonight. That's not like you." Hailey stared at him, her gaze unwavering. "Ethan, I don't have much time left." Before I could process what she meant, a violent wave of dizziness surged from deep inside my skull. Ethan's startled face blurred before my eyes, and then everything went dark. I woke the next morning back in control. I was lying in a strange bed. I sat bolt upright, panicking, and checked my clothes in a frenzy. Where was Ethan? What had Hailey done with him last night? A clean outfit sat on the nightstand, along with a note. "Get dressed and come eat. —Ethan" I clutched the note, my mind racing. Brandon's call came through right then. I answered immediately, careful and meek. "Brandon..." "Sophie! What the hell was that last night? Get to the gym right now and apologize to Vivian!" His voice was nothing but command and contempt. I tried to explain. "Last night, I..." "I don't want to hear your excuses. If you're not here in thirty minutes, we're done." The line went dead. I bit my lip, blinking back tears. I couldn't lose Brandon. He was the only light in my life. I threw on the clothes and ran out of the apartment without so much as a word to Ethan. At the gym, Brandon was playing basketball. Vivian sat in the lounge area, holding a towel and a water bottle for him. I walked over, head bowed. "Brandon, I'm here." Brandon tossed the ball to a teammate and walked up to me. "Apologize to Vivian." Everyone around us stopped to stare, whispering and pointing. I gripped the hem of my shirt until my knuckles turned white. "I'm not apologizing. Last night, you were the ones who..." Splash! Vivian jumped to her feet and threw a cup of ice water in my face. "Sophie, don't play innocent! That slap you gave me last night? My face is still swollen!" Brandon made no move to stop her. He just stared at me, cold and distant. "You're disgusting right now." My last wall crumbled. I loved him so much, and he just stood there while someone trampled my dignity. "Sophie, you really are pathetic." Hailey's voice cut in again. The next second, I was shoved into the dark. Chapter 3 Hailey seized control. She wiped the ice water from her face, then casually picked up a water bottle from the bench. She unscrewed the cap and dumped the entire bottle over Vivian's head without a moment's hesitation. Vivian shrieked and jumped up, her makeup running down her face in streaks. Brandon lunged forward, reaching to grab Hailey by the hair. Hailey sidestepped and kicked him hard in the shin. "Brandon, who the hell do you think you are, demanding an apology from me?" Everyone stood frozen in shock. The timid, obedient Sophie they all knew had turned into a force of nature right before their eyes. "Are you done?" A cool, measured voice cut through the silence. Ethan walked out from the crowd, a dry towel in his hand. He stepped past Brandon on the ground without a glance and walked straight to Hailey, draping the towel over her damp hair. "Come on. Let me take you somewhere good to eat." Hailey toweled off her hair, flipped Brandon the middle finger, and strolled out with Ethan. I was screaming inside my head. "Hailey! You just destroyed everything between me and Brandon!" Hailey ignored me completely. She settled into the passenger seat of Ethan's car, humming a song, perfectly content. Ethan drove her to an upscale Japanese restaurant with private dining rooms. Inside the private room, Ethan placed a piece of salmon on her plate. "You've been surfacing more and more often lately." The smile faded from Hailey's face. "She's too naive. If I don't step in, people will eat her alive." Ethan set down his chopsticks, his expression somber. "Hailey, you know where this is heading." Hailey popped the salmon into her mouth and spoke around it. "I know. I'm going to disappear soon." I heard every word from inside our shared mind. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. Hailey was going to disappear? How was that possible? She had always been there, inside my body. How could she just vanish? "Ethan, before I disappear, I need to clear the path for her." Hailey looked at Ethan, her eyes pleading. "You have to help me." Ethan was quiet for a long time. Finally, he nodded. "Okay. I promise." Over the next few days, Hailey took over completely. Every day she went with Ethan to the library, to the lab. The two of them were inseparable. Rumors swept across campus that Sophie had landed the most untouchable name in the city. All I could do was sit inside my own mind and panic. I missed Brandon. I wanted to explain things to him. Finally, on the fifth night, after Hailey fell