They Left Me to Die

They said love shielded her 13 years; a seven-day trip "for the family" and every "don't lie" on the phone killed her. No power, no water, rotting pizza; three pleas called childish. Day seven, her mother entered with a strawberry cake to find her already cold. All wept at the funeral; on camera, the left-behind girl still waits. A doctor swapped in a nameless corpse: real Emily sits behind drawn curtains watching her funeral, ready to live—but can she go back, now they've learned to lose her?