2: 2

2

The day after they moved into the new house, Mom threw a housewarming party.

She invited more than twenty relatives and friends.

With every room she showed off, her face glowed with pride.

"This is Leila's room. Her job wears her out, so she should be comfortable."

"This one's Harvey's. He's still in school, and he needs space to study and to rest."

When they reached the walk-in closet, Leila gave an embarrassed little laugh.

"I told them not to bother, but Mom and Dad insisted on doing it for me."

One after another, the relatives said how lucky she was.

Someone finally remembered me.

"Where's Veronica's room?"

Mom's smile froze for a second, then smoothed right back over.

"Her company has dorms, and she hardly ever comes home anyway."

"When you're young, your career comes first. Keeping a room for her here would just be a waste."

The relatives nodded along.

"Veronica's always been so sensible."

"She knows how to take the pressure off the family."

I stood outside the door holding a plate of fruit, and didn't go in.

They didn't know.

That dorm room at the company was just a temporary break room, shared on rotation by four people.

Every month I wired fifteen thousand home, while I kept living in a rented place of twelve square meters.

I'd told myself that if I just toughed it out a few more years, I could come back to a home that was really mine.

So it turned out that what they called sensible meant I wasn't allowed to complain when I paid, and I wasn't allowed to make a sound when the rooms were handed out.

Dinner filled the whole table.

Steamed fish, buttered shrimp, seafood chowder — every dish Leila loved.

I'd been allergic to seafood since I was little.

Mom still didn't remember.

She dropped a shrimp into my bowl.

"There are a lot of guests today. Don't just sit there in a daze, go help look after them."

I put the shrimp back on the dish.

Leila lowered her voice right away and explained, "Veronica's allergic to seafood."

Mom paused.

"You still haven't grown out of that after all these years?"

"Then just eat some vegetables. Don't go making a separate meal for yourself, it looks bad in front of the guests."

The housewarming party dragged on until eleven at night.

After the relatives left, the whole place was strewn with bottles, bones, and used napkins.

Dad was drunk, Leila had a shift the next day, and Harvey said he had studying to do.

So the cleaning ended up being my job again.

As I bent over to mop the floor, my empty stomach cramped in waves.

Mom carried a plate of leftovers out of the kitchen.

"There's still some shrimp. Heat it up and eat it, don't waste it."

I didn't take it.

Her face dropped at once.

"Bought a big house, and now you've got a big temper to match?"

"Don't forget, this house is for the whole family. It isn't just yours."

The line struck me as funny all of a sudden.

Because when it came to spending the money, they called it the whole family's house.

But when it came to handing out rooms, not one of them thought of me as family.

Back by the couch, I saw that my box had been shoved to the very back of the balcony again.

On top of it sat the wedding candy for Leila's engagement and Harvey's old sneakers.

That was when my phone buzzed.

A message from the department director.

【The Western Region flagship project still needs a long-term on-site lead.】

【Three years sealed on-site, hard conditions, but the department provides a private dorm room.】

【You always hated leaving home before. Would you still consider it now?】

I looked up at the four closed doors.

A long while later, I replied:

【I'll go.】

3: 3

3

Three days before I was set to leave.

When I got home from work, six black trash bags were piled up outside the new place.

One of them wasn't tied off all the