n her shoulders, watching cars rush past without slowing down, their headlights flashing across her face while warm evening wind brushed against her skin. Texas felt nothing like home

dded politely and thanked him, and he studied her tired expression for a moment before offering a small smile. "First time living alone?" She hes

smiling anyway, because for the first time in a long while, nobody was shouting, nobody was banging on doors, and nobody was reminding her that she was unwanted. She placed her suitcase

, and everything smelled faintly of coffee and fresh bread. She grabbed necessities carefully pasta, bread, eggs, soap, cheap, cereal checking price tags twice before placing anything into her cart, and her fingers tightened around the handle when

beat stumbling in her chest. The woman in the advertisement looked exactly like her. Not similar, not close, but exactly the same eyes, the same lips, the same dark hair framing the same face Isabella had stared at in mirrors her entire life. The o

online billionaire family, fashion icon, makeup ambassador. People are completely obsessed with her." Isabella barely heard the rest, because she was still staring at the woman's face, at her own face, while a strange chill crept slowly down her spine. "Do people ever tell her" she

ess growing inside her chest, but it didn't help. After changing into comfortable clothes she sat cross-legged on her bed with her university papers spread around her class schedules, campus maps, registration forms and told herself to focus. Tomorrow would be her first day at one of the most prestigious universities in

omeone better than the girl she had left behind. She got ready carefully, taking extra time brushing her hair and choosing an outfit that looked decent without appearing like she had tried too hard, though her hands moved a little slower than usual and she caught hersel

e students walked confidently through crowded pathways lined with trees and fountains, and everything about it looked expensive and purposeful and alive. Isabell

and whispers spread through the crowd almost instantly she's here already, did you know her family owns half of Houston and Isabella frowned slightly at the name before her stomach could even tighten. The driver stepped out

either of them moved while students around them began murmuring louder, some reaching for their phones, voices layering over each other in disbelief wait, what, they look exactly

blankness she was trying to hold onto, the faint tremor at the corner of her mouth that gave her away. Mirabella looked more polished and controlled than anyone Isabella had ever stood beside, the kin

ring Mirabella's voice felt like hearing her own the same tone, the same softness running underneath the words. Mirabella crossed her arms slowly, t

epped even closer to Isabella, her eyes searching Isabella's face carefully, almost desperately, as though she were trying to find the flaw that would explain everyth

silver necklace hanging around Isabella's neck the small crescent-shaped pendant resting at its center and the s