The Vicious Saint Chapter 1

My problem is that I’m a people-pleaser. The kind who takes every word someone says as gospel.

So when the girl they raised as their daughter, the one who wasn't me, threw a tantrum and refused to eat, screaming that the food was "garbage," I got down on my knees. I picked up the meal she’d thrown on the floor and began to eat it, piece by piece, as if it were a feast.

Faced with the shocked expressions of my biological parents, I just gave a weak smile.

“She said it was garbage. And that’s what I am. So it’s only right that I eat it.”

My parents, their faces etched with pain, rushed to pull me up. But the other girl, Luna, looked like she was about to explode. She pivoted, ran to the open window, and shrieked that she was going to jump.

“Your real daughter is back, so what do you need a fake one for? I might as well just die!”

As she swung one leg over the sill, my reflexes kicked in. I lunged forward, grabbing her and pulling her back into the room. Then, I looked her in the eyes and spoke with utter sincerity.

“Sister, if you want to die, I can help. But people who kill themselves are doomed to wander forever. Do you need me to find you a specialist? I know a team that guarantees a peaceful transition to the other side. Very professional.”

That broke her. She scrambled away from me and threw herself into my mother’s arms. “Mom!” she wailed. “She’s trying to kill me!”

* * *

My mother, Katherine, wrapped her arms around Luna, patting her back and cooing.

“Luna, sweetie, your sister didn’t mean it like that. She was trying to help. See? She saved you, she pulled you back from the window.”

This only made Luna angrier. “So you’re choosing her over me, is that it?” she sobbed. “Fine! I’ll just go live with Maria. She doesn’t have any kids. I’ll be her daughter and take care of her when she’s old!”

With that, she stormed out, leaving the three of us—the family I was supposed to belong to—standing in stunned silence.

Katherine came over and gently patted the back of my hand. Her touch was hesitant. “Stella,” she said softly, “you didn't grow up with us, and your… perspective is a little different. But you have to remember to be patient with your sister. Please, try to let her have her way. She may not be our blood, but we’ve raised her for eighteen years. There are feelings involved. You need to treat Luna like she’s your real sister.”

I nodded seriously, etching my mother’s words onto my heart.

So that night, when Luna went to go to sleep in her lavish, princess-themed bedroom, she found me already there, my few belongings unpacked.

She screamed, a raw, furious sound, and lunged, dragging me off the bed and onto the floor.

“Who told you you could sleep in my bed?” she spat, her face inches from mine. “You’re trash!”

At that exact moment, my parents rushed in, drawn by the commotion.

I looked from Luna’s furious face to my mother’s worried one, genuinely confused. “Mom,” I asked, my voice small. “Luna is my real sister. She said I’m trash. Should I listen to her?”

I was stolen as a baby. The woman who bought me soon became pregnant with her own child and, disappointed I was a girl, abandoned me at a remote spiritual community—the Sanctuary.

The Elders there raised me. From my first memories, they taught me one thing above all else: listen to others. Obey.

If a visitor to the Sanctuary expressed a wish, we had to do everything in our power to fulfill it.

And the Elders’ commands were absolute.

So now, my sister was calling me trash. I was trying to figure out if this was a new command I was meant to obey.

My mother’s face crumpled. She rushed forward and pulled me into a fierce hug. “No, honey, no. She’s just angry. Don’t listen to her.”

A wave of relief washed over me.

Thank God. I didn’t have to be trash.

Katherine straightened up and turned to scold Luna, but Luna had already collapsed onto the floor, wailing. “She’s the one who started it! She took over my room! She’s trying to steal everything from me!”

My father, Robert, looked at me, his expression grim. “What is going on here, Stella?”

I blinked. “Didn’t my sister say she was going to be Maria’s daughter? I got the housekeeper’s room ready for her in the basement.”

I gestured vaguely around the opulent bedroom. “All the other rooms in the house are taken. This one seemed to be empty, so I moved in.”

Robert’s stern face flickered from anger to bewilderment.

Katherine looked at me like her heart was breaking and melting all at once. She stroked my hair. “Oh, Stella. Honey, you misunderstood. She was just upset. She’s an Ashton. She isn’t really going to be the housekeeper’s daughter.”

I scratched the back of my neck, feeling a blush of shame. “I misunderstood again. I’m sorry, sister. But Mom… the way people talk out here is so confusing.”

Luna’s face was practically purple with rage.

She shoved herself between me and my mother, pointing a finger in my face. “Stella, cut the crap! You know damn well what’s real and what’s not! Stop playing dumb!”

I hesitated for a second before pulling a small notepad and pen from my pocket.

“Words can be not-real?” I asked, genuinely curious. “The Elders at the Sanctuary always said that those who walk the Path do not speak falsehoods. I’ve never heard anyone say something they didn’t mean.”

I looked at her, my pen poised. “Can you teach me how to tell the difference? I really want to learn.”