The Price of a Like

When I arrived home, a deep sense of dread still lingered in my heart, as though I had narrowly escaped some terrible calamity.

"Lucy, are you alright?" my brother asked, his hand resting gently on my head, his eyes filled with concern.

I nodded, though my thoughts were far from settled. My gaze drifted to my father, who stood nearby with an expression of worry etched across his face. I wanted to question him, to demand answers about everything that had been gnawing at my mind.

But the memories of my past life—those harrowing moments—stopped me. My lips parted, but no words came out.

Instead, my eyes found the photo of my mother resting on the mantle. A wave of confusion washed over me. I was said to be the spitting image of her, a perfect replica of her beauty and grace. Moreover, in families like ours, DNA tests were as routine as annual check-ups, a safeguard against any mischief or doubts about lineage.

Could genes... mutate?

"Dad, brother, I need to step out for a bit," I said abruptly.

Quietly, I swiped a strand of hair from both of them before slipping out.

I made my way to a lab and submitted the samples for an expedited DNA test. My hands trembled as I handed over the evidence.

Later, as I inserted my SIM card into my new phone, a news alert appeared on the screen.

"Collision on the Basentine Bridge: Car and Truck Crash Erupts in Flames."

The cold sweat on my back turned to ice. This was the very accident that had disfigured Penelope in my previous life. Could it be that the gears of fate were grinding forward once again?

There was no time to waste. I had to confirm my suspicions at the hospital.

I hailed a cab and raced to the emergency ward, charging through the corridors with a singular determination. My memory guided me to the room she had been in during my past life, but my haste led me to collide with someone in the hallway.

"I knew it would be you," said a calm, chilling voice.

I turned to find Nathan staring at me.

"I remember it clearly. Last time around, Vanessa's social media posts had both your likes and mine," he said, his voice heavy with meaning.

I froze. "You've... come back too?"

"It's not just me," Nathan replied, his gaze hardening. "Penelope as well."

"So none of us liked her posts this time?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yet the car accident happened anyway," Nathan murmured, his face darkening.

There was no time to unpack his cryptic reply. Together, we decided to find Penelope and get to the bottom of it.

I pushed open the hospital room door, heart pounding. Inside, a pale young woman lay waiting for us, as though she had anticipated our arrival. A bitter smile stretched across her face.

"I've been expecting you," Penelope said softly.

In hurried words, the three of us pieced together our fragmented experiences. Her expression was laced with bitterness as she spoke.

"I distinctly remember the three of us liking her posts in our past life," Penelope said. "At that time, I was doing very well for myself. Director Mason praised my audition and told me the role seemed made for me. But after liking Vanessa's post, the accident happened. My face was ruined, and Vanessa—who started looking more and more like me—snatched the role by boldly recommending herself to the director."

Her voice trembled with frustration. "This time, I blocked her outright and ignored her requests for likes. Yet the same accident occurred. But I managed to crawl out of the wreckage this time... before the flames consumed me."

I stared at the swaths of white gauze, emotions swirling. For an actress, a face is everything.

"Is it bad?" Nathan asked, his tone grave.

Penelope sighed. "Just minor injuries. It'll heal with treatment. At least it won't affect my ability to work."

The room fell into a heavy silence, broken only by the shrill ringtone of Penelope's phone.

"Hello? Desmond, what's up?" she answered.

Suddenly, her voice grew sharp with panic. "What? Director Mason replaced me? How is that possible? He said the role was perfect for me!"

Penelope gasped in shock, her eyes flashing with deep confusion.

"Okay, I understand." Her face turned ghostly pale as she hung up.

"It's gone. The role is gone... again." Despair clouded her features. "Where did I go wrong? We started over—why hasn't anything changed?"

"Look at this," Nathan interrupted, thrusting his phone toward me. Vanessa's latest post stared back at us: a boastful update about her success in collecting likes for both the tutoring and rental agency.

[Hey, fam! All three posts have received enough likes! Thank you for your support! (rose emoji)]

I took out my own phone and logged into the school forum with my admin credentials. Sure enough, the top trending post read: Chemistry Department Genius's Paper Suspected of Fraud, the Hardships Behind the Glorious Achievements of a Countryside Student!"

As if on cue, a notification from the DNA lab buzzed on my phone. My hands shook as I opened it.

The results confirmed Vanessa's identity as the biological child of my dad.

And me? Just like in my past life, I was nothing more than a fraud—a cuckoo in another's nest.