Chapter 1

On my nineteenth birthday, I signed up to be a volunteer in a clinical trial.

The moment I got the advance payment, I bought myself the birthday present I'd wanted for so long: a sports smartwatch.

The doctor said this trial carried unavoidable risk factors, and told me to inform my parents.

When I got home, Mom, Dad, and my brother were all celebrating my false-heiress sister's birthday.

Dad waved me over without really looking. "Patricia Henson, hurry up and come celebrate with us."

Mom couldn't help complaining, "Why are you only getting back now? We waited so long that your sister's birth hour already passed."

But no one had ever bothered about the hour I was born. I stood with them and sang the birthday song to the end.

After the cake was finished, Dad took out a birthday present and handed it to Millicent.

"Ta-da—ta-da—for the Henson family's own young lady, the birthday present you've been dreaming of has arrived."

The moment the wrapping came off, it was the sports smartwatch I'd been longing for for three years.

I quietly went back to my room and packed a few clothes. The trial would last three months, and I might not come out of it alive.

1

My room was plain and bare, but Mom had decorated Millicent's room like a little princess's suite.

I'd barely finished packing when Mom called for me.

"Patricia, there's one slice of cake left. Come eat it. Isn't it your birthday today? Don't let it go to waste."

So Mom did remember my birthday. But it was the same as always. Under the excuse of being thrifty, she always made me take Millicent's leftovers.

Except we weren't poor. Dad ran a publicly traded company.

Mom had a jewelry store too.

It was precisely because they had money that, years ago, when they learned the mixed-up Millicent came from a poor family,

one sweep of the hand and a few million had that family sign Millicent over to them to raise.

And me, at nine years old, I was smoothly returned to my birth family.

I set the sports smartwatch I'd bought on the nightstand.

Then I walked back to the table, picked up the last slice of birthday cake, and ate it in silence.

On the sofa, Millicent and my brother were snickering, laughter they couldn't keep down slipping out of their throats.

Out of the corner of my eye I felt them looking at me, laughing at me.

But when I turned to look, not only were they not laughing, they were sitting perfectly straight.

I knew exactly what this was, though. Another one of their little pranks.

At least I'd finished the cake and hadn't found anything wrong with it.

Remembering the doctor's words, I decided to tell Mom and Dad what I'd decided.

If something really did happen to me, they could treat the compensation as the money they'd spent raising me.

I looked over at Mom on the sofa. She and Millicent were talking about something, laughing on and on.

So I went to the study instead and found Dad. "Dad, there's something I want to tell you both."

Dad rubbed his temples, a little irritated.

"Business hasn't been good lately. Can't you be a little more sensible? Stop obsessing over that sports smartwatch of yours."

"When Millie gets tired of hers, I'll have her pass it to you."

Hurt as I was, I still hurried to explain,

"Dad, that's not it. I know business isn't good. What I want to say is something else."

Dad cut me off, more impatient now.

"All right, all right, and stop harping on about wanting us to buy you a hearing aid. If I actually bought you one, what would outsiders think of this family? That we mistreat you?"

"Go on, get out. I still have work to do. Say one more word and I'll leave the study to you. I'll go hide out at the office for some peace, all right?"

My feet were rooted to the spot, my throat too afraid to make another sound, my heart like it was being gently squeezed in a hand, even my breathing gone tight and thick.

A sourness kept rising in my nose, a warm damp heat slowly welling up behind my eyes until my vision began to blur.

I blinked desperately and bit down hard on my lower lip, forcing the sob rising in my throat back down.

In that moment, I truly wished I'd gone completely deaf. For ten years these cruel words had been a knife, cutting into my heart one stroke at a time.

I'm deaf in my right ear because I fought with Millicent over a family heirloom bracelet Grandma had given me.

Millicent had our brother Eugene Henson on her side. As we grappled for it, Eugene shoved me, I lost my balance, and I fell down the second-floor staircase all the way to the first floor.