Chapter 4

4: 4

Back home, Kitty went up the stairs first.

She left plenty of room for me and Mom.

"Kitty says you have something you want to tell me?" Mom threw me a glance.

I nodded.

I took out the new notebook and pen I'd bought on the way, and wrote down the truth I'd buried in my heart, word by word.

An hour later, I played it back through the text-to-speech device.

【The year I ran a high fever, Kitty lied. I never faked being sick. I was really ill!】

【And I never cheated. My grades were all real... I never wanted to throw away my future either. It was all Kitty's lies. Before that day I didn't even know that man, Maxwell. What I said that day was for Kitty to call the police, because Maxwell is a mur—】

"So? What's your point?"

Mom cut off the machine's flat voice, calm, staring at me coldly.

When I said nothing, she pinched the bridge of her nose, impatient.

"Melody, you're the older sister."

"Even if your sister did something wrong, that's just her being immature, and she already confessed all of it to me."

"She knows she was wrong. That's why she bailed you out. Are you still not satisfied?"

Meeting her indifferent expression, I froze where I stood.

"Or do you want me to throw your sister out?"

Mom sneered. "Melody, I never realized your heart was this vicious."

Her words drove into my chest like a blade, precise.

It hurt, badly.

I tilted my head back, trying to force the tears down.

But the tears seemed to know how wronged I was, and poured out uncontrollably.

Wiping at them hard, I pressed on the device and dragged the words out: 【Why?】

【Am I not your daughter too? Why do you always take Kitty's side!】

【If Kitty got me killed, would you still say she just didn't know any better, and tell me, the older sister, to be more understanding!】

The only answer was endless silence.

Mom sighed and looked away from my questioning eyes.

Seeing her about to leave, I grabbed her, and couldn't stop myself from asking the last question: 【If I left,】

【would you be sad?】

She didn't answer. Instead she said, out of nowhere, "There's chicken soup in the pot. Drink it while it's hot."

And went up the stairs on her own.

I slumped down in the living room and laughed without a sound.

That was when Kitty stood at the second-floor railing and tilted her head at me. "Sis, you lost."

"If you're willing to beg me, the bet doesn't have to count."

Ding!

The pendulum on the wall clock swung to midnight.

I wiped my tears, stood, and looked at her. 【No need.】

In a few more hours, I'd see my gentle mother, and be completely away from this house.

Early the next morning, Mom dressed up.

Today was the day Kitty moved into Ivycrest University. Even though it was a special-exception admission,

for an ordinary family it was already an enormous honor.

After all, everyone inside was either from a wealthy family or from power. A world that crossed class lines entirely.

"Where's your sister?"

Kitty looked at the empty bedroom. "Her bags are gone."

Mom's brow furrowed at once. She tried to call me, but the phone stayed switched off.

For some reason, she couldn't shake a feeling of unease.

"Mom, we're going to be late."

Only when Kitty urged her did she let the thought go.

Out the door, Mom couldn't hold back her smile and wanted to show off to the neighbors, only to find the street empty.

Everyone had crowded to the mouth of the street across the way instead.

Just then the siren of a patrol car made the unease in her chest sharpen.

"What's going on?"

A passerby glanced at her and shook his head with regret. "You don't know yet? There was a killer hiding across the street."

"Blood all over the ground. They say the one who died was a young girl."

Mom licked her dry lips, and was about to say what a shame,

when a neighbor beside her, who'd recognized her, cut in.

"Right, I think I saw your older daughter heading that way this morning. Hurry and give her a call—"

The bag in Mom's hand hit the ground with a slap.