Chapter 2

After a grueling shift of overtime, I habitually opened my financial app to check my gold investment portfolio.

My brows furrowed. The numbers were off.

It was only short by a fraction of a gram—worth maybe twenty dollars—but for someone like me who calculated every penny and watched the market daily, this was no illusion.

"Probably just a system delay or a market spread," I muttered to myself.

I didn't dwell on it. The market had been wildly volatile lately, and such a minor glitch was negligible for a long-term holder.

Before I could lock my screen, my dad’s call came through, frantic and loud.

"Hazel! Get home right now! Something massive has happened!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, instantly tense.

My dad’s ecstatic voice blasted through my AirPods.

"Your sister is a goddess! She can turn things into gold!"

I sighed, kicking off my flats at the door. "Dad, have you been brainwashed by those TikTok conspiracy videos again? Or is Chloe pulling another prank for her stream?"

"You stubborn brat, why don't you believe me?! Just get your butt home! Every minute you waste is costing us a fortune!"

The line went dead. I shook my head in exasperation. My sister, Chloe, had been a headache since she was a kid. She wanted to be an influencer, then an actress, wasting tons of family money in the process. God knew what kind of stunt she was pulling this time.

When I pushed the door open, my dad was jumping up and down in the living room, clutching his phone.

"Look! Your sister is a miracle worker!" Dad practically shoved his screen into my face.

"Chloe just tapped her finger, and five hundred dollars appeared out of thin air in my Venmo! Five hundred bucks!"

I glanced at the screen. The notification did show a five-hundred-dollar deposit, but the transaction memo was just a string of encrypted, random characters.

"Oh, you're back, Hazel," Chloe said, casting a dismissive glance at me. "Dad said you didn't believe in my superpower."

"Then open your gold investment app," Dad urged impatiently.

Under his pressuring gaze, I unlocked my phone and tapped the gold-and-black icon of my brokerage app.

"Watch closely," Chloe said.

She tapped the air lightly with her index finger.

In the next second, my heart skipped a beat, and I nearly dropped my phone.

On the screen, my gold balance—which was originally around 300 grams—started ticking upward rapidly without any purchase order from me.

350 grams. 400 grams. 500 grams!

In the blink of an eye, my portfolio had doubled!

My hands shook as I refreshed the page three times, even logging out and back in. The extra gold was still there, sitting securely in my account. It was worth nearly fifteen thousand dollars!

"How... how is this possible?" I stared at Chloe, dumbfounded.

"I told you it was real!" Dad slapped his thigh in excitement. "Chloe has the golden touch now! Everything she points at turns to money!"

Chloe couldn't hide the smug satisfaction in her eyes. "Believe me now, Hazel? This is called manifestation."

"You used to tell me that manifesting was just a lazy fantasy. What about now? I manifested actual wealth. Pretty impressive, right?"