Chapter 1 My Sister Killed Me

"It's all your fault, Daisy! You're just jealous that men want me and not you!" Rose Neal shrieked. We were on the rooftop as she screamed at me hysterically, "If it hadn't been for you, I'd be the one marrying him today!" Rose's outburst was triggered by the wedding taking place right beneath us in the building. Wilson Langley, a wealthy scion in Jamerton, had organized an extravagant wedding ceremony for his bride, a young woman who came from nothing. It was a real modern-day Cinderella story. Before I could wrap my head around the situation, Rose pushed me down the building, sobbing, "What gives you the right to make decisions about my life on my behalf? This is what you deserve for doing that!" As my body plunged to the ground, I wondered if I'd really made a mistake. I saw the message Wilson sent to Rose. With an air of superiority, he made her an offer. He would give her 100 thousand dollars a month and provide her with accommodation in exchange for her being at his beck and call. Moreover, she wasn't allowed to interfere with his private life, nor was she allowed to develop any feelings or attachment for him. He was also the only one who had the right to terminate their relationship. When I saw that message, I didn't think it was a genuine attempt to pursue a romantic relationship with Rose. It was just a sugar daddy looking for a sugar baby. In any case, wealthy scions like Wilson often wanted nothing more than to fool around and have fun. Women from ordinary families like ours couldn't afford to play this game with them. Furthermore, Rose and I had spent over a decade focusing on our education for the sole purpose of building meaningful, purposeful lives for ourselves. We didn't work so hard just to become someone else's plaything. Besides, Rose had a boyfriend named Samuel Cohen. They'd been dating for four years, and he'd just gotten a stable job with the government. Rose had also been accepted for the teaching position she applied for. The two were about to get married as well. What she had was the ideal situation that guaranteed a peaceful, blissful life. Therefore, after seeing the message from Wilson, I secretly deleted it. It didn't want to let it disrupt her life. All along, I assumed Rose and Wilson would never cross paths again. However, after three years of marriage, Rose still couldn't conceive, so she kept heading to the hospital for checkups and fertility treatments. She even wanted to try in vitro fertilization. This was how she ended up running into Wilson, who was accompanying his girlfriend to her prenatal checkup. After taking in the weary-looking Rose, Wilson mocked, "Is this the life you chose for yourself after rejecting me?" Thus, Rose found out about the message. That very day itself, she came to my research lab, shredded all my books, and berated me right in public. She demanded to know why I didn't tell her about the message and accused me of doing it out of malice. Only then did I recall that incident. "You were about to get married by then, and the invitations had already been sent out. Were you seriously going to dump your fiance and become some guy's sugar baby just because of that one message?" I asked. "Others can do it, so why can't I?" Rose questioned right back. "Do you know the kind of life I missed out on? I could've married rich and become a wealthy socialite! I wouldn't have to bear the scorn of others just because I can't conceive. I wouldn't have to make so many trips to the hospital. I wouldn't be crying my eyes out all the time. I wouldn't have developed depression! "So what if I'm just a sugar baby? All that matters is money!" At the time, I thought Rose had gone mad. Still sobbing, she lamented, "I'll have you know that his girlfriend doesn't even have half my figure or my looks. She's worse off in every way, so why does she get to be with him and not me?" I reminded Rose that Samuel, her husband, treated her extremely well, too. Even after several years of marriage, his feelings for her hadn't diminished at all. Not only that, no one faulted her for not being able to conceive. Samuel's parents told her she could take it easy. Even if she couldn't have a baby, it wouldn't be a big deal. It wasn't as though anyone insisted that she had to have one. Alas, it was Rose who was stubborn about it. She didn't want to be outdone by others, so she put herself under far too much pressure to have a baby. I even went so far as to dissect the situation further with her. She and Wilson came from two entirely different worlds. Their values and perspectives on life were vastly different. There was undoubtedly a class divide between them, and Wilson clearly just wanted to fool around with her. Since Wilson already had a girlfriend, Rose said nothing after that heated argument we had. Nevertheless, from then on, whenever she faced the slightest inconvenience in life, she would take her anger out on me, verbally abusing me and cursing me out. Often, I spent my nights crying after reading the sarcastic, passive-aggressive rants she sent me. We were twin sisters. Why did she have to behave like this? My apologies meant nothing to her. She didn't bother listening to them. I knew that I was wrong to have done what I did, so I put up with her treatment of me. Things went on like this until the day Wilson's lavish wedding with his Cinderella bride made the headlines. Rose came looking for me. She dragged me to the top of the building where the ceremony was being held and choked me, screaming, "It's all your fault! If it hadn't been for you, my life wouldn't have been this hard! I could've been Mrs. Wilson Langley! "Even someone like her can marry him, so why can't I? All the media channels would be reporting about me and my wedding right now if you hadn't ruined my happiness!" Rose had no clue that Wilson's bride, the so-called Cinderella, had been Wilson's classmate when he studied abroad. She'd capitalized on the trends by becoming an influencer and selling products online, eventually starting a company that even got publicly listed. Many of the articles had written about her self-made rags-to-riches story, but Rose ignored all of that. All she focused on was how the woman came from an even poorer background than we did. She also blamed it all on me. The moment my body hit the ground, I felt nothing but agony. Just before I lost consciousness, I swore that if I could turn back time, I would respect everyone's right to choose their own fates. I would no longer try to look out for Rose. All of a sudden, a voice rang out. "Are you sure about that?" "I am," I replied with firm conviction. To my shock, I was indeed reborn. I had come back to the day Wilson sent that message.