Late love

Chapter One

Three years. Three years I spent rotting in prison for my brother, and three years they’d neglected to visit. Then, my parole officer told me the news. The Gu family found their “real” daughter, showered her with love and attention.

Turns out, Mama never made me take the rap for my brother. It was for her secret, newly-found, fake daughter.

Memories flooded back. A tidal wave of a past life. This life wasn’t a switch; I was their daughter, their sister, for seventeen years. And they still didn’t love me.

So, screw it. I didn’t need them.

My release day coincided with a lavish birthday bash for their precious “SuSu” White. It was the same opulent spectacle as every one of my own seventeen birthdays – only this time, I wasn’t the princess. I was a convict in a faded, worn-out high school uniform.

The room fell silent. All eyes were on me – disdain, disgust, and something akin to revulsion plastered on every face.

My brother, Dustin Gu, sneered. “Vanished for three years, huh? And you show up looking like this? It’s SuSu’s birthday, what’s the point of showing your face like this?”

Vanished?

I turned to my mother, her eyes darting away, and my voice cracked. “Didn’t you tell him where I was?”

Before she could answer, Dustin cut her off. “Grace Gu, how dare you even mention it? You fell for some lowlife thug, ran off with him. Mom couldn’t stop you, and the guy almost killed her! SuSu saved Mom; if it weren’t for SuSu calling the cops, your mother would be dead!”

A sharp pain stabbed my heart. Tears welled up. In my last life, I was swapped at birth, and spent seventeen miserable years as an outsider. When the Gus finally found me, all I wanted was their love, so I tiptoed around them. But they said SuSu was their daughter, and they couldn’t punish her for her mother’s mistake. I was just a beggar, watching their happy family from afar. And then, because Mom called my name, “Grace,” in the fire, I died trying to save her.

This time, I saw SuSu just after the switch, and I pushed myself off the crib, my head hitting the floor. The crying alerted the nurses; a simple blood test revealed the mistake, and they put things right. This time, I had received their love – Dustin, especially, practically worshipped me. A blister from new shoes? He flew to France for a hundred pairs of the softest lambskin. Allergic to shellfish but loved shrimp? He learned molecular gastronomy to replicate the taste and texture with freshwater fish. When I was harassed by some thugs, he, the ever-elegant young master, beat them to a pulp.

So, when my mother asked me to take the fall for my brother on the eve of my eighteenth birthday, I didn’t hesitate. It was for my brother, the man who loved me unconditionally in this life, the man I yearned for in the last.

But now, he looked at me with the same chilling indifference, the same disgust… and a disappointment I couldn’t decipher.

It felt like a thousand knives twisting in my chest. I stumbled back, realizing they never loved me. It had nothing to do with my seventeen years with them. But the injustice gnawed at me. I finally said, “So, you and Dustin think I ran off with a thug? You didn’t even visit me in prison for three years?”

“Grace!” My mother’s voice was sharp with fear. She was terrified I’d reveal the truth about SuSu. Even though I was her daughter, even though I’d been by her side for seventeen years… Just because I looked more like my dad and SuSu looked more like her, she immediately chose SuSu.

The searing pain of the fire engulfed me once more.

Dustin frowned. “Prison? Mom, what else are you hiding?”

My mother stammered, her composure shattering. “It’s nothing… Grace accidentally killed that thug… I knew you’d be devastated if you knew she was in prison, so I didn’t tell you.”

She glanced at me, her eyes pleading. She wanted me to take the blame, to protect SuSu. But she’d used my deep connection with Dustin to manipulate me into taking the fall in the first place. And now, after I served SuSu’s time, she couldn’t even give me the truth.

My body trembled, my fingernails digging into my palms.

Dustin looked stunned. He noticed my uniform – the one I wore in high school, three years ago. I’d grown taller, the uniform too small. His brow furrowed. “Mom sent money to your account every week, supposedly for you. You didn’t have many expenses in prison, so why are you dressed like this? Are you still upset we didn’t use our connections to get you out?”

