Chapter 1 - The Robe
Everyone came to our eighteenth birthday party expecting to watch my twin sister shine.
No one knew Chloe had planned to make me bleed without touching me.
The backyard looked like something pulled from a luxury summer magazine: pink and white balloons floating above the pool, candles glowing along the stone deck, roses climbing the gazebo, and nearly two hundred guests laughing under warm string lights. Music shook the glass doors of our house. Phones were already out before anything even happened.
Chloe loved being watched.
She stood near the pool in a yellow bikini and a white birthday sash, blonde hair shining under the lights, one hand wrapped around a black microphone. She looked perfect in the way girls like Chloe always managed to look perfect—like the world had been arranged to flatter her.
I stood across the patio in a thick white bathrobe.
Underneath it, I wore the blue bikini she had chosen for me.
The same one she had texted me about for weeks.
We match or you ruin the pictures.
I had stared at that message for almost ten minutes when it arrived.
For twelve years, I had hidden my body beneath hoodies, sweaters, long sleeves, and oversized clothes. I did not wear tank tops. I did not swim. I did not let sunlight touch my shoulders where people could see.
Not because I was shy.
Because my skin told a story my family had spent years begging me not to tell.
My father, Richard, stood just inside the patio doors in a pale summer suit, one hand gripping the handle. His face was tense. Protective. Afraid.
He knew Chloe.
He also knew me.
When the music suddenly cut off and a microphone screeched across the yard, every guest turned toward Chloe.
She smiled.
“Maya,” she called brightly. “You’ve been hiding under that robe all afternoon.”
A few people laughed.
I felt my stomach tighten.
Chloe tilted her head, pretending innocence. “We agreed we’d match today, didn’t we?”
I said nothing.
She pointed at me.
“So take it off.”
The yard went quiet for one sharp second.
Then one of her friends started clapping.
Slow.
Mocking.
Another joined.
Then another.
Within seconds, the chant spread across the pool deck.
“Take it off!”
“Take it off!”
“Take it off!”
Phones lifted higher.
Chloe’s smile sharpened.
She thought she had trapped me.
Through the glass, my father moved forward like he was about to storm outside.
I looked at him and shook my head once.
No.
Not today.
I walked toward the center of the patio, every step heavier than the last.
Chloe leaned into the microphone, voice sweet as poison.
“Go ahead, Maya… let everyone see the monster you’ve been hiding.”
May you like
The crowd laughed.
So I untied the robe.
