Chapter 2

2: 2

I opened the voice message again. And again.

By the time it reached the end, I couldn't even cry.

So they'd known everything.

So all of this had been planned from the very start.

Keeping the card in my name for safekeeping was nothing but an excuse.

Wiring money into it year after year was just me playing my part in their little show.

They took my money to save face for the adopted son.

Then sent it back under his name, so they could put on a picture of a devoted mother and grateful son in front of the relatives.

And me?

I was just the fool who footed the bill.

From the day that adopted boy walked through the door, everything in the house had changed.

So many things that were mine to begin with.

All of them handed over to my brother, whether I liked it or not.

From a small bag of snacks to the money for college.

I asked her back, "When will I finally stop being the one this family sacrifices?"

My mother answered right away.

"Sweetie, what are you even saying? How are you a sacrifice?"

"I just want you to give a little to your brother, that's all."

I didn't want to hear any of it.

I'd heard it all a thousand times.

I asked if she planned to keep covering it up forever.

She said no, of course not, just give her a little more time.

She'd clear my name soon enough.

She told me not to worry.

Said she'd set the whole thing straight with her daughter-in-law right away.

At the very least, she couldn't let the family think badly of me.

I typed. I deleted.

Typed again. Deleted again.

In the end I chose to let it go, for now.

Meanwhile, in the chat, my brother's wife was only getting worse.

【How come someone's gone quiet all of a sudden?】

【Mom and Dad caught her being unfilial dead to rights, so now she's chickened out?】

【Weren't you loud enough a minute ago?】

My aunt tagged me and sent a message.

【Serena, you've broken your elders' hearts.】

My uncle piled on.

【How did our Whitney family ever produce a thing like this?】

Other relatives joined the pile.

【Just leave the group already, the sight of you makes me sick.】

【With a relative like you, I'm ashamed to admit it.】

Without a word, I left the group right then.

Out of sight, out of mind.

The next day was my day off. I'd planned to sleep in.

At six in the morning, someone pounded on my door.

It was my adopted brother and his wife.

They had two bags of cheap fruit in their hands.

Grinning at me. "Morning, sis."

Remembering all of yesterday's garbage, I was full of anger.

But I still stepped aside and let them in.

"Sit down first."

I poured two glasses of water and set them on the coffee table.

"What is it you need?"

I thought they'd come to apologize.

I figured my mother had explained the whole thing on her end by now.

Instead I watched Shanna poke at Thomas Whitney.

Thomas hurried to speak.

"Sis, you know Shanna and I have been renting all this time."

"Now that she's pregnant, I was thinking of buying a place in a good school district."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't cut him off.

He went on.

"The thing is, I'm still short quite a bit."

"If you hand over Mom and Dad's retirement savings, that'd cover it perfectly."

My hand froze around the glass.

So my mother hadn't told them the truth at all.

So I asked them, calmly, "Where's the money? Don't the two of you know perfectly well?"

Shanna exploded on the spot.

"The card for the retirement savings is with you, and now the money's gone."

"If you didn't take it, who did? Us?!"

I let out a cold laugh.

"Honestly, you never know."

She shot to her feet. "I've got to say, you're really something as an older sister."

"In every other family, the sister helps her brother out."

"But you? Not only do you not help, you turn around and screw your brother over."

"That money is Mom and Dad's retirement. You swallowed all of it yourself. Aren't you afraid of what's coming to you?"

I didn't snap back. I looked at my adopted brother instead.

How good I'd been to him growing up, nobody knew better than he did.

And yet he chose to pretend he hadn't heard a word.

Shanna kept complaining. "The card's in her hands, the money's gone, and she's the one acting like she's in the right?"

"I was going to say this yesterday, with all those elders watching in the group."

"If she didn't have a guilty conscience, why leave the group at all?"

I set down the glass, stood, and walked to the door.

"Are you finished?"

"If you're finished, then please go."

Shanna crossed her arms, indignant. "Sis, what kind of attitude is that?"

I stared at her and spelled it out, one word at a time.

"I'll say it once more. Get out of my house now."

"You're not welcome here."