His words were laced with icy disbelief. My hope that he was a victim, too, crumbled.

I let out a bitter laugh. “I didn’t get a cent.”

Three years of hell. From the moment I arrived, I never saw a dime from the Gus. The prison provided food and shelter, but personal items required money. My first period, I couldn’t afford sanitary pads; I stained my uniform, and my cellmate, whose father had been fired by the Gus and was now a drunkard beating her, beat me up because of it. She blamed me for everything. I had no way to explain that I was not the same person as SuSu, since I was the public face of the Gu family’s daughter. I could only beg her forgiveness, accepting blame for things I didn’t understand. My desperation, my absolute misery was the only way to survive. But on release day, I still had nothing. The prison guard sighed, giving me back my old uniform.

“Your family isn’t here?” Her pity was palpable.

Now Dustin thought I was lying. “Impossible. Mom deposited $30,000 into your account every week, religiously.”

“Grace, you killed someone and you’re lying. You’re not one of us. You’ll never change.”

Whispers rippled through the crowd. “Like mother, like daughter,” people muttered. Someone even threw their wine in my face.

Then, a young woman in a business suit stepped forward. “Mr. Gu, I know what happened,” she spoke up. She was a new accountant at the company. She didn’t know the Gus’s dirty secrets, only that she felt pity for me. “Grace’s card had a limit; she could only receive $2000 a month. I asked for your approval, and you said to give the money to Miss White.”

“So, for three years, your mother’s money went to Miss White’s account.”

Dustin froze. He vaguely remembered that. He’d been consumed by my betrayal, furious that Mom was still sending money to me, wanting me to suffer.

I’d served SuSu’s time, received nothing, while she’d thrived on my suffering. He finally grasped the horror of my three years.

My mother showed a flicker of guilt. Maybe she finally remembered me. Tears welled in her eyes. But I didn’t need them anymore.

I turned to leave. SuSu intercepted me, dropping to her knees. “Grace, I’m so sorry! I panicked and called the cops. But I couldn’t watch you kill Mom; she loved you so much, and you let some thug hurt her! I never had that kind of love, I couldn’t stand it!”

Dustin’s guilt vanished. He remembered his mother’s ordeal. His face hardened. “SuSu, get up. You did nothing wrong. She almost killed Mom, and prison is too good for her. Three more years wouldn’t even teach her a lesson!”

SuSu reluctantly stood, but I saw the triumphant glint in her eyes. A mocking smile. A taunt. “You’re nothing but a parasite; this is just the beginning. I’ll take everything back that you stole from me.”

Before I could react, SuSu burst into tears, but her silent tears were a manipulation. Dustin saw it, the tender pity in his eyes. My mother embraced SuSu, murmuring comfort. Dustin turned back to me.

“Kneel!”

Everyone was shocked. My mother tried to intervene, then fell silent.

I refused.

“You almost killed Mom, and you stole SuSu’s place for years, letting her suffer abuse from your own mother. You owe her a kneel. No, you need to bow your head and apologize!”

His words were perfectly crafted. But I knew that in my last life, once I was found, SuSu never apologized. I didn’t even have my own room. Now, SuSu experienced what she should have experienced, and I had to kneel?

A bitter smile touched my lips. “Mom, do you think I should kneel, too?”

She averted her gaze. Dustin saw my refusal as defiance. “Grace Gu! I’ve spoiled you rotten!”

The guards seized my shoulders and forced me to my knees. The pain in my knees was nothing compared to the agony in my heart. Years of kneeling in prison had ruined them. The guards released me, and I collapsed. Dustin, thinking I was resisting, kicked me across the room. A searing pain ripped through my insides. He ordered the guards to drag me away.

Then, my cellmate burst in, shouting, “You Gus are monsters! You made your own daughter take the fall for a stepsister and now you’re going to let her die?”