This was bound to happen.

I laughed a hollow, bitter sound echoing in the stunned silence around me.

“You finally got me.”

I glanced around the room, Damian's narrowed eyes, Vivian’s triumphant smirk, Arianna’s parents frozen mid-gasp.

“I wondered how long it would take…”

I stood, slow and deliberate.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m not Arianna.”

Their faces contorted.

“I’m Ashley Rivera. And all of you? Just characters in a story I never asked to be part of.”

Silence crashed into the room like thunder.

You think I’d actually say that?

Please. I like having a pulse.

That kind of confession gets you locked in an asylum, arrested, or in...