The Real Daughter Said I Copied Her？Oops, My Test Was Blank Chapter 01
The day my SAT scores came out, my sister Sophia Walsh accused me of cheating.
Two nearly identical perfect-score answer sheets sat on the hearing table, and no one believed me.
My father slammed the papers down. My mother cried. The whole school called me a fraud.
To make Sophia feel better, my adoptive parents used every connection they had to shut every door in my face.
I got expelled. Kicked out of the house. Blacklisted from every school in the city.
That winter, I froze to death in a Boston underpass.
Even in my last moment, I couldn’t figure out why my answer sheet matched Sophia’s.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in that exam room.
This time, I turned in a blank test.
Let’s see how you accuse a zero of cheating.
…
“Lena Walsh, I’ve already called your parents. They’re on their way.”
Principal Morrison stood behind his desk, surrounded by students who had crowded in to watch.
“This SAT academic integrity violation is extremely serious.”
“If you can’t provide a reasonable explanation at the hearing, we’ll move straight to expulsion.”
“Once that goes on your college applications, you can forget about getting into any decent university. Ever.”
I stood in the middle of the crowd, my face blank.
In my last life, this was the office where they branded me a cheater.
Everything fell apart after that—like an avalanche I couldn’t stop.
And right now, the so-called “victim”—my sister Sophia Walsh—stood beside me.
“Mr. Morrison… everyone… please don’t blame Lena… this is all my fault.”
Her voice trembled as tears streamed down her face.
“It’s… it’s because I didn’t put my answer sheet away properly. I shouldn’t have gotten a perfect score…”
“If I had purposely gotten a few questions wrong, Lena wouldn’t have felt like she had to beat me… and she wouldn’t have… done this…”
Morrison’s frown deepened.
“Sophia, you’re too kind. This isn’t your fault.”
“She’s the one in the wrong. Why should you pay for her choices?”
Sophia shook her head, looking around at everyone with that pained, long-suffering expression she did so well.
“You guys don’t understand… Lena’s actually pretty pitiful. She just wants so badly to stay in the Walsh family.”
“Ever since I came back, she’s been so anxious—scared that Mom and Dad would love me more and forget about her…”
“So she wanted to get a good score to prove herself…”
She paused, like she was summoning every ounce of courage she had, and then continued:
“The truth is… I let her copy from me! Willingly!”
“A couple of weeks ago at home… Lena lost her temper… she locked me out on the patio all night and wouldn’t let me back inside…”
“I was so cold… so scared…”
“She said… if I didn’t help her get that MIT recommendation slot, she’d make sure I’d never have a place in the Walsh family again…”
“So I… I left my answer sheet where she could see it on purpose…”
“I don’t blame her. Really. Not at all.”
The classroom and hallway exploded.
“What? Locked out on the patio all night? In the middle of winter? She could’ve frozen to death!”
“No wonder Sophia’s always getting sick! She was being abused!”
“That’s disgusting. She steals Sophia’s place in the family and now she’s trying to kill her too?”
A guy who had a crush on Sophia shot up from his seat in the front row and pointed at me.
“Lena Walsh! Are you serious? Sophia’s the sweetest person in this school and you did this to her?”
“Get out of Winslow! We don’t want someone like you in our class!”
“Yeah! Get out!”
“Cheater! Bully! Kick her out!”
The insults crashed over me like a wave.
In my last life, I lost it at this exact moment.
I slapped Sophia—right in front of everyone.
That one slap sealed my fate and sent me straight into the abyss.
But not this time.
I let my gaze move slowly across all those angry faces, then stopped on Sophia, who was still dabbing at her tears.
“Nice story, Sophia,” I said, my voice flat.
“But you’re saying I locked you out. I forced you to help me cheat. Where’s your proof?”
“Just because you say it, that makes it true?”
Sophia flinched like I’d scared her and shrank behind Morrison.
“Lena… don’t be mad… I really didn’t want to say anything…”
“They kept asking me, so I had to… I don’t want you to get expelled…”
“Enough!” Morrison slammed his hand on the desk.
“Lena Walsh, you’re standing here with solid evidence against you and you still have the nerve to threaten the victim? You’re beyond help!”
“When Mr. and Mrs. Walsh get here, I’m telling them every single thing you’ve done—in front of the whole school.”
Before he even finished, the office door flew open from the outside.
A furious male voice cut through the room:
“Don’t bother waiting.”
“We heard everything.”