They Replaced Me... Until the Government Wanted Me

Chapter 7

Before the tragedy, my parents were on the verge of completing their groundbreaking cardiac medication, set to launch at an affordable price.

But the leaked news sparked fury among pharmaceutical giants.

The arsonist struck at dawn, setting their lab ablaze.

It happened on the first day of the lunar month.

My parents had been working through the night, determined to deliver the life-saving drug to heart patients before the New Year’s Eve.

By the time Ethan Parker, Lucas Parker, and I arrived, all we found were two charred bodies.

That was my last memory of them.

Even now, I struggle to recall what their faces truly looked like.

Alongside them perished one of their students—a young woman in her early twenties.

She had just married, her child barely a year old, her husband already gone.

In the ashes, her scorched hand still clutched the longevity lock pendant engraved with her daughter’s name.

Ethan and Lucas spent six relentless years searching before finally tracking down the child at an orphanage.

Fate had a cruel sense of irony.

Seven-year-old Lily Thompson had been with the Parker family for half a year when, one evening, I overheard the orphanage director drunkenly sobbing at a street-side diner.

The truth spilled out: the real Lily had died of heart disease at three.

The girl brought into our home was an orphan suffering from liver failure, with no means to afford treatment.

The director, out of pity, had given her the dead child’s identity—and my brothers had unknowingly saved her life.

When I rushed home that night, I caught Lily breaking my belongings again.

This time, it was the last family photo we’d taken—all five of us, before the fire.

The frame shattered against the floor, glass splintering like my composure.

As always, Lily crouched to pick up the pieces, then held up her "accidentally" cut hand, whimpering for Ethan’s attention.

I snapped.

Yanking her away, I screamed the words I’d bottled up for years: "Get out!"

For the first time, Ethan’s face darkened with anger.

Even Lucas, usually gentle and reserved, looked at me with disappointment. "Paige," he said quietly, "this cruelty has gone too far."

I repeated everything I’d heard at the diner.

Watched Lily’s panic flash across her face.

At least her illness is cured now, I thought bitterly.

An imposter shouldn’t keep stealing my home, my brothers, my shattered keepsakes.

But Ethan’s roar cut through my thoughts: "You’d fabricate lies about an orphan? She’s all that remains of the student Mom and Dad loved most!"

Peace between us died that night.

Then, a month ago, Lily "accidentally" smashed my hard-earned medical research trophy.

I chased her to the staircase—and slapped her.

She let herself fall.

I lunged to catch her, tumbling down the steps together.

My arm fractured, I dragged myself up—

Only for Ethan’s palm to strike my face for the first time.

Lucas, eyes blazing with fury, hissed: "If you hate this family so much, Paige, leave."

They carried Lily to the hospital.

Left me bleeding on the floor.

And the Northern Lights trip they’d promised me for a decade?

This year, they took her instead.