Ethan had always been the one who protected me the most in this world. At least, that’s how it seemed on the surface. When we were kids, before my parents died in the car crash, our families were neighbors. Ethan’s parents were brilliant scientists, always too busy for him. My parents, kindhearted as they were, couldn’t bear to see a child so lonely and always had him over. Our home became his second home. He ate with us almost every day. My parents bought him gifts whenever they bought them for me.
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We even had a small bed for him in our guest room for the nights he was too scared to sleep alone.
In return, Ethan, a natural genius like his parents, would tutor me. With his help, I was one of the top students in my grade.
Those were happy times, but they ended abruptly with my parents‘ death.
It was a typical summer night, a thunderstorm raging outside. Ethan’s parents called mine, frantic. Ethan was missing
“His teacher said he left school at the usual time, but he’s not answering the home phone. We’re stuck on a research project and
can’t leave. Could you please help us look for him?”
I was at the window, watching the lightning, a strange sense of dread creeping into my heart. My mother tried to convince my fath-
er not to go out in such extreme weather. But their worry for Ethan, the boy they had watched grow up, outweighed the danger.
That rainy night, their car skidded off the road and into a river. It wasn’t found until the next morning, after the sky had cleared.
And Ethan, who had been missing all night, returned. He was wearing brand–new clothes, staring helplessly as I, having just receiv ed the call, ran screaming from the house.
Later, I asked him where he had been. After a long silence, he told me he had helped a lost little girl find her way home. The girl lived in the city’s wealthiest district. After a long walk, he finally found her family’s maid. By the time he was ready to leave, the storm had started. The little girl he had helped kindly invited him to stay the night. The next morning, her family’s driver took him home, only to find that his world, and mine, had been shattered.
I remember asking him through tear–filled eyes why he hadn’t called. He knew my parents‘ numbers by heart. He knew they would be worried. Why had he said nothing? Ethan couldn’t answer. He could only hang his head and apologize over and over.
Soon after, his family moved away, and I, cheated out of my home by relatives, ended up in the slums.
It wasn’t until much later, after I awakened and bonded with the System, that I learned the truth. The little girl he’d taken home was Sera. The fateful meeting of the hero and heroine had happened all those years ago.
While my parents were squinting through the rain–streaked windshi
calling his name into the stormy night, he was holding Sera‘
s hand as she proudly showed him her lavish, magnificent playrooms. The young Ethan was so overwhelmed by this new world that he forgot everything else.
a cold river while searching for him.
By the time he remembered, my parents were already gone, drowned in a
My family was supposed to exit the story then, leaving Ethan to grapple with his guilt, eventually finding peace with the gentle comfort of the heroine.
But I awakened. And I reappeared in their world.
I had worked tirelessly to get into their elite high school just to get close to Joey, but instead, Iran into Ethan. After so many years, he still called himself my brother. Overwhelmed by guilt, he was overly affectionate, wanting to keep me by his side to atone for his past. But he forgot we weren’t related. His boundary–crossing intimacy, born from guilt, was interpreted differently by others.
That was when Sera began to hate me.
Ethan’s excessive attention made me a shameless interloper in her eyes. It didn’t matter how many times I tried to explain or how much distance I put between myself and Ethan.
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Then, Sera discovered I had feelings for Joey. As if to compete, for every bit of attention Ethan gave me, she sought ten times more from Joey.
It was a twisted circle: Joey loved Sera, Sera loved Ethan, Ethan chased me out of guilt, and I was trying to save Joey.
Sera was the first to try and break the stalemate. She began to frame me, again and again, doing whatever it took to isolate me, to drive me out of their world. She had her entire family backing her. I had only myself and a System that could do nothing but sigh
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and say, “Why is the heroine like this?”
In the end, I became notorious. And she, in turn, lost the pure, kind heart of the novel’s heroine.
This time, she framed me for hiring kidnappers. Ethan, somehow, convinced her to change her story and blame it on a family rival.
I didn’t know how much he knew. So I changed my question. “What if I told you that between me and Sera, only one of us can live?”
“Faye, don’t say such foolish things.” A pained smile crossed his face as he looked at me, almost pleading. “Tell me what you “‘ll get it for you.”
I lay back down, a mocking smile on my face. “Then kill me.”
Ethan was silent for a few seconds. “I can’t do that. Anything but that.”
