"Is there anything about you that''s worth trusting?" Zelda''s voice was sharp, like the edge of a knife. "Callie, do you remember all the trouble you''ve caused over these years?" Zelda continued, her eyes zing with anger. "How many times have you tried to hurt Lisette, and you think we don''t know?" "When you were ten, you pushed Lisette into the pool at your birthday party. She nearly drowned, remember?"


    "Then, when you were twelve, you shoved her down the stairs, and she broke her leg. Ring a bell?" "And when you turned fifteen, you orchestrated her kidnapping, and worse... You conveniently forgot that, didn''t you?"


    Zelda''s usations hung in the air like a thick fog.


    Calliope stood stoically, the memories swirling back like a relentless tide.


    She said quietly, "what if I told you that when I was ten, Lisette pushed me first? We both ended up in the water, but you saved her while I had to crawl out alone.


    At twelve, she shoved me, and I just reacted.


    And at fifteen..."


    Calliope paused, her mind reying the events she had lived and relived countless times. Each incident, each betrayal orchestrated by Lisette, was deep in her memory.


    At fifteen, Lisette had staged her own kidnapping. She had turned Calliope into the viin, the


    scapegoat for her own


    machinations. While Calliope''s\


    reputationy in ruins, Lisette


    basked in the sympathy of everyone around her.


    But nobody knew Lisette had hired the real kidnappers or that Calliope had narrowly escaped their clutches through sheer grit and


    determination. In her moment of


    greatest need, when she was ones


    desperate forfort, everyone had rushed to console Lisette,


    Calliope had been the victim, yet she became the used.


    "Callie, isn''t it enough?" Zelda snapped, breaking the silence. "Do you think we don''t know who did what?


    You always try to pin it on Lisette, but she would never do such things!"


    Zelda''s refusal to hear her side of


    the story was a familiar sting. Calliope had long abandoned hope that Zelda would ever believe her. She preferred Lisette''s lies over Callie''s truth.


    Valerian interjected, trying to mediate. "Callie, don''t me Mom for being harsh. You shouldn''t have hurt Lisette.


    "Lisette''s different," he added as if that exined everything. "She''s not like you. She''s always been innocent, and you''re... well, you know."


    Calliope crossed her arms, a bitter smile ying on her lips. "So, it''s all my fault? Everything''s always my fault, right?"


    Inwardly, she wondered if they would ever regret their choices. Would they feel even a twinge of remorse if she were gone?


    The thought lingered and was unanswered as she faced the people who should have been her family but had chosen to believe in shadows.