Chapter 1

I’m a well-known songwriter in the States, and turns out I’m also the long-lost daughter of the Carter family.

But no matter what track I drop, my stepsister, Ashley Carter, always seems to release something similar first.

Everyone thinks I’m a copycat. Overnight, I became public enemy number one.

Ashley even twisted the truth online, doxxed me, and sicced her fans on me.

Some of her crazed followers sent me death threats, and even worse, they ran over Nana, leaving her in a coma.

To pay for Nana’s medical bills, my biological parents strong-armed me into ghostwriting for Ashley, turning her into a musical prodigy.

Finally, after Nana passed, I couldn’t take the pressure anymore. I tried to end it all.

This time around, I’ve decided to quit the music scene and just chill.

But my “genius” sister and my loaded parents are losing their minds.

The pain felt so real, still clinging to me. My heart was pounding, like it wanted to burst out of my chest and escape.

I was about to hit the keys on my piano, when I was overcome by a wave of dizziness and fell to the floor.

Then I saw Ashley Carter’s face in my mind.

After the Gold Melody Awards, I was a nobody, a pathetic plagiarist, while she flaunted her trophy and rubbed it in my face.

“Zoe, whatever you come up with, I’ll know. Just try me.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that whatever arrangement I was working on, Ashley would always somehow manage to put out something similar, just a bit earlier.

I picked myself up from the floor, took a deep breath, and sat back down. In my head, I randomly put together a few notes and entered them into my music software.

With that done, I went to the door of another room on the second floor.

This was Ashley’s designated songwriting space. I quietly turned the doorknob and saw her with her headphones on, rocking out to her tunes, clearly having a fun time.

But on another computer screen was a musical score, an exact copy of the random thing I had just cobbled together.

I hadn’t shown that arrangement to anyone. How did she get her hands on it?

I closed the door quietly and went back to my own room, carefully looking at everything in it.

She couldn’t just read my mind, right? There had to be something I was missing.

My first thought was a hidden camera, so I searched every nook and cranny of the room, but came up empty.

Mind-reading probably wouldn’t happen out of thin air. It would probably need a medium, and with this idea, I dug out the gifts that they gave me one by one.

They didn’t give me a whole lot: a cheap trinket from a gift shop that couldn’t have cost more than 50 bucks, a bracelet, some headphones, and a keyboard.

They weren’t worth much, but they came from my biological parents, so they had some sentimental value.

But this time around, I know the truth. They only brought me back to use me. There was no love there.

Without a second thought, I got rid of everything. Burned it all to ashes.

I sat back down at my computer, this time even disconnecting it from the internet and my phone.

I wrote a little ditty, maybe twenty seconds long, and posted it on my social media.

It didn’t take long for the trolls to start swarming my comment section.

“Doesn’t this sound just like something Ashley Carter would do?”

“Wow, I can’t believe someone as famous as Zoe would steal someone else’s work. And so obvious, too. How shameless can you be?”

I checked out Ashley Carter’s page, and of course, she had posted the exact same tune, five minutes earlier than me.

Chapter 2

Ever since I came back to the Carter’s place, I had been focused on creating the best song for the competition that I hadn’t been watching Ashley’s account.

But one look was enough to make my heart jump into my throat.

The music she was posting on her page was exactly like mine.

There were even some little snippets I had come up with on the spur of the moment.

And now, all those arrangements were up for public consumption on Ashley Carter’s page.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. How was this even possible?

Some of the music was stuff I was privately perfecting for an international competition. No one but me knew about it. And some of it I had written with my professor. How did she get her hands on it?

I couldn’t touch the unfinished tracks on my computer. I squeezed my hands together, trying to calm myself down.

There had to be something else going on here, something I hadn’t figured out yet.

I’ve loved music since I was a kid. I went to a top music academy, and I won a Gold Melody Award right after I started out. I’ve kept that title for five years straight.

She might be able to read my mind, but she can’t take away my skills and my talent.

I gradually calmed down, my resolve hardening.

Looking at the computer in front of me, I had an idea. I turned it off, grabbed some paper, and started writing music the old-fashioned way.

After who knows how long, a short arrangement was right there on the page. I took a picture of it and posted it online.

Sure enough, Ashley Carter’s account posted the exact same arrangement, again five minutes before me.

My comment section exploded with insults and curses.

“Looks like a classy girl, but she’s just a thief, copying other people’s stuff twice in a row.”

“I used to like her, but she’s just a plagiarizing bitch. So disgusting.”

Ashley Carter even started a live stream, crying and asking everyone to understand me.

“Zoe got lost a long time ago, and Mom and Dad adopted me.

Ever since she came back, she’s always felt like I was taking something from her. She’s probably just trying to vent. Please don’t blame her.”

Thousands upon thousands of hateful comments flooded my page. I felt helpless, but what could I do?

My old professor, who was judging a competition overseas, saw the tracks on Ashley Carter’s page and called me.

“Zoe, what’s going on?”

Hearing her voice, I let out all the emotions I had been holding back. Tears instantly started streaming down my face.

Last time, my professor had been attacked because of me. But she believed I hadn’t plagiarized. She wanted to contact me and clear my name.

