Chapter 4

The next morning, I woke up in my apartment to a barrage of missed calls.

All from Brenda.

Before I could decide whether to block the new number, my doorbell rang.

I opened the door. Richard and Brenda stood in the hallway, with Luna right behind them.

The three of them were hauling massive suitcases, looking like they intended to move in permanently.

"This place is tiny. How do you even live here?" Brenda barged in, dropping two heavy duffel bags onto the floor. "We’ll squeeze in for a few days. Your sister is having her wedding in the city, and the relatives back home are crowding our place."

Luna, wearing oversized designer sunglasses and stilettos, strolled in and cast a disgusted look around my living room.

"Stella, this place looks like a homeless shelter. You don't even have a walk-in closet."

I stood firmly in the doorway, blocking their path.

"Get out."

"What did you just say?" Richard glared, his chest puffing up.

"I said get out. This is my apartment. You aren't welcome here."

Brenda shrieked, "Are you out of your mind, Stella? I’m your mother! You’re kicking your own mother onto the street?"

"You kicked me out the day I turned eighteen," I said coldly, holding the door wide open. "Now that I'm standing on my own two feet, you suddenly remember you have an older daughter?"

Luna pulled down her sunglasses, giving me a venomous look.

"Stella, who do you think you are? How much do you even make at that stupid desk job? My fiancé owns a massive venture firm. You should be kissing my feet if you ever want a handout from us."

I looked at her, and a slow smile crept onto my face.

"Your fiancé owns a venture firm? Since when?"

Luna’s expression flickered with unease. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing. It's just that I came across a fraud alert on the regional news yesterday," I unlocked my phone, swiping to the saved article. "A self-proclaimed venture capitalist was arrested for running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Take a look. Is this your fiancé?"

Luna snatched the phone from my hand. The color drained from her face until she was as white as a sheet.

Brenda leaned in frantically. "What is it? Luna, what does it say?"

Luna didn't utter a word. She hurled my phone violently against the floor, turned around, and bolted down the stairwell.

Brenda chased after her. "Luna! Luna, wait for me!"

Richard stood frozen in my foyer, his face turning an angry shade of purple. He looked at me, then down at my shattered screen.

"Stella, you jinx! If you ruined your sister's marriage, I will never forgive you!"

He turned and hurried after them.

I shut the door and picked up the broken pieces of my phone.

The screen was completely dead, but the cloud backups had already saved everything.

That evening, Claire sent another message.

"Stella, Luna’s fiancé was definitely picked up by federal agents. Your mother is running around begging every relative for bail money, but nobody will give her a cent. Your father went to his brother's house and was literally kicked off the porch. Your mother has been sobbing on the floor all day, screaming that you destroyed Luna’s future."

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about my eighteenth birthday.

I remembered the cold, greasy suds covering my hands.

I remembered the boiling oil blistering my arm, and how Brenda’s only concern was the grease on Luna’s old shirt.

I remembered shivering all night on a plastic bench at the bus depot, clutching that cardboard box in the drafty dark.

I flipped my phone over and went to sleep.