Chapter 4

That same day the whole thing hit the trending lists: a daughter saddled with a half-million-dollar debt, then packed off to a reform school.

There was nothing I could do about it. I just have good luck.

There'd been no proof of anything. It was only because my mother and Candice were so worked up over what they called my fake saintliness.

To make the school's principal grasp exactly how serious my case was, they'd dumped every recent detail out in one breath.

And the principal's office had audio surveillance running.

No wonder the reading came back as great fortune.

Now not only had my mother lost her job, Candice had taken a hit too.

Social media was full of people ripping her apart for using her own sister as a stepping stone in her endless grabbing and clawing.

And of course I no longer had to pay back that loan.

Because it was the police who had brought me home, and they'd promised to keep an eye on me for a while, Candice and my mother didn't dare make a scene.

Still, her anger only lasted a day.

By the next morning she was at the table, laughing in high spirits.

"The company didn't just keep me on, they think I represent the whole company culture!"

"This is exactly how you handle things, exactly how you come down hard on people playing the fake saint!"

"So they handed me an overseas project straight off, said once I finish it and come back they'll give me a ten-thousand raise!"

Here it comes.

I quickly worked the reckoning on my fingers.

In my eyes Candice turned wreathed in black, a dead man's air hanging over her.

That very day my mother helped Candice pack, throwing quiet little jabs at me the whole time.

"See how useful your sister's personality is? Not even a month in and look how much her pay's jumped!"

Candice shrugged, all mock helplessness.

"What can you do, some people just insist on suffering for nothing, always burrowing into companies with lousy pay, never willing to stick with a startup and ride it to the top!"

Whatever I said, Candice wouldn't believe it anyway.

She'd probably just decide I was trying to hold back her career.

So I kept my mouth shut and quietly made plans to move out of this house as soon as I could.

I didn't expect Candice to drop another bombshell.

"Aileen, I really am too good to you as a sister. I applied for benefits for you and Mom too!"

"The group chat said you can bring family on the trip, and whoever signs up first gets their family's overseas costs reimbursed!"

"So hurry up and get ready, come abroad with me!"

I honestly could have keeled over.

Why did she have to drag me into everything?

I shook my head again. "I'm not going!"

For once my mother turned down Candice's invitation too. "This is all Aileen's fault, me losing my job. I've got a few interviews lined up soon!"

"Candi, you go on your own this time. As your mother, I can't go embarrassing you as some unemployed drifter!"

Candice clicked her tongue.

"Aileen, this isn't some handout tossed your way. I poured myself into getting this for you!"

"I really won't give you another chance after this! You can go rot in the mud your whole life for all I care!"

I was practically begging her to stop handing me chances to get myself killed.

"Not going means not going!"

I shook my head, flat and final, and got a cold snort from Candice for it.

She told my mother again and again to make sure I found a job, then walked out without a backward glance.

And that was it, she was gone for a month.

For that whole month, the messages she sent at first came thick and fast, all bragging, then mocking me for being a frog at the bottom of a well.

Later the messages grew fewer and fewer, but my mother explained it away. "That's your sister being busy with work! Nothing like you, so leisurely, so free!"

I did a reading with the three coins.

The life had already left Candice. In all likelihood she'd already met with something terrible.

I sighed. She'd brought it on herself.

But the next day, the Candice who should have been dead came knocking at our door.

Standing right in front of us, alive and breathing...