I FOUND MY SISTER’S DIARY OPEN ON THE TABLE — IT WASN’T HERS
She stormed in, her face pale, her hands shaking as she snatched the notebook from me. “How long have you been reading this?” she demanded, her voice cracking like dry leaves underfoot. The room smelled faintly of lavender, her usual scent, but there was something sharp beneath it — panic, maybe? I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t her handwriting.
I flipped through the pages before she grabbed it, and the words hit me like a punch. Detailed notes about my life, my habits, even my fights with Jake. Dates, times, things only I knew. “Who wrote this?” I whispered, my throat tightening. She didn’t answer, just clutched the diary to her chest, her knuckles white.
Then she dropped it. A photo slipped out, and I froze. It was me, sitting at the cafe last week, but not alone. The person next to me? Someone I hadn’t seen in ten years. “Don’t,” she said, her voice low. “Don’t ask.”
I stared at her, my chest burning. “You’ve been spying on me for *him*?”
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced at it, her face going gray. I saw the text before she could hide it: *“Is she starting to remember yet?”*
👇 *Full story continued in the comments…*I felt a cold dread creep into my bones. “Remember what? What’s going on?” I pressed, my voice trembling. Her eyes, usually bright and lively, were now filled with a desperate fear I’d never seen before.
She hesitated, biting her lip. Then, with a sigh that seemed to carry the weight of the world, she said, “He…he’s been watching you. For years. He wants to know everything.”
“Who is *he*?” I demanded, the word a harsh whisper.
“His name is…Adrian. He says he’s…helping. Helping you.”
My head spun. Helping me with what? I knew I had a gap in my memory, a period of my life I couldn’t quite grasp. Fragments, like shards of glass, floated in my mind— a car crash, a hospital room, a constant, nagging feeling of…forgetting.
“What does he want?” I asked, suddenly desperate to understand.
She looked down at the floor, her voice barely audible. “He says…you were…involved in something. Something dangerous. And you…you forgot. He says he’s trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?” The question hung in the air, thick with unanswered questions.
Another text message flashed on her phone. *“She’s getting close. Be prepared.”*
Panic seized her. She looked at me, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and regret. “He’s coming,” she choked out. “He’s going to tell you everything.”
Moments later, a knock echoed through the house. My sister flinched. I felt a strange mixture of terror and a bizarre sense of anticipation. She took a shaky breath and opened the door.
Standing there was a man, tall and impeccably dressed, his eyes the color of cold steel. He had a kind smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Adrian.
“Hello,” he said smoothly, his gaze locking on mine. “It’s good to finally meet you, Amelia. I have so much to tell you.”
He stepped inside, and my sister closed the door behind him, her face pale and drawn. He smiled at me, and I felt my stomach clench. He knew. He knew everything.
He gestured towards the living room. “Let’s sit down, shall we? We have a lot to catch up on.”
I looked at my sister. She gave a small, almost imperceptible nod. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the truth I was expecting.
We sat, me on the edge of the sofa, my sister across from me, Adrian in a chair, leaning forward, his gaze focused. “Let’s start with what you remember, Amelia. And then I’ll fill in the blanks.”
He began to speak. His words were a carefully constructed tapestry of half-truths and carefully chosen details, a web designed to control the narrative. He painted a picture of a past filled with intrigue, betrayal, and danger. He told me of an organization I’d been part of, of secrets I’d protected, and of enemies who still sought to harm me.
He laid out the circumstances of the accident, that gap in my memory, painting himself as my savior. My sister kept nodding, confirming his words, but the look in her eyes betrayed her.
As he talked, I started to see the truth, to piece together the shattered fragments. The accident wasn’t the end, but the beginning. The cafe meeting, the person I hadn’t seen in ten years— it all clicked, but not as he explained it.
Adrian’s carefully constructed story started to unravel.
When he finished, I slowly looked at my sister. “He’s lying, isn’t he?”
She flinched. “I…I don’t know what you mean.”
“You do,” I said softly, “The lavender, your scent, everything about you has been changed. You’re not even yourself anymore, are you?”
Her facade crumbled. Tears streamed down her face. “I didn’t want to! He made me do it!”
“Do what? Spy on me? Lie for him?”
“He threatened you! He said you were in danger, that he could protect you. I had to help. I had to!”
I turned back to Adrian, my voice now steady. “The organization? The secrets? You made it all up, didn’t you? You just needed a way to control me.”
He didn’t deny it. His smile had vanished, replaced by a chilling expression of realization.
“You’re a liability. And you have too much information, more than you should. Your memory is fading, and I can’t let you remember anything. We need to fix that, Amelia.”
He stood up, pulling something from his jacket. A syringe.
My sister sprang into action. Before I could react, she grabbed the syringe from his hand. She looked at me, tears streaming down her face.
“I am so sorry,” she sobbed, turning to Adrian. Then she plunged the needle into his arm.
He gasped, his face contorted in shock and fury. The drug was slow-acting but incredibly potent. As he collapsed, she turned to me.
“He was going to erase you. Everything. I couldn’t let him.”
I helped her to my feet. We looked at each other, no more secrets, no more lies. The fear was replaced by a shared purpose.
She turned to me and gave me a slight smile. “I think we’ve got some catching up to do.”
We walked out into the night, leaving Adrian alone in the wreckage of his plan. The air smelled faintly of lavender, and for the first time in a long time, I felt a flicker of hope. The fight, I knew, was far from over. But for tonight, we were together, and for the first time, I knew I was safe.