My name is Adrian Hart. The day my sister Serena found me and brought me home, I thought I finally had a family again.

I was wrong.

In Serena's eyes, her adopted brother Evan mattered more than I ever would. When he was too scared to marry into a powerful family, I walked down the aisle for him. When he wanted out, I swallowed a fake-death pill and disappeared. Every time, Serena swore it was the last.

The seventh time, she poured the pill down my throat herself.

And that was the time I actually died.

My soul stayed behind. I watched Serena stand over my body in the morgue and fail to recognize me until it was too late.

And the cruelest part wasn't dying.

It was knowing that, until my very last breath, my sister still wasn't on my side.

The seventh time I married in Evan's place, my sister handed me the bottle again.

"Adrian, this is the last time," Serena said. "Once you help Evan test this marriage, I'll stop standing in the way of the woman you want."

She said it like she was discussing dinner plans, not asking me to risk my life.

"Evan's young. He got spooked by the whole society-marriage thing," she went on. "He's worried Catherine Sinclair might be trouble, so you need to take his place at the wedding first and see what kind of woman she is."

She set the little amber bottle in my palm.

"Same as before. Finish the ceremony, take the pill, and I'll pick you up at St. Mary's Cemetery."

My fingers tightened around the glass.

The doctor had warned me already. My body couldn't take this drug again. One more dose, and I might not wake up.

Serena never believed him. Or maybe she just didn't care enough to.

Before I could say another word, she caught my jaw and tipped the bottle to my lips.

The liquid burned all the way down.

Then the pain hit.

It ripped through my chest and stomach like I had swallowed a fistful of razor blades. I dropped to my knees on the polished floor, choking on half-formed words, my whole body shaking so hard I couldn't even crawl away.

Serena's heels clicked once against the marble.

"Don't make a scene."

By the time darkness swallowed me whole, there were tears in my eyes.

This time, I really died.

But I didn't disappear.

My soul stayed right there, suspended in the cold air, watching as my body was hauled out of an abandoned warehouse near the Bayhaven docks and loaded onto a gurney.

I watched Serena Hart pull on a white protective coat and walk into the autopsy suite.

She was the youngest medical examiner in Bayhaven.

She was also my only sister.

"Anything on identification? Can we narrow down time of death?"

Her assistant, Miles, rubbed a hand over his tired face before answering. "Male, around twenty-one. Dead at least forty-eight hours. Signs of prolonged abuse. Evidence of long-term low-dose poisoning—maybe six months or more. And whoever did this wasn't just trying to kill him. This was personal. Vindictive."

Someone muttered under their breath, "Jesus. That's sick."

Miles exhaled. "DNA should come back in two days."

Serena planted one hand on the edge of the steel table. "Find whoever did this. I don't care what it takes. I want him in court."

Then memory dragged me back to the first day she found me.

I was eighteen when Serena brought me home. She told me I'd gone missing as a child, that our parents had spent years searching for me before they died, and that the only people left in the Hart family were her... and the boy they'd adopted.

She drove out to get me herself in a black Bentley.

I still remember my sweating palms as the gates of Blackwood Manor opened. I thought that maybe I finally had a home.

The second I stepped through the front door, Serena led me toward a pretty young man sprawled across the sitting room sofa and introduced him in the same tone someone might use for a houseguest.

"Adrian, this is Evan. He's getting married tomorrow. The manor's a mess right now, so I've booked you a room at the Grand Regency."

She didn’t ask how I’d been, whether anyone had hurt me, or apologize for being late. I saw the silver at her temple, told myself not to be bitter, and turned to go.

Then Evan caught her sleeve.

He looked up at her with those soft eyes of his. "Serena, I really don't want to marry Catherine Sinclair blind. I've heard she's difficult. Beautiful, sure, but a nightmare."

He glanced at me, all innocence.

"So let Adrian stand in for me first. If she turns out okay, we switch that night and no one has to know. If she doesn't... he can take the pill, disappear, and you can pick someone else for me."

Ice flooded my veins.

Stand in for him? Fake my death?

For a family like the Sinclairs, a stunt like that could get me killed for real.

Serena didn't look the least bit alarmed. "Adrian, I'll handle it. Nobody's going to touch you."

Evan gave me that hurt little smile that always worked on her.

"You don't want to help? I mean... that's fair. You don't really feel connected to this family yet. Even if Serena begged, you wouldn't have to say yes."

That was when something dark flickered in Serena’s eyes—disappointment, irritation, maybe even blame.

