The Guardian She Hates

Serena Shen was, by law, my older sister. She was supposed to hate me.
I was the other woman’s daughter.
I stole her father.
Then, on the day of her engagement party, I slept with her fiancé.
I forced her to flee the country.
She didn't return until three years after my death.
By then, she was a world-renowned pianist, dating the most sought-after man in the capital. While she moved through parties, a vision of grace and laughter, my bones lay scattered in a dog kennel, gnawed and forgotten.
Covered in teeth marks.
My soul follows Serena now, watching her search for any trace of me.
She will never find me.
Because three years ago, I decided to die in her place.

1
Serena searched the entire Shen estate, but there was nothing of me left. Not a single trace.
She kicked a table in frustration, a storm brewing within her.
It used to be that before she even stepped through the front door, she could hear my forced, theatrical laughter as I chatted with the maids. The moment she entered, she’d see the new gifts I’d deliberately left strewn across the tables, just to show them off.
Now, the house was silent, scrubbed clean of my presence. Serena found it unsettling.
She rubbed her temples, pushing the thought of me away. She pasted on a smile and turned to face the guests who had been waiting for her.
"Serena, you've grown even more beautiful! I hear they're calling you the 'Maestro of Beauty' online."
"The wedding must be soon, right? Serena and Mr. Sterling make such a perfect couple. You have to let me be a bridesmaid!"
"Serena, for old times' sake, could I get an autograph? My daughter saw a video of your competition and she’s absolutely obsessed. We have posters of you all over her wall."
I floated silently above, watching Serena maintain her flawless composure, navigating the sea of flattery.
It was just like high school. Wherever Serena Shen went, she was the center of the universe. People associated her with perfection, elegance, beauty, ambition.
Looking at those fawning classmates surrounding her, a bitter thought crossed my mind. I was a center of attention in high school, too.
What did they say when they mentioned my name?
The other woman’s daughter. 36D. Slut. Whore. Bitch.
Serena, though… Serena was a good person. The only one in the entire school who didn't look at me through a filter of contempt.
The first clean, even fragrant, sanitary pad I ever used was one she lent me.
Back then, I used to think, I wish I was Serena’s real sister. Then I could be closer to her.
And then, as fate would have it, I became her goddamn sister.
My mother was the mistress her father kept on the side.
Isn't life funny?
From that day on, our fates were tangled together. In that cold house, we only had each other to lean on.
And we only had each other to hate.

2
The thought darkened my spectral form. A classmate standing near Serena shivered, sneezing several times in a row.
After finally escaping her old acquaintances, Serena was about to leave when a nervous voice called out to her.
It was Leo Vance. He stared at her, his eyes filled with a raw, unabashed awe.
"Serena… you're so beautiful."
"If I hadn't been seduced by that slut Stella, if I hadn't made that mistake…"
"Would you be marrying me right now?"
I rolled my eyes, even in ghost form.
If Serena hadn't been engaged to him, I wouldn't have given him a second glance.
The noisy crowd fell silent. Everyone exchanged awkward glances.
The class president tried to laugh it off. "Wow, this wine is strong! Even Leo's drunk."
Leo shoved him away. "Cut the crap," he snarled.
"If you hadn't been the one leading the discussion in the dorms about Stella’s 'perfect body,' would I have even noticed her enough to dump Serena?"
The class president’s face flushed red, then went pale. All eyes in the room shifted to him, a silent judgment passing. So the quiet, respectable class president is like that in private.
But then they remembered the object of his supposed fantasies was me, and a knowing, shared smirk spread through the group.
I’d seen that smile a thousand times.
I could scream back at those who insulted me. I could fight back against those who harassed me. But this silent, secret malice… it left me helpless.
Every time we had to run laps in gym class, a group of boys would gather with their basketballs, just watching me, laughing. They’d whisper. They’d point. If you confronted them, they’d just call you conceited.
I wanted to carve the flesh from my own chest, then slice the tongues from their mouths.

3
At Leo's words, Serena bristled like an angry cat. Her eyes swept over the men with their disgusting smiles.
"No matter what you think of her, Stella is my sister. How dare you speak of her that way in front of me?"
"And as for you, Leo," she continued, her voice dripping with disdain. "If my father hadn't introduced us, I wouldn't have wasted a single glance on you."
"Only a fool like Stella would have been attracted to you."
Leo started to speak, but Serena cut him off, her voice laced with venom.
"No, that's not right. Stella probably wasn't attracted to you at all."
"She just likes taking my things."
"From my jewelry to my men, Stella wants everything that’s mine."
"The only thing that made you special in her eyes was the fact that you were my fiancé."
"Without that, she wouldn't have even known you existed."
I cackled from my perch in the air.
Serena, my dear sister, you knew me so well. I was only ever interested in what was yours.
Leo, furious, took a step forward to argue, but a hand clamped down on his shoulder.
He looked up into the cold, unsmiling face of Liam Sterling.
The heir to the Sterling fortune lived up to his reputation. A single glare was enough to make Leo bow his head and stammer an apology.
He looked familiar, though. I felt like I’d seen him somewhere before. Probably in a file when I was looking for a powerful man to take me in.
I shook my head, focusing on the matter at hand, leaning over Serena's shoulder to offer my own critique of Leo.
Average looks, thick skin. If Dad hadn't set you up with my sister, I wouldn't have bothered with you either.
But, Serena, you don't know, do you?
This time, I was saving you.
Looking at Serena’s distant, cold expression, I couldn't help but wonder:
When she finds out that I, the sister who spent her life competing with her, died for her, will she still be able to wear that mask of proud indifference?