“Then make Sera kneel and apologize to me. Because if you don’t kill me, I’ll definitely kill her.”
want. I
“Faye.” Hearing me repeatedly target the woman he loved, even the ever–composed Ethan’s patience wore thin. His voice hardened. “Sera did all those things because of me. If you’re going to hate someone, hate me.”
The next second, he realized what he’d said. He looked up, his face instantly paling.
But it was too late.
“Ethan, so you knew all along,” I said with a cold laugh, the last shred of hope in my heart dying.
*Faye, I…” He looked panicked, words catching in his throat. He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t admit that in all those times I was fram- ed, he knew the truth and simply stood by and watched.
“When Sera accused me of stealing her family heirloom, and I emptied my bag to prove my innocence, she produced a fake securi- ty video. Then other people suddenly appeared, claiming I’d sold it to them, complete with forged transaction records. They even got my financial aid card information and deposited money into it to frame me. I had no way to defend myself. I carried the label of a thief through all of high school. All those times… you knew, didn’t you, Ethan?”
I was laughing, but tears streamed down my face. And Ethan, my child friend, my brother, seemed to shrink, his usually straig-
ht back slumping with every word I spoke.
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Back when I was being bullied for my “vicious” reputation, I would look at all those angry faces and tell myself: They’re just being deceived. If I can just reveal the truth, they’ll understand.
But what could one person do against the powerful Roswell family? They poured all their resources into framing me for Sera. Every time I tried to explain, a deeper trap would spring. All I could do was watch as the misunderstandings piled up.
“If you had just stood up for me, just once, and said something… They didn’t believe me, but they would have believed you.”
“Your girlfriend is a person, but am I not? Did I deserve all of that?”
I looked at him through my tears, my voice cutting. He trembled, wanting to reach out, to pat my head like he used to, but I slapped his hand away.
“Ethan, who have you ever done right by?” I laughed, my voice raw with sobs. “I hate you. You promised to make it up to me, but then you disappeared and left me all alone. You failed my parents, and you failed me.”
“Stop… please, stop…” He hunched over, his body wracked with violent coughs, as if in immense pain.
But I didn’t stop. “You wanted to atone for your guilt by taking care of me in public, but you protected Sera in secret. You wanted both, and you failed at both. What terrible luck I have to be dragged into the love story of two psychopaths.”
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I shot up and slapped him hard across the face. The force of it snapped his head to the side, sending his glasses flying. Five red fingerprints bloomed on his pale cheek.
His lips trembled, but he had no defense.
Finally, the proud, aloof young man sank to his knees on the cold hospital floor. “I was wrong, brother was wrong,” he choked out, his voice hoarse. “Faye, I wanted too much. I failed to take care of you, and I failed to take care of Sera.”
Tears dripped from his eyes. He looked up at me, his gaze shattered and desperate. “What can I do… what can I do to make you forgive me? Please, Faye. Your aunt and uncle are gone. I just want you to live a good life.”
His trembling hand reached for the hem of my gown. It was a nervous tic, a symptom of his psychological trauma. Whenever these memories surfaced, he couldn’t control the shaking.
But I just backed away slowly, looking down at him. “Ethan, I’m not a fool. I won’t fall for your empty promises anymore.”
With that, I walked out of the room. I left him collapsed on the floor, his body convulsing. He gasped for air, his pale face flushed an unnatural red. He was suffocating, but he still tried to call out to me as I left.
“Faye…” he managed a bleak, broken smile. “Can you really not… forgive your brother?”
Before I could react, someone burst through the door and threw a punch at Ethan. It was Leo, who had been eavesdropping.
He straddled Ethan, tears streaming from his red–rimmed eyes, his voice shaking with rage. “How dare you ask her to forgive you? Are you not happy until you’ve driven her to her death? Do you people have any conscience at all?! How could you do this to her?”
“I’m sorry,” Ethan whispered, before passing out.
Leo scrambled off him, then started punching himself. “You’re all scum. I trusted you so much… but I was terrible to her too. I’m an animal.” The boy covered his eyes, his sobs ran
“Sis, I
was wrong. I shouldn’t have doubted you. All these years, you must have been in so much pain. I regret it. I never meant to treat you like that!”
His hysterics brought the nurses running. Ethan was rushed to emergency, but Leo refused to leave the room. He just stared at me, rooted to the spot.
“Sis, will you come with me? Joey treats you like this… you’ll die if you stay with him. I’m begging you.” His young face was etched with desperation.
