Chapter 2

I picked up the black-dot box.

Mom's hand came down on it at once.

"Put it back."

"I haven't opened mine yet."

"That one isn't yours."

The words were out before she caught herself.

I looked at her.

"So you all know what's inside each one?"

"How is this a blind-box game, then?"

Mom let go.

"The colors are just so they line up neatly."

Amy jumped in.

"I switched them back a second ago because I didn't want to mess up the order."

"What order?"

She bent her head over her cake.

"However Mom arranges them, that's how we draw."

"Do you have to make it sound so ugly? We're family."

Dad taped a set of rules to the wall.

【Whatever you draw, you accept.】

【No swapping, no take-backs.】

【Refuse to honor it, and you've chosen to leave the family.】

I asked,

"What does 'leave the family' mean?"

Dad said coldly,

"From now on, when good things come to this house, don't expect to come back for a share."

Ian grinned and waved his card for one point eight million.

"Cat, you don't need this little bit from the family."

"Don't break Mom and Dad's hearts over a few boxes."

They were dividing up my three million.

And what they threatened me with was losing the right to a share of our parents' things later.

Mom set the boxes back in place.

"Keep drawing."

She handed the blue-dot box to Amy.

Amy opened it.

【Video-call Mom once a week.】

Mom's eyes went red.

"A daughter really is the tender one."

Amy hugged her.

"Forget once a week. Any day you miss me, I'll call."

Another round of applause for her.

Mom passed the black-dot box to Ian.

【Have dinner with Dad once a month.】

Dad couldn't stop smiling.

"My son's all grown up."

Ian poured him a drink.

"No matter how busy I get, I'll always make time for you, Dad."

Then it was my turn.

Mom didn't let me choose.

She just pushed the red-dot box across to me.

I opened it.

【Pay twenty thousand a month in eldercare fees.】

【You must be present when your parents are ill, no hired caregivers in your place.】

【Move back home before the end of the year.】

Amy makes one phone call a week.

Ian eats one dinner a month.

I have to pay, take care of them in person, and give up my own life on top of it.

I set the card down.

"The first one made me quit my job."

"This one makes me pay twenty thousand a month."

"After I quit, where's the twenty thousand supposed to come from?"

Dad answered fast.

"Three million lasts a long time."

Ian laughed too.

"You can pick up some little jobs from home."

"Draw new products for my shop and I'll still cut you a commission."

"My work doesn't go into your shop."

His face darkened.

"Family helps each other. Why do you make it sound like theft?"

Mom slapped the table.

"Ian opening a shop is serious business."

"You sit at a computer drawing all day. What's the harm in doing a few for him while you're at it?"

"That's my job."

"You give him one point eight million to open a shop, then expect me to supply him for free?"

Amy frowned.

"Cat, why is everything you say so sharp now?"

"If your brother makes it big, isn't that your face too?"

"You took three million, and you still have to hoard every bit of the benefit for yourself?"

I turned to her.

"What about your eight hundred thousand? Want to count that as an investment in the shop too?"

Her hand closed over her card at once.

"That's different."

Mom picked up a plate.

"Enough arguing."

"Stay the night. Start getting used to moving back."

I pushed open the door to my room.

The bed was gone.

The desk was gone too.

The room was packed with cardboard boxes.

Ian's fill light stood by the window.

On the wall hung a countdown to the shop's opening.

My award certificates and old sketchbooks had been stuffed into a trash bag and shoved behind the door.

I rushed back to the living room.

"Who touched my room?"

Mom didn't even look up.

"Your brother needs a studio for the shop, and you never come home anyway."

"Then where do I sleep when I move back?"

"You can set up a folding bed in the living room."

"You make me quit and come home to take care of you, and you didn't even leave me a bed?"

Dad took a sip of his drink.

"One person can sleep anywhere."

"Ian's shop is about this whole family's future."

Ian walked into the room and kicked the trash bag on the floor.

"Cat, don't touch that stock."

"The presale's already live. If you damage anything, you pay for it."

I opened the box on top.

It was full of blind-box packaging printed with my new character.

That character hadn't been made public yet.

Two weeks ago, Mom said she liked one of the sketches and asked me to send it to her to see.

I only sent it that once.

Ian snatched the box away.

"What are you doing going through my stuff?"

"Who said you could use that design?"

"Mom sent it to me."

He said it without a shred of shame.

"Family uses it once, and I need your permission?"

I pulled up his shop page.

The presale had already taken in one hundred twenty thousand.

At the very bottom of the promo image, one small line.

【Original Design: Ian Sullivan】

I looked up at him.

What he'd stolen wasn't just a drawing.

He wanted to take my name along with it.