Chapter 3

I opened the chat with my mother.

The sketch was still there.

Sent two weeks ago.

Below it, her reply.

【Mom just wants a look. I won't show anyone.】

I held the phone up to her face.

「You said you wouldn't show anyone.」

She barely glanced at it.

「Ian's your brother. He doesn't count as anyone.」

「The company hasn't even released it, and he's already put it up for presale.」

That only made her cross.

「It's one drawing.」

「You made three million. Would it kill you to give your brother one?」

I turned to Ian.

「Take the listings down now, and refund everyone who preordered.」

He snatched my phone out of my hand.

「Why should I? The character was mine to begin with!」

I reached to grab it back.

Ian tossed the phone to our father.

It hit the corner of the table, and the screen cracked.

Something twisted in my chest.

Everything for work was on that phone.

My father closed his hand around it.

「Stop making a scene.」

「Sign the division agreement first.」

I stared at him.

「Give me back my phone.」

「Sign.」

「Give it back!」

I lunged at him.

My father shoved me off.

The small of my back slammed into a cardboard box, and the blind boxes inside spilled across the floor.

My mother didn't reach out to steady me.

She crouched down to gather the merchandise first.

「That's all money!」

「Can you afford to replace it?」

Amy stood off to the side.

「Catherine, don't lose your mind.」

「Turning the house upside down won't make that money any cleaner.」

I pushed against the wall and got to my feet.

「What do you mean, cleaner?」

She flicked a glance at Ian.

「This character. Ian drew it first, when you were kids.」

I froze.

「Say that again.」

Amy looked away.

「Back then you two drew together every day.」

「He drew a little round-headed figure, and you just adjusted it from his.」

Ian jumped in at once.

「You took my idea and made three million off it.」

「And now you won't even let me use it to open a shop?」

My mother nodded.

「I remember. Ian loved drawing this when he was little.」

My father said it too.

「You're just older, so you drew it better than he did.」

The four of them stood together.

One line after another, like they'd rehearsed it.

I laughed then.

「When Ian was little, he couldn't even hold a pencil straight.」

「And now you're telling me he drew my work?」

My father turned and went into the bedroom.

When he came back out, there was an old sketchbook in his hand.

The cover had yellowed.

Across it, in black marker: 【Ian's Work】

He opened to the first page.

It was the exact character that had sold out.

Round head.

Short arms.

A small chip missing from the left ear.

Identical to the finished figure now.

Ian held the sketchbook up to my face.

「Still want proof?」

I reached for it.

My father pulled it back immediately.

「This is Ian's. Don't touch it.」

I stared at the cover.

I'd seen this notebook before.

It hadn't looked like this.

Amy took out her phone and pointed it at me.

「Everybody get a good look.」

「Designer Catherine Sullivan made her money off her brother's drawings, and now she wants to snatch the original away too.」

I blocked the lens.

「Stop filming me.」

She stepped back.

「What have you got to feel guilty about?」

「If you've got the nerve, say it in front of the company, that this character has nothing to do with Ian at all.」

Ian had already turned the sketchbook into a video.

The title read:

【My Own Sister Took My Childhood Work, and Refuses to Admit It Now That She's Famous】

In the video, my mother testified with red eyes.

My father flipped through the old sketchbook.

Amy narrated how it had happened when they were kids.

Ian sat in front of the camera, his voice shaking.

「I never wanted to fight my sister for three million.」

「I just want her to admit that half of this is mine too.」

He said he didn't want the money.

But the comments were all demanding it for him.

【The original's in her hands and she still says it's hers?】

【Sister made three million, what's wrong with giving her brother one point eight?】

【The whole family testified and she's still denying it?】

My work phone rang.

Laura Fleming, the project lead, sounded rushed.

「What's this video going around online?」

「Your family is saying the character isn't your original work. The company has already paused payment.」

I gripped the phone.

「The work is mine.」

「I can prove it.」

「Get the proof to us before tomorrow morning.」

She paused.

「Catherine, the new series is on hold too, for now.」

The line went dead.

My mother took the division agreement back.

「The moment you sign, Ian will post a video to clear it up.」

「He'll say it was just family messing around, no stolen work, nothing.」

Ian pulled out another document, a three-year cooperation contract.

It read:

Every month I would provide four new designs for his shop, charge no design fee, and have no claim to any of the shop's income.

Amy pressed the pen into my hand.

「You're about to lose the three million and your job both.」

「What are you still being stubborn about?」

My mother opened the last blind box.

No money inside, no task card either, just four statements.

Father, mother, sister, brother, all of them signed.

Certifying that Ian was the original creator.

My mother set the livestream for nine the next morning.

「You think it over tonight.」

「Sign, and we tell the truth.」

「Don't sign, and tomorrow everyone gets to see how you stole your own brother's work.」