Panic hit me hard and fast.

I had grown up with no home and no one waiting for me. Serena had found me.

So I said yes. I stood at the altar in a cathedral lit by a hundred candles, my face half-hidden behind a polite excuse and a carefully timed illness, and married Catherine Sinclair in Evan's place while old money and diamonds glittered in every pew.

I exchanged vows, slid the ring onto her finger, smiled for the photographers, then slipped into the groom's private lounge, uncapped the bottle, and drank.

The second it hit my throat, I knew something was wrong.

This wasn't the soft slide into unconsciousness I'd survived before. It was a full-body wreck.

Like someone had driven red-hot needles into my organs and kept twisting. Sweat soaked through my shirt. I crumpled to the floor while every breath cut like broken glass.

I don't know how long I was out.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in the wet grass at St. Mary's Cemetery.

Cold rain plastered my suit to my skin. Mud seeped into my cuffs.

Headlights sliced across the dark. A moment later, Serena strode toward me in black stilettos, grabbed my arm, and hauled me up like I was a drunk she was embarrassed to be seen with.

"It's just one pill," she snapped. "Did you really have to make yourself look this pathetic?"

I was shaking too hard to answer.

"Evan was worried sick," she said. "You had me driving out here in weather like this. Honestly, Adrian, your timing is unbelievable."

Once. Twice. Six times. Every time, Serena promised me it would be the last. And every time, I put on someone else's tux, wore someone else's ring, and let myself be buried under someone else's name.

I had spent seven lives waiting for her to choose me. She never did.

When the memory broke, I was back in the morgue.

Serena's phone rang.

The second she saw the caller ID, the tension in her face melted into something soft.

"Evan? What is it, sweetheart? Missing me already?"

I didn't need to hear his side to know he was pouting in that spoiled, honey-sweet voice that always got him what he wanted.

"Don't forget to stop by St. Mary's and collect Adrian," he said through the speaker. "And I've made up my mind. Catherine's not happening. I still don't trust her, so have him clean this up properly. No loose ends. And about my thesis? You have to handle that. He stole my structure and data, and my advisor still keeps taking his side. Make Adrian admit it to my face, or I swear I'm never getting over it."

That paper had been mine from the first citation to the last line of methodology. I had built it on sleepless nights and bad coffee. Evan stole my drafts, then cried theft first.

Serena never questioned him.

"All right," she said without hesitation. "I'll take care of it. You stay at the manor, don't go anywhere alone, and text me before you leave the house."

She doted on him for another minute before hanging up.

Then she took off her mask, and the softness vanished.

Miles was still standing nearby, frowning. "I'm serious, Serena. Something feels off. Adrian's been missing for days. I called him again. Nothing."

He hesitated. "Maybe you should try. He'd probably pick up for you."

Serena didn't even think about it.

"I don't have time."

She tossed the words out flat and cold. "He loves attention. Odds are he's sulking somewhere because things didn't go his way. I have a homicide on my table. I am not chasing after Adrian's drama."

Miles looked like he wanted to argue, but thought better of it.

Serena walked back into the autopsy room and started a second examination of my body.

Usually, her hands were steady. This time, when she lifted my left wrist, she froze.

My breath caught with hers.

On the inside of that wrist was a pale crescent scar.

We were children when it happened. Lost in the mountains. I cut myself on a branch, and Serena tore up her little handkerchief to bandage me. She carried me half the way home, crying harder than I was. Back then, she was still soft with me. Back then, she still felt like my sister.

That scar was the one proof I had left that once, a long time ago, she had loved me.

Please, I thought.

Look at it.

Please recognize me.

Her phone rang again.

This time, it was Aunt May.

"Serena, honey, is Adrian with you? He hasn't answered me in days, and I'm starting to worry."

After our parents died, Aunt May was the only one who still slipped me hot meals, folded bills, and quiet kindness when no one was looking.

Serena only frowned.

"Aunt May, spare me. Adrian’s been out of line for a while now. He doesn’t respect anybody."

There was a pause on the other end, then Aunt May said gently, "You two are brother and sister. Talk to him instead of fighting. That boy knows your stomach acts up. He went and got certified in nutrition just so he could cook things you could actually eat. Evan may live there, but Adrian is your brother—"

"Enough."

Serena cut her off so sharply even I flinched.

"Do not compare Adrian to Evan. Adrian is manipulative. He lies. And now he's pulling another disappearing act. I don't have time for it."

