Chapter 1: The Girl Who Wasn't Invited
The party had been Vanessa's idea.
Thirty people.
Catered food.
Fairy lights strung across the backyard.
She'd spent two weeks planning it and made sure everyone knew it.
What she didn't mention — not to me, not to anyone — was that Maya wasn't invited to come downstairs.
I found out the same way I find out most things that happen in my own house: too late.
I'd been outside with the guests for about an hour when I realized I hadn't seen Maya once.
I went inside to look for her and found her bedroom door closed, music playing softly underneath it.
I knocked.
She opened the door still in her school clothes, plate of leftover pasta balanced on her knee from earlier.
"Why aren't you downstairs?"
She looked at me carefully, the way she does when she's deciding how much to say.
"Vanessa said the party was for family and close friends."
Five words.
Same ones she'd used before.
"You are family," I said.
Maya nodded slowly, like she'd heard that before and wasn't sure what it meant anymore.
"She said it would be easier if I just stayed up here.
Less awkward."
I stood in her doorway for a moment, listening to the music and the laughter drifting up from the backyard below.
Then I went back downstairs.
Vanessa was standing near the food table talking to her sister.
She smiled when she saw me coming, the same smile she used when she wanted something to go smoothly.
I didn't smile back.
"Why is Maya upstairs?"
The smile stayed but shifted slightly.
"Marcus, tonight isn't really—"
"She lives here."
Vanessa glanced at her sister, then back at me.
"I just thought it would be simpler—"
"Go get her."
The backyard went quiet in that particular way it does when people realize something real is happening.
Vanessa didn't move.
So I went back upstairs myself, knocked on Maya's door, and told her to come down.
"I don't want to cause problems," she said.
"You won't.
Come on."
She came downstairs still holding her fork, still in her school clothes, completely unprepared to walk into a party of thirty people.
But she walked in.
And I made sure she had a seat at the table before I said another word to anyone.
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What does Vanessa do next — and will Marcus finally see who she really is?
Comment **"NEXT"** if you want Part 2.