asleep, I wrestled back control. I snuck out of the dorm and headed to the bar Brandon always went to. I'd barely reached the door of the private room when I heard the laughter inside. "Brandon, is it true Sophie's hooked up with Ethan?" Brandon's voice oozed contempt. "So what if she has? She's my sloppy seconds. A desperate clinger like her, Ethan will get bored in a week." Vivian chimed in, her voice sweet and saccharine. "Exactly. Brandon only kept her around because she has money. She was just a walking ATM." I stood outside the door, the blood draining from my face. He had never cared about me. Not once. I was nothing but an ATM to him. A backup plan. Every time I'd swallowed my pride, every ounce of hurt I'd endured, it had all been a joke. I pushed open the door and walked in. Chapter 4 Brandon looked up, stunned for a second, then smirked. "Well, if it isn't the little princess. What brings you to our humble corner?" I stared at him, tears pooling in my eyes. "Brandon, everything you just said. Was it true?" Brandon stood, walked over to me, and blew a ring of smoke in my face. "So what if it is? Take a good look in the mirror, Sophie. Besides a pile of money, what do you have that Vivian doesn't?" He jabbed a finger into my shoulder. "You're boring, you're stiff, and I've been sick of you for a long time." I closed my eyes. Every moment I'd believed was love had been a lie from the very start. I turned to leave, but Brandon grabbed my wrist. "You're already here, so what's the rush? You like me so much, right? Drink this bottle and I'll forgive you." He grabbed a bottle of strong liquor from the table and shoved it into my hands. The crowd started egging him on. I struggled with everything I had, but I couldn't break free from his grip. "Let go of me!" Just when the despair was about to suffocate me, I cried out in my mind to the one person who would always come. Hailey. Save me. Smash! The bottle exploded against the edge of the table, glass shards flying everywhere. Hailey gripped the jagged neck of the broken bottle and pressed it against Brandon's throat. "I said let go. Are you deaf?" Brandon went white as a sheet, too terrified to move. "S-Sophie, don't do anything crazy. Killing someone is a crime." Hailey pressed harder. The glass tip punctured his skin, and a bead of blood welled up. "I'm not just crazy. I've got a split personality. Kill you, and what do you think a court would give me?" Everyone in the room was paralyzed. Vivian cowered in the corner, shaking. Hailey swept a cold look around the room and shoved Brandon away. "Show your face in front of me again and I'll hit you every single time." She tossed the broken bottle aside and walked out of the bar. The moment she stepped through the door, she collided with a warm embrace. Ethan stood there in a dark coat, the night air still clinging to him. He held Hailey tight, his voice trembling. "I've been looking for you all night." Hailey sagged against him, all the fight draining out of her. "Ethan, I'm so tired." Back at the apartment, Ethan cleaned the cuts on Hailey's hands. I wept silently from inside. "I'm sorry, Hailey." Hailey sighed in our shared mind. "Do you finally see that scumbag for what he is? Don't be so stupid again." Ethan paused, the cotton swab hovering over her palm. He seemed to sense we were communicating. "Hailey, is she still there?" Hailey nodded. "She is. Crying like a baby." Ethan set down the first-aid kit and looked at Hailey. "Tomorrow, come with me somewhere." The next day, Ethan took us to a private psychiatric clinic. Across the desk sat a white-haired doctor. He smiled gently when he saw Hailey. "Hailey. It's been a while." Hailey's composure cracked. "Dr. Carter. Good to see you." I was confused. How did Hailey know a psychiatrist? Dr. Carter pulled out a yellowed medical file. "Hailey, your condition has become increasingly unstable. Suppressing the primary personality is consuming far too much of your mental energy." I went still. Primary personality? What was Dr. Carter talking about? I was the one who owned this body. Hailey shot to her feet. "Stop it! I only came for a refill on my medication." Ethan pressed down on her shoulders and eased her back into the chair. "Hailey, you can't keep this from her any longer. She deserves to know the truth." Hailey bit her lip until it bled. Her eyes turned red. I hammered at her from the inside. "Hailey, what's going on? What truth?" Dr. Carter gazed straight ahead, as though he could see right through our body to where I hid. "Sophie, you are the one who was created. You are the alternate personality."