The rain hadn't stopped for hours.
Faye stared out the taxi window as the towering iron gates of Wyndgrave Preparatory School came into view. They loomed like a warning, their intricate scrollwork wet with drizzle and rust. Her heart beat faster as the driver slowed, the tires crunching over gravel. She tugged her hood lower, hiding the burn scar on her cheek. It was the only mark that distinguished her from the girl whose life she was about to steal.
Fayth was dead.
Her twin sister-beautiful, brilliant, broken Fayth-had thrown herself from the bell tower two months ago. That's what the letter had said. That's what the news had printed. A tragic suicide. The heiress to the Hawthorne fortune, gone in a moment of madness.
But Faye didn't believe it.
She never had.
The plan had formed slowly, out of grief, out of rage. No one at Wyndgrave knew Faye existed. Their mother had kept her hidden from the world-a precaution, she claimed, to keep one daughter safe while the other played princess. Now, that silence gave Faye the perfect opportunity.
The perfect lie.
She stepped out of the cab, cold wind slicing through her coat. Her reflection in the rain-specked glass caught her breath. For a second, she thought she saw Fayth looking back. Same green eyes, same freckled nose. But the expression was different. Harder.
A man in a trench coat approached, umbrella in hand. "Miss Hawthorne?" he asked.
Faye swallowed. "Yes."
He smiled stiffly. "Welcome back to Wyndgrave. I'm Headmaster Langston."
She nodded, tightening her grip on her suitcase. "Thank you."
As they walked up the long stone path toward the main building, Faye glanced up at the bell tower.
The place her sister had supposedly jumped from.
The place where everything had ended.
Or maybe, where it all began.
---
[End of Episode 1]