Chapter 3

By the time I got to the socks, a wave of nausea rose in my stomach, and I couldn't help coughing twice.

After the coughing stopped, my chest hurt even more, as if a hand were squeezing my heart inside.

I braced myself against the sink for a long time before I finally finished washing everything.

While I was hanging the clothes to dry, my vision went black several times.

I gripped the balcony railing, looking at the trees below, and I nearly pitched straight over the edge.

At dinner, I couldn't take it anymore. I put down my chopsticks and looked at my parents across the table.

"Dad, Mom, I'm really not feeling well. Could... could you take me to the hospital to get it checked?"

My voice was very small, my tone full of pleading.

"I'll pay you back for the medical bills once I start working. I'll write you an IOU. I swear I'll pay it back."

Mom slammed her chopsticks down on the table with a bang.

"Fiona, are you ever going to stop?"

"From the moment you walked through that door, it's been one thing after another — you're not feeling well, you're uncomfortable. You just don't want to do any work, is that it?"

"I think you're faking it! What kind of illness could someone your age even have?"

Dad's face darkened too.

"A person ought to know how to be grateful. We brought you back from the orphanage, gave you a place to live, gave you food to eat. Is this how you repay us?"

"Ask you to do a little work and you drag your feet, and now you want to go to the hospital? You think the hospital's free? That money's being saved for your brother's tuition!"

"But I really—"

"Really what?"

Mom cut me off, spit nearly flying into my face.

"I think you're just scheming. Faking sick on purpose to win sympathy, hoping we'll feel sorry for you, isn't that it?"

"I'm telling you, it won't work! We're not falling for it!"

Ralph shoveled rice into his mouth beside them, not even lifting his head.

"Yeah, all that play-acting is so annoying. If she doesn't want to stay, she can get lost back to the orphanage. We don't feed freeloaders in this house."

I looked at the three of them, each taking a turn to curse at me, as if I were an enemy.

The pain in my chest grew sharper and sharper.

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't get out a single word.

That night, I lay on the hard wooden bed in the guest room the whole night.

The room was tiny, with no windows.

It was damp, and the blanket smelled of mold.

I clutched my chest, hurting so much I couldn't sleep all night.

I couldn't understand it. We were both their children, so why did Ralph get to be treated like a treasure?

Why was I the one left in an orphanage for eighteen years, and then brought home only to be worked like a mule?

No one gave me the answer.

The next day, right as dawn broke, I was woken by the sound of my mother pounding on the door.

"What time is it? Still sleeping? Get up and make breakfast!"

"Your brother wants soy milk, freshly ground, and fry him two eggs!"

I forced myself up and out of bed.

My head felt heavy and my legs weak, so lightheaded that even walking felt like drifting.

I bustled back and forth in the kitchen.

The greasy smoke made me cough, and my chest hurt so much I broke out in a cold sweat.

When I carried breakfast to the table, my vision went black and I swayed.

The soy milk in my hand nearly spilled.

"Watch it! What if you scald your brother?"

Mom quickly grabbed the bowl from me, pushed it in front of Ralph, then turned and scolded me.

"So clumsy, can't do a single thing right. What use are you at all!"

I leaned on the table and gasped for a long while before I recovered.

After breakfast, Mom gave me another long list of chores.

Wipe the windows, mop the floors, tidy Ralph's room.

Go to the grocery store at noon to buy fish.

She said Ralph wanted steamed fish, that it was good for the brain.

"Oh, and the grocery store's at the other end of the street, a twenty-minute walk. You can walk there. Don't take a car, it's a waste of money."

When I went out with the shopping basket, the sun was blazing, and it left me dizzy and faint.

My chest was so tight I could hardly breathe, and every step felt like stepping on cotton.

I gritted my teeth and made it to the grocery store, but on the way back after buying everything, a sharp pain suddenly tore through my chest.

My legs gave out, the groceries dropped from my hand to the ground, and I toppled straight over.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard the alarmed cries of passersby nearby.

"Isn't this the Fox family's girl, the one they just brought home? How did she end up collapsed here?"

"Somebody call Lambert, quick, before something goes wrong and no one can explain it..."