The Daughter They Starved to Death Came Back a Billionaire

Dad received his transfer orders and was sent to the frontier for re-education.

Mom made two bowls of noodles.

"Whoever gets the fried egg comes with us."

My older sister, who'd always been the lucky one, didn't get the egg. I did, the one who'd never won anything in her life.

The next morning at dawn, Mom took me by the hand, and together with Dad, we boarded the train heading out for labor reform.

"Your father and I have always been fair. You won, so you should be the one by our side."

"Your sister was unlucky. We've already cut ties with her. Let her read her useless books and fend for herself."

Thirteen years later, the policies changed, and we returned to the city.

Mom made two bowls of noodles again.

This time, my sister was the one who got the egg.

Mom acted like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"We've always been fair. Your sister won, so the marriage arrangement with the Gilberts goes to her."

"You've got no education and no looks. Go work at the factory for a couple of years, save up your own dowry, and then we'll find you a decent family."

My sister sat with her head bowed over her noodles, eating with quiet, ladylike composure, dressed in a fashionable polyester blouse.

I looked down at my own hands, rough and cracked, at my sleeves bleached white and patched over and over, and suddenly I laughed.

Not like my previous life, when I'd screamed and fought, been locked away for six days, and died alone.

I nodded slowly, and set my course for Seaview City without looking back.

The eighties were a goldmine for entrepreneurs. What did I need a man for? What I wanted was wealth beyond counting.

……

My parents weren't surprised by my agreement.

Desiree Sullivan, though, froze for a couple of seconds. Her ears turned red.

After the meal, I went to wash the dishes. In the main room, Desiree finally couldn't hold back.

"Mom, Letitia Sullivan treasures Egbert Gilbert more than her own eyes. How could she just hand this marriage over to me so easily?"

Mom let out a soft laugh. "Marriage is a matter of free choice these days. How can you say she handed it to you?"

She leaned to one side and glanced toward the yard. Seeing me obediently washing dishes, paying no attention to them, she shook her head with a sigh.

"Look at the state of her. Yesterday at the photo studio, someone asked if she and I were sisters."

"I'm forty-five. She's not even twenty-seven. It was mortifying."

"When Egbert comes to our house tomorrow, there's no way he'd look twice at her."

"I'm doing her a favor, really. Saving her the embarrassment."

Desiree laughed softly, her contempt and disdain completely unconcealed.

I stood where I was, my hands stinging from the ice-cold water.

The alkaline soil of the frontier ate through skin. New flesh would barely grow in before it was corroded away again, always raw and red underneath. Even brushing against a cotton ball felt like a knife.

Mom had lived beside me for thirteen years. She knew exactly what my hands were like. But the dishes from our homecoming dinner still fell to me. She couldn't bear to let Desiree lift a finger.

The moment we'd arrived at the frontier, Mom and Dad had collapsed into bed, unable to handle the climate.

I was dizzy and nauseous too, vomiting and running to the outhouse every hour.

The village chief gave us a few days to adjust. I adapted. My parents never did.

So I took their place, one person doing the work of two.

The frontier soil was packed hard as stone, laced with tangled root systems. A full swing of the hoe sent shockwaves up through the handle until the webbing between my thumb and forefinger went numb, and still it barely left a scratch.

My first day of labor, I came home with more than a dozen blood blisters.

The first thing Mom did when she saw them was grab a needle and pop every one. "They heal faster this way. I'll do the dishes tonight, but no slacking off tomorrow."

The next day, the raw, broken skin soaked in salt water. It felt like ten thousand ants gnawing through my flesh. I gritted my teeth but couldn't hold out. I collapsed face-first and blacked out from the pain.

When I came to, Mom spooned a dose of medicine into my mouth, then backhanded me across the face.

"That medicine you just drank? Your sister risked being reported just to mail it to us."

"We abandoned her. Cut her off. She's been living under someone else's roof. And still she thinks about doing her part for this family."