4
This party for Serena was truly grand. The old me would have seen it and thrown a fit, demanding my father host one for me, even bigger and more extravagant than hers.
Not anymore. Being a ghost is good. Floating in the air, you see things for what they really are.
This wasn't a welcome-home party.
This was a product showcase.
My father smiled, presenting Serena to the city's most influential figures, parading her around like a rare commodity. I was certain that if it weren't for Liam Sterling's immense family wealth, those powerful men would have been the potential husbands my father had lined up for her tonight.
Oh, Serena. You were so lucky. Three years ago, I shielded you from this. Three years later, Liam Sterling is shielding you.
Father raised you well. You know right from wrong, good from evil.
So what will you do when you find out that your father not only killed your mother but also had your sister killed?
Sister, will you avenge me?
Was this all just my fate?
The party ended. Serena asked our father where I was.
He paused. His eyes filled with disgust, as if she'd mentioned something filthy.
"Don't bring up that ungrateful girl. You know what your sister is like."
"She's probably shacked up with some man again."
I looked at my father, at his calm face tinged with revulsion, and felt nothing.
My dear father. Why won't you tell my sister that I'm dead? On the day I died, you accepted a great deal of benefits with a completely straight face.
That fool, Serena, didn't question it. She just turned and went upstairs.
Before closing her door, she glanced back at him.
"Tomorrow is Mom's death anniversary."
In her room, she pulled out a Polaroid we had taken together. Two young girls, smiling brightly for the camera.
Seeing it, I was stunned. I thought she would have torn it up long ago.
When we took that photo, I didn't know my mother was her father's mistress. I was just grateful to Serena for defending me when I was accused of stealing money. During a school trip, I'd earned sixty dollars washing dishes and used it to pay someone to take two Polaroids of us together.
I taped my copy to my desk. It was like my good luck charm. No one wanted to cross Serena Shen. So when they saw that picture, their malice towards me would instinctively recede.
When I got home, I showed the photo to my mother.
And it was that photo that plunged both Serena and me into hell.

5
My mother, Maria, was a young and beautiful woman. She always said calling her "Mom" made her feel old, so I should call her Maria. She was brave enough to take me into the fields to catch frogs and fierce enough to curse out other parents for me.
I loved her very much.
But maybe it was because I secretly called her Mom in my heart, she aged quickly.
Maria had a deep reverence for education. She always talked about what would have happened if she'd stayed in college. As a child, I thought she was just bragging. If she was really top of her class in high school, how could she be so poor now?
So poor that she would stare at a pair of discounted gloves in the winter for so long the shopkeeper would have to ask her to move, only for her to look at her own red, swollen hands and decide she could endure it until spring.
Years later, I finally understood.
I was the greatest misfortune of Maria's life.
Her springtime ended forever at eighteen. After that, there was only winter.
While I was being bullied at school for my developing body, Maria was enduring the torment of a terminal illness.
The day after seeing that Polaroid, she went to Mrs. Shen and confessed everything.
Mrs. Shen was a kind woman. She brought me into the Shen home, made sure I was fed and clothed, and used the family's influence to deal with the bullies who had tormented me.
On the first day of my new, better life, Maria committed suicide by taking sleeping pills.
She had cancer and couldn't afford the treatment. She used her own terminal diagnosis to buy me a place in the Shen family. The sleeping pills were the most expensive meal 34-year-old Maria ever had.
In her suicide note, she told me to live a good life, to not be a mistress like her. She said she would be watching over me from heaven. The only thing she left me was a savings book with a balance of $34,682.34.
Maria had taken care of everyone. Everyone except herself.
The memories wrapped around me. I was a ghost, yet I felt a pain so sharp I couldn't breathe.
Did I fail to listen to her? Is that why I can't even enter the cycle of reincarnation to see her again? Is that why I'm doomed to float by Serena's side as a ghost?
Ghosts don't dream.
I haven't seen Maria in two years.
Serena raised her hand, about to rip the Polaroid in two. But in the end, her eyes red, she placed it on the very bottom shelf of her bookcase.
The day I lost my mother, Serena lost her father.
After being exposed, Mr. Shen began to openly parade his mistresses.
I became twisted with hatred. The Shen family had taken my only mother from me. So I poured all my hate onto Serena. I started to take her things, openly and secretly. Her jewelry, her admirers. Anything she had, I had to have.
Until, one year later, on the very same day, Serena lost her mother.
Serena should have hated me. But instead, she saved me. Again and again.

6
The day after her return, Serena drove with Liam to visit her mother's grave.
The headstone was pristine compared to the others, as if someone cleaned it regularly. Serena sat before the grave with a bouquet of flowers, murmuring about her years abroad. Liam stood silently beside her, holding an umbrella over her head.
In a place they couldn't see, I knelt and kowtowed twice to Mrs. Shen's grave.
Thank you for taking care of me in your home. By dying for Serena, I hope I have repaid your kindness.
When Serena left, I floated along behind her. Halfway out of the cemetery, she suddenly stopped.

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