Chapter 2The Choice

My life replayed like a movie reel.

My name was Lily Sterling. Until I was ten, I thought I had two mothers. One in real life, and one in a phone.

The real one was my Aunt Elena. The phone one was my biological mother.

When I was three, the family business hit a crisis. To "protect" me from the instability, I was sent to live with Aunt Elena. She was young, single, an artist who smelled of coffee and paint.

She was the one who held me when I had nightmares. She was the one who braided my hair and bought me dresses.

When I was seven, she told me my mother had given birth to a sister, Maya. She said I’d be going back soon because the family was wealthy again.

I asked, "Can I eat less food? If I eat less, can I stay?"

Elena cried that night.

I returned to the Sterling estate when I was ten. I walked into a mansion that felt like a museum. And there was Maya—three years old, clinging to our mother, who looked at her with a tenderness I had never seen.

I was the intruder.

Maya was the sun; I was the shadow. Maya was allergic to nothing; I was allergic to seafood. My parents constantly forgot. They’d order shrimp for dinner and then look at me with vague annoyance when I couldn't eat.

But Maya... Maya loved me. She was the only one who didn't treat me like a guest. She’d sneak into my bed during thunderstorms. She’d tell everyone, "My big sister is the best."

So, at fourteen, when we were kidnapped for the first time by human traffickers, I protected her. We were saved by a boy named Julian, another victim who managed to get help. I took a beating meant for Maya that put me in the ICU for weeks.

My parents cried then. But they looked at me with guilt, not love.