"I don't remember."

It was the first lie I ever told in front of my whole family.

Audrey panicked at once.

"How can you not remember? Don't you keep every single letter?"

Wesley walked in from outside just then.

He only caught the second half.

"Why would you be keeping Nightide's letters?"

Audrey shot up like she'd been startled.

"Wesley, don't blame my sister."

"She's just... she's always envied us."

Mom sighed too.

"Rita's always been the brooding type. Whatever Audie has, she wants it."

I looked at Wesley.

This was the third time.

At the airport, when I tried to say I was Nightide, he said first that I loved to steal my sister's things.

At the bookstore, when I tried to say those habits were mine, he said I was copying her.

Now, before I'd said a word, he'd already believed them.

Wesley said coldly, "Delete them."

"Those are private, between me and Nightide."

I asked, "And if I don't?"

"Then I can only assume you have feelings about her and me that you shouldn't."

Audrey tugged at his sleeve.

"Don't be like this. My sister's just very lonely."

The way she pleaded for me looked so gentle, so kind.

Suddenly I felt exhausted.

"Fine."

I said, "I'll deal with it."

Wesley thought I'd agreed to delete them, and his face softened.

But that night I exported everything from seven years, every email, every chat log, every scanned letter, and handed it all to Sadie Abbott.

Sadie was my classmate from college, now an editor at a publishing house.

She read through the whole folder and went quiet for a long time.

"You came to ask me how to win the man back?"

"No."

"Then what do you want?"

I looked at the titles of eighty-four letters on the screen.

"My name."

Sadie nodded.

"Then the first thing is copyright registration records."

"As for the man, he's worthless. Not covered by protection."

I let out a soft laugh.

Three days later, Wesley announced he'd be holding an exhibition of the seven years of letters between Nightide and Stillmount.

He said anonymous letters had carried him through the hardest seven years of his life.

He wanted to give Nightide a proper beginning, in front of every reader.

Audrey was so thrilled she didn't sleep all night.

Mom dug out the paper letters I'd saved and picked through them for her, one by one.

"This one's beautifully written. Put it first."

"This line's romantic too. He can read it out during the proposal."

I reached for them.

But Mom clutched the box to her chest.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Those are my letters."

"Yours? How are they yours?" Dad pushed a document across to me. "Audie can't write. You just tidied up a few lines for her, that's all."

The title read Work Authorization and Ghostwriting Statement.

It said all writing published under the name "Nightide" belonged, in true emotion and creative authorship, to Audrey, and that I was only responsible for the ghostwriting.

I stared at those few lines, my fingers going cold, one degree at a time.

"Who told you I was writing on her behalf?"

Mom lost her patience.

"In real life the one Wesley likes is Audie. Doesn't that prove enough?"

"Rita, you've taken the older-sister spot for twenty-five years. Now all she wants is one person who genuinely likes her, and you still have to take that too?"

"I didn't take her spot."

My voice shook. "I'm the one who's your daughter."

"So is she!" Mom slammed the table. "Which is exactly why you should give way to her!"

Dad pointed at the authorization.

"Sign it."

"We're family. If this gets out, how does that look for any of us?"

I didn't sign.

The next day, I went to the exhibition hall.

A huge poster hung at the entrance.

A girl in a red dress standing by the sea, her smile bright and vivid.

The poster read:

【Nightide, real name Audrey Hughes.】

【Seven years of letters, revealed for the first time.】

And the name I'd written under for seven years was set in one line of tiny text at the very bottom of the poster.

【Text compilation: Rita Hughes.】

The day of the exhibition, Mom laid out a black dress for me.

"Don't wear red."

"Today is Audrey's day," she said. "Don't let anyone get the wrong idea."

I looked at the dress, the kind you'd wear to a funeral, and didn't reach for it.

"I'm not going."

Dad's face went dark at once.

"The account is in your hands. At the end, the exhibition has to link back to the original inbox."

"If you don't go, what happens to the proposal?"

So they'd never wanted me there to witness anything.

They just needed me to finish the last step.

Audrey came out of her room in the red dress from the airport.

She said quietly, "Sis, help me one last time."

"Once Wesley proposes, I won't bother you again."

"One last time?"

I looked at her. "At the airport, you also said half an hour."

She looked away.

Then Mom grabbed my arm.

"If you make a scene today, we'll pretend we never had you."

I laughed.

"Haven't you always pretended that already?"

The hall was crowded.

My letters hung on the walls.

*Everdawn, I turned eighteen today.*

*Everdawn, Mom says again that I have everything, so I should be good and let others come first.*

*Everdawn, if we ever meet someday, will you know me at first sight?*

Beneath every letter was Audrey's name.

Some praised her devotion.

Some praised her talent.

She stood beside Wesley and took in all of it.

A reporter asked her, "In seven years, what's your most unforgettable memory?"

She smiled and said, "Every single day."

Wesley glanced at her.

The hesitation in that look ran deeper than before.

But he still took her hand.

When the host introduced me, all he said was:

"This is Miss Audrey Hughes's older sister, the one who put the letters into words."

Someone in the audience sighed.

"The little sister falls in love, the big sister writes her love letters. So sweet."

"With writing that good, the sister must have given her a lot of real feeling to work with."

I stood backstage and didn't explain.

Before the proposal began, Wesley came to me to connect the account.

He said in a low voice, "Don't embarrass Audrey today."

"After this is over, I'll get her to sit down and talk things out with you."

I asked, "Do you still remember what else there was, besides the red dress, when we agreed to meet seven years ago?"

He froze.

"How do you know there was something else?"

"Audrey didn't tell you?"

His face changed, just slightly.

Behind him, Mom's voice came.

"Wesley, Audrey's looking for you."

He hesitated a few seconds, then turned and walked away.

Onstage, the lights came up.

Wesley stood before a backdrop wall made of eighty-four letters, reading my words out loud, line by line.

"Audrey, you told me the thing you fear most is being left behind."

"From today on, I'll never make you wait again."

He dropped to one knee and took out the ring.

Audrey covered her mouth, crying, and nodded.

As the applause broke out, Mom gripped my hand hard.

"You see it now?"

"The one Wesley loves is her."

"After today, you hand over the account, and you never bring this up again."

She squeezed my wrist until it went pale.

But I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

As they embraced, the big screen suddenly went black.

Staff rushed to check the wiring.

A few seconds later, the screen lit up again.

Not the proposal photos.

An email.

Sent seven years ago.

Delivered today.

The subject line read: *To Everdawn, Seven Years From Now*.

The first line appeared slowly.

*Wesley, I'm Rita.*

The applause in the hall died away, little by little.

The second line jumped out after it.

*When we meet, you have to call me by the right name first.*

The smile on Wesley's face vanished completely.

Across the whole crowded room, he slowly turned his head.

For the first time, he truly looked at me.