Chapter 1

When my sister found out the client's female boss was unmarried, she blurted out, "an old maid nobody wants."

I went three days and three nights without sleep and drafted seven versions of the proposal before the woman finally forgave us.

But the moment I got home, Mom and Dad announced that my integrity score was minus six hundred fifty-nine, that Sophie Dickerson had hit a full thousand, and that she would be inheriting the company.

I stared at them with bloodshot eyes and demanded, "On what grounds? I trailed after her cleaning up her mess, and I saved a fifty-million-dollar contract!"

Sophie stuck out her tongue. "She's forty and still not married. Was I wrong to say nobody wants her? I just told the truth!"

Mom pulled her into her arms. "Sophie has a pure heart, she doesn't lie. She earned that integrity score fair and square."

Dad nodded, gratified, then rounded on me with a bark.

"Lying through your teeth for a few scraps of profit. Your mother and I have never in our lives had less respect for anyone than a greedy, grasping little schemer like you!"

To pick a worthy heir, my parents had set up an integrity score for Sophie and me from the time we were small.

Sophie asked our gravely ill grandmother why she was dragging it out instead of dying, since the ICU was so expensive.

Our parents gave her a point.

Sophie pointed at a classmate with a congenital limp and called him a cripple, and got the parents called in.

Our parents said I was the older sister and shouldn't let Sophie get bullied, so every day I apologized without end.

Our parents called me a bootlicker with a mouth full of lies.

Before a bid, Sophie leaked the supplier's cost quote to a competitor, then wheedled up to our parents.

"I want to go head to head with them, fair and square, and see who can land the biggest project of the year!"

This time, I wouldn't stop her. I'd let her show everyone exactly what she was made of...

01

"Sis, isn't the only reason you're so eager to kiss up to Ms. Simmons that she's the client?"

Sophie rolled her eyes in contempt.

Three all-nighters in, the vein at my temple was throbbing.

Still, I drew a breath and explained, carefully.

"Even if Ms. Simmons were an ordinary person, after my sister said something that offensive to her, I'd still do everything I could to make it right."

Mom frowned, displeased.

"Nothing but lies. If sucking up to that woman didn't make you money, I'd never believe you had it in your heart to be that kind!"

"Your father and I built this from nothing on integrity. How could we ever have raised a daughter as morally rotten as you?"

I opened my mouth to explain something more.

Dad stood, his tone grave.

"Carissa Dickerson, enough of this nonsense."

"The way I see it, Ms. Simmons is a woman past forty who still won't let go of the company's reins. High cheekbones, the kind that spells doom for any husband. Sophie only told the truth."

"If she got angry, it just proves honest words grate on the ear. She's the one who can't take it."

Mom hugged Sophie close, her eyes full of admiration.

"Sophie's integrity score has already reached a thousand. As of today, the Dickersons officially passes to Sophie."

I couldn't believe my ears. The word tore out of me. "On what grounds?"

"I gave this company ten years. From the factory floor to sales, I did every part of it with my own hands."

"And Sophie? She shows up only when it counts, and opens her mouth to offend every single person in the room!"

Before I could finish, a dull pain struck my temple.

Mom had grabbed a heavy notebook and hurled it at my forehead.

"You bet, you lose, you accept it. When you were ten, your father and I told you both: whoever hits a thousand points first takes over the company."

"Look at yourself. Minus six hundred fifty-nine. That means you've told six hundred fifty-nine lies."

Inside the notebook, after Sophie's name, ran row after dense row of "+1."

And after my name, careless "-1" marks scrawled in red pen.

"You're the older sister. You bet and you lost, so take it. Don't make people look down on you."

The endless numbers made my head spin.

Sophie had been like this since we were kids. No filter, no restraint.

The year she turned ten, she pointed at our gravely ill grandmother in her sickbed, her face full of disgust.

"The ICU costs a fortune a day. Old and not dead is just a burden. If she had any thought at all for her children, she'd have given up treatment long ago!"

Grandma, already so frail, went bloodless in the face at those words.

Tears streamed down her old cheeks as she murmured over and over, "The old woman shouldn't be treated, dragging her children down. I should have died long ago."

I stepped in front of Grandma and lost my temper at Sophie for the first time.

"You have no manners at all. How could you say something like that to Grandma!"

Sophie couldn't have cared less. I turned to our parents for help, hoping they'd make her apologize.

Dad's eyes drifted away on their own. "Sophie's right. Our business may look big, but the employees, the rent, every bit of it is money. We're under a lot of pressure too."

Mom crouched down, her eyes on Sophie brimming with admiration.

"That's my daughter. Sharp-tongued, quick, free-spirited."

She stood and walked toward me, her face cold, and jabbed a finger hard against my head.

"You, on the other hand. Just because your grandmother slipped you a few small kindnesses, you went against your conscience and told pretty, high-sounding lies. Minus one integrity point."

The tears spilled out of me at once.

I hadn't lied.

Grandma had taught me that cruel words wound people, that you should think of others' feelings before you speak.

I hadn't done anything wrong!

But I was too little then to speak up for myself.

From that day on, Grandma saw her daughter's true face. Heartbroken, she refused the doctors' treatment.

Within days, she was gone.

The only relative in that house who ever called me a good child was gone.

After that, Sophie grew even more brazen, saying whatever she pleased, whenever she pleased.