She hung up.

Then, with one impatient glance at my wrist, she peeled off her gloves and stepped away from the table.

That was it. She didn’t recognize me.

Noise erupted outside.

A boy who looked like he couldn't be more than seventeen stumbled into the medical examiner's office, eyes red, face wet with tears.

"Please," he said, voice shaking. "Please help me find my brother. He's been gone for two days. I can't reach him."

Serena's whole expression changed. She stepped forward at once, calm and professional.

"Take a breath," she told him. "Start from the beginning."

He said his brother was all he had. Said his brother worked out of town, and he would never vanish without calling.

I stood there listening, something twisting painfully inside me.

His brother had been missing for two days, and he was frantic.

I'd been gone for four.

My sister thought I was pulling another stunt.

In the end, Serena took the boy to file a report.

She chose her words carefully when she told him the office had just received an unidentified young male victim and that, if he wanted, they could begin basic identification procedures.

For a second, it looked like his legs might give out entirely.

Then his phone rang.

A young man's voice burst through the speaker, bright and annoyed. "Where are you? I came back from out of state to surprise you, and the house is empty."

The boy stared, then let out a broken laugh-sob. "Jesus, you scared the hell out of me."

A few minutes later, he was apologizing over and over and sprinting back out the door.

The whole office exhaled in relief.

Only I felt emptier than before.

Two days passed. The field investigators came back one by one, and none of them had anything useful.

Miles's expression darkened by the hour. Finally, he cornered Serena again. "I still think something's wrong with Adrian. He wouldn't just vanish this long for no reason."

Serena had already been in a foul mood because the case was going nowhere. Hearing my name only made it worse.

"I said he's fine."

She grabbed her coat. "And I'm not spending all night on this. I still have to get back to Blackwood in time for Evan's graduation dinner. Adrian can do whatever he wants. I don't care."

Miles's jaw tightened. "He could actually be in trouble."

"If he is, he probably brought it on himself."

Then she walked away.

I stayed where I was, staring after her, my eyes burning.

Even Miles knew this wasn't normal.

Why was the only person who couldn't see it the one who was supposed to know me best?

She had barely reached the door when her phone rang again.

My thesis advisor.

"Hello, is this Adrian Hart's sister? I'm calling because we still haven't resolved the authorship dispute on his graduation paper, and we've been unable to contact him—"

"I don't know where he is."

Serena cut him off without missing a beat.

"And frankly, whether he's dead or alive is not my problem. Stop calling me."

She ended the call, face set like stone, then sent me a text.

[Adrian, have you had enough yet?]

[If you don't show up at Evan's graduation dinner, I'll kill you myself.]

I stared at the message and felt cold all the way through.

I'm not refusing to show up.

I'm lying in the room next to yours, and I can't get up anymore.

That evening, Evan arrived at the morgue carrying an insulated lunch bag that probably cost more than my monthly rent used to.

"I was worried you hadn't eaten," he said. "So I brought soup. And your favorite sandwiches."

Serena's eyes softened instantly. She reached up and smoothed his hair like he was still a child.

"You're the only one who ever thinks of me."

Then, with a bitter little laugh, she added, "Unlike Adrian. He only knows how to make my life harder."

Evan lowered his lashes. "Actually... I ran into Adrian on the way here."

Serena's whole body sharpened. "Where?"

"I tried to say hello, but he got angry the second he saw me. He shoved me."

Evan lifted the hem of his trousers just enough to show the reddened skin at his knee.

Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver pendant.

"He threw this at me too. Said he's done with all of us."

Serena's face turned cold.

But the second Miles saw the pendant, something in his expression changed.

"You said Adrian gave you that?" he asked, voice suddenly serious.

Evan flinched like he'd been accused of something unfair and stepped closer to Serena.

She was already angry. "Miles, I told you he's fine. And now he's putting his hands on Evan? I swear to God, I—"

"That's impossible." Miles cut her off. "This is a silver Saint Christopher medal. It was Adrian's mother's. The last thing she ever left him. He never took it off. Not for showers, not for anything. He would not just throw it away."

Serena pulled out her phone and dialed my number.

Then someone picked up, Serena snapped, "Adrian, get your ass to the examiner's office right now. If you laid a hand on Evan, I swear—"

But the voice that came back wasn't mine.

"Dr. Hart? This is the dockside crime scene unit."

"We found a phone at the primary scene. It belongs to Adrian Hart."

"We believe he may have been murdered."