The Fake Sister’s Lies Couldn’t Silence Me Chapter 01
I came into this world with one problem: I couldn’t shut up.
Most newborns just cried. I was already babbling at the woman in the next bed, keeping her awake half the night.
At five, I wandered off.
The cops tracked me down in the middle of the local park, where I’d tried to set up a blind date for two seniors on a bench.
At thirteen, my eleventh foster family sent me back to the group home.
On the drive back, I talked the driver’s ear off for the entire ride. He missed seven turns.
By the time he pulled up to the group home, his eyes were red, and he was practically begging.
“Kid, I like you. I do.”
“But I haven’t been able to finish a single sentence since we left.”
When I was seventeen, Mom married into the Calder family and finally remembered she had a daughter.
They threw me a welcome dinner that night.
Dinner hadn’t even started when my new stepsister, Sloane Calder, came downstairs in tears.
“Tessa told me she’s the only daughter this family needs. She said I should leave.”
“Maybe I should just skip dinner. I don’t want to upset her.”
My stepbrother Brennan Calder’s jaw tightened.
“First day here and she’s already bullying Sloane? Who does she think she is?”
The whole family came looking for a confrontation. They found me in the security office.
I was sharing a bag of pretzels and helping Mr. Keene, the estate security guard, draft a text to win back his online girlfriend.
Sloane stopped crying.
Brennan glared at me. “So you’re already trying to push Sloane out?”
I threw my hands up.
“Your house is so boring. There’s nobody to talk to in there.”
“But down here? Eight monitors, six radios, security alerts going off. This place is where the action is.”
…
Mr. Keene looked like he might cry.
“Tessa said she’d visit me in the nursing home.”
Mom looked mortified.
She dragged me back to my new bedroom and locked the door from the outside.
I was completely alone.
A few minutes of silence and my skin was already crawling.
A couple of minutes later, I dialed a random customer service hotline.
“Hello, how may I help you?”
A human voice. I exhaled.
“Nothing. I just wanted to ask… how’s the weather out there?”
A beat of silence.
“Ma’am, is there anything else I can help with?”
“Yeah. What’d you have for lunch?”
Half an hour later, the agent was practically in tears, begging me to just hang up and leave a five-star review.
The next morning, the Calders shipped me off to Westbridge Academy, their fancy private school.
Mom gripped my arm at the drop-off line and gave me the talk.
“Tessa, keep your head down.”
“These kids come from serious money. Don’t just walk up to everyone like they’re your new best friend.”
I nodded. Dead serious.
One minute through the doors, I was helping Mr. Boone, the campus security guard, pick out a gift for his ex-wife’s second wedding.
By minute three, the dean and I were bonding over our favorite reality TV judges.
By minute ten, I had rewritten the dating profile for Ms. Rowan’s son.
Half an hour in, my voice was coming through the school intercom.
“Hello, hello… can everyone hear me?”
“Heads up… the mac and cheese in the main cafeteria has extra butter today. If you’re counting carbs, steer clear. If you’re stressed, dig in.”
The entire student body lost it.
I stepped out of the broadcast room to a literal crowd.
Kids were begging for the cafeteria’s secret menu. Someone shouted for me to join their study hall. A couple of guys shoved notes into my hands to pass along.
Sloane stood frozen in the middle of the hallway, the color draining from her face.
The girl next to her waved me over, grinning.
“Tessa! Sit with us at lunch!”
Sloane’s eyes welled up with tears.
“She’s my best friend.”
It clicked. I linked arms with the girl, beaming.
“Perfect. The three of us can be a trio.”
“You’re Athos, Sloane is Porthos, and I’ll be the horse.”
The girl cracked up.
Sloane ran off crying.
That night, the Calders called their first-ever family meeting.
Brennan slammed a stack of printed social media logs onto the dining table.
“Four hundred new followers. On your first day.”
“Tessa, you think that’s normal?”
I leaned over and skimmed the list.
“You’re off by three.”
“You missed the principal, the school nurse, and the barista across the street.”
Brennan just stared at me.
Sloane was crying so hard her shoulders shook.
“She went after every single one of my friends on purpose.”
“She’s trying to take everything from me.”
I jumped in.
“No, no, no.”
“Your friends are your friends. I’m just borrowing them for a conversation. I always give them back.”
“Besides, people aren’t phone chargers. You can’t just steal someone’s friends.”
Mom pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Tessa, this has to stop.”
Brennan slid a printed page across the table. The header was in bold block letters.
[Seventy-Two-Hour Communication Blackout]
“Starting tomorrow, no one at Westbridge speaks to you.”
“Blocked online. No calls. Complete silence.”
My smile dropped.
“Not even one word?”
Brennan didn’t blink.
“You’re not gonna die from a little silence.”
I looked at Mom, grabbing her sleeve.
She refused to meet my eyes.
“Tessa, this is for your own good.”
“Just get through three days. You’ll survive.”
I stared at the table, pulling out my phone to set a seventy-two-hour timer.
Whenever one of my previous eleven foster families was getting ready to send me back, it always started exactly like this. The silence.
They stopped answering. Stopped looking at me. They never even told me what I did wrong.
Three days later, I’d be packing my bags.
The next morning, the student council mandate went out.
The second I stepped into the hallway, every conversation died.
One by one, right to my face, everyone pulled out their phones and blocked me.