But I was dealing with Nana’s illness at the time. I gave in and never responded to her help.

I wiped away my tears and said seriously,

“Professor, I need to ask you for a favor.”

Chapter 3

I posted an announcement on social media that I was dropping out of the Gold Melody Awards, which was just a month away, and that I was leaving the music scene for good. I wouldn’t be participating in any more songwriting activities.

The comments were full of celebration. I turned off my phone, closed my eyes, and decided to put my work on hold until I could figure out what was going on.

Just then, the door burst open and Ashley Carter stormed in.

“Zoe, why the hell are you quitting the competition and leaving the music scene? Are you out of your mind?”

I looked at her, fuming, and couldn’t help but laugh. I shrugged and asked,

“Why are you so worked up about me dropping out?”

She sputtered, lost for words. Finally, she stomped her foot and glared at me.

“Just you wait. I’m going to go get Mom and Dad to talk some sense into you.”

After I deleted the music scores from my computer, I saw my father standing in the doorway. He was gentle, patting me on the shoulder to calm me down.

“I know what’s going on. You don’t like Ashley, but she’s been living with us for over twenty years. And you getting lost back then was just an accident. It had nothing to do with Ashley.”

“You messed up this time, but I understand how you’re feeling. Just don’t do something like that again.

You shouldn’t talk about quitting the competition or leaving the music scene. I know you’re just angry. You’ve got talent. Don’t throw away your career over something small.”

He seemed so kind, just like a loving father. It was hard to believe he was the same person who had threatened me last time.

Back then, when everyone was against me and I was at my lowest, I wanted to go back to the Nana who had raised me. But he showed me Nana’s hospital records.

“Nana’s in a coma and needs a lot of medical care. If you keep providing music for Ashley, she can keep living. Otherwise…”

That’s when I realized they had known about Ashley’s mind-reading ability all along. They brought me back to control me more easily.

“I told you, I’m not going to write any more music.”

He was stunned. He hadn’t expected me to be so stubborn.

I used to care about family, and I was willing to be a good, obedient daughter. But not anymore.

The sun was slowly sinking, and the sky was getting dark. His face looked especially sinister in the dim light.

“What do you think you’re doing? You’re the one who messed up by copying your sister. Do you think you’re the one who’s been wronged?”

“I didn’t copy anyone!”

He stared at me, then scoffed, as if looking at an insignificant ant. He even started to laugh.

“You didn’t copy anyone? Then why is your music the same as Ashley’s? You can’t say Ashley is copying you, can you?

Besides, look at your own skills. Ashley has been studying with world-renowned masters since she was a kid. She was a genius right from the start. Why would she need to copy a nobody like you?”

His tone was aggressive and dismissive, making me feel worthless.

“Yeah, she’s the one copying me!”

As a creator, plagiarism was my bottom line. I would never admit to something I didn’t do.

I looked him in the eye and repeated firmly,

“You know very well whether I copied anyone or not.”

He paused for a moment, a hint of guilt and panic flashing in his eyes.

The room went silent. I ignored him and started packing, only to realize that nothing in this place, except for my computer and piano, was mine.

Even the things I used to write music at home were Ashley Carter’s hand-me-downs.

Chapter 4

When he saw that I wanted to leave, he slapped me hard across the face. I was stunned by the blow. Before I could react, he grabbed my hair and dragged me out of the room.

He pulled out a lot of my hair, and my scalp stung. In the living room, Mom just gave me a cold look and took a step back, as if disgusted.

I was kicked into the basement and tumbled down the stairs. Dad looked down at me, sneering.

“You don’t know what’s good for you. You can stay down here and think about it for a few days.”

They wanted to force me to give in. For a whole week, they didn’t give me any food, just a little water to keep me alive.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the basement door opened.

Dad walked over to me. He nudged me a few times with his foot, and when he saw that I could still open my eyes, he squatted down and patted my cheek.

“You’ve had a few days to think, right? If you don’t want to suffer, just do what I tell you. Even if you don’t care about yourself, you should care about that old woman who raised you.”

I didn’t have the strength to answer. I just glared at him.

He saw that I was still defiant and threw me against the wall. I immediately passed out.

When I woke up, I was lying in a guest room upstairs. The window was nailed shut from the outside, letting in only a little light.

I struggled to sit up, but a hand pushed me back down.

Mom pulled up a chair and sat down by the bed, elegant and distant.

“Parents always have their children’s best interests at heart. Your father may have gone a little too far, but it was for your own good. We have a responsibility to correct our children when they make mistakes.”

“But you’re not a kid anymore. You need to think about the consequences of your actions. Don’t play around with your future and your career.”

“If you keep competing, Mom won’t hold this little tantrum against you. You better think about it.”

She put on a concerned act, but the indifference in her eyes was unmistakable. I laughed inwardly and nodded weakly.

“Okay, I’ll compete.”

She smiled in satisfaction. Seeing that she had achieved her goal, she turned and left, telling the maid to take good care of me.

I only agreed to compete. I didn’t say I would win.

This time, I was going to see what kind of material Ashley Carter would come up with for the competition.