Olivia dragged her feet until she reached the entrance of Emma's room.
She stopped there, unmoving, and looked back at the passage she had just walked through. It was a simple corridor, the floor cemented, bare and unpolished. It would definitely feel cold against bare feet.
The house wasn't large, but it had five rooms built into it. Each was small, yet clearly arranged to be comfortable enough for resting. All thanks to Emma, who wanted her family to live as comfortably as possible.
The twins didn't share a room, not because they didn't want to, but because none of the rooms could accommodate two beds.
Emma's room and Caroline's were slightly more spacious than the others, while the last room served as storage. It was once intended as a guest room, but that couldn't be the case anymore since they had no friends.
Emma had tried to solve this mystery for a long time. She had only grown up knowing her parents, yet she doubted they had no other relatives at all.
There were small open spaces before each room, which placed Emma's room at the very end of the corridor.
Olivia doubted she would escape this night without wrinkles forming on her face, she simply couldn't bring herself to relax the frown etched there.
She opened the door.
The room looked exactly as it had in her memory.
There was only one window, beside which a simple bed had been placed. A small wooden dressing table stood nearby, its surface cluttered with bottles, most of them half-empty of skin care cream and makeup foundation. The rest bore line marks inside, clear signs that Emma had tried to scrape out every last drop of whatever remained.
Olivia sighed.
A small wardrobe, more like a kitchen cabinet, stood close to the edge of the bed. Tens of nails had been driven into the walls, with different gowns hung from them.
Everything looked… messy.
Not dirty, just chaotic. Like the room of someone struggling to manage with what little she had.
To Olivia, it was all a mess.
To make matters worse, the entire family shared one bathroom.
She would have to bathe with these people.
Her heart tightened, and she bit down on her lower lip.
"Come out!" she shouted inside her head.
"Uhh… me?" the system asked.
"Don't ask the obvious. How many of you are here?" Olivia snapped.
She gasped suddenly, her breath hitching as it felt like her soul nearly slipped out of her body as the energy left her body and materialized into the bunny. Her heart raced wildly for a few seconds before finally stabilizing.
She glared at the system, which couldn't meet her eyes.
Darling seemed to expect her to say something, but Olivia only stared.
"Boohoo. Host, you're scaring Darling," the system said, backing away slightly, as though afraid Olivia might do something drastic.
"For the last time, don't call me host," Olivia said coldly, padding toward the bed covered in blue sheets.
Unlike Emma, who had been terrified to lie on Olivia's bed, it came naturally to Olivia.
She felt strangely sane at the moment. Despite the suffocating atmosphere, the room was clean, everything arranged as neatly as possible.
"Come here," she commanded.
Darling floated over, visibly uncomfortable.
Olivia narrowed her eyes. The more she tried to deny it, the more reality proved her wrong.
A talking, floating bunny.
Extraordinary.
Yet she wondered why she had been dragged into something like this.
If not for her pride, her refusal to let her uncle taste victory, and the consequences that would follow for her parents, Olivia would have chosen death over facing all this.
"Why was I swapped into this kind of world?" she asked. "This kind of family, to be exact?"
"You two were doppelgängers," Darling replied. "That's what our system handles. Her life could be straightened by your potential, while yours could be amended by hers.
"The struggles in each of your lives fit what could mend the flaws in the other. That's the least information I'm allowed to share. That was all we deemed necessary before choosing the both of you."
Olivia took a deep breath and sniffed lightly, her gaze drifting around the room.
That was when she noticed something fluffy on the bed.
She had thought it was a pillow, but as she examined the round, baby-bed-like shape more closely, memories flooded in.
"Wait, what?" Olivia exclaimed.
That was Nemo's bed.
The cat slept on the same bed as her.
"She sleeps on the same bed with a cat?" she demanded.
Darling remained silent.
"Oh my God." Olivia massaged her temple, then with one swift motion, yanked the small bed off and tossed it to the floor.
"I can't believe that girl," she muttered, shaking her head.
Oh, right. Laptop.
She stood and searched the room, but there was nowhere to look. The space was too small to hide anything, and a laptop wasn't something one would hide anyway.
Which meant only one thing.
Emma didn't own a laptop.
"This is getting more and more frustrating," Olivia muttered as she dropped onto the bed, staring up at the white-painted ceiling.
If anyone had told her she'd end up in a situation like this, she would have laughed at the ridiculous joke.
Yet here she was.
She wondered how much money Emma had left. Perhaps she could buy a laptop tomorrow.
Something told her Sammy wouldn't stay idle if she delayed.
Her threat still echoed in Olivia's ears.
For someone to poison another human being so openly, Sammy was clearly capable of far worse.
As her thoughts drifted to Emma and money, memories surfaced, Emma counting a bundle of cash and hiding it beneath the bed.
Yes.
The bed.
Olivia immediately slid off and dropped to her knees. Her hands searched the spot from the memory, and just as expected, there it was.
Money.
Her eyes widened.
If she had this much, how was she still suffering?
Her mind drifted again, slipping back into Emma's memories, back to when she had been sorting the money.
And then she accessed her thoughts.
Loan sharks.
Olivia's eyes flew open as more memories poured in.
They made claims without evidence, forcing Emma to pay debts that might not even exist.
"What the hell?" Olivia hissed.
Her insides boiled with anger.
Not at Emma.
At them.
How dare they?
She couldn't blame Emma or call her foolish, the threats alone were enough to break anyone. Even someone like her might have caved.
She would deal with them.
But first, this money had to be used properly.
There was no way those sharks would get a single penny from her.
All she needed was a laptop.
Even if evidence existed, she could make it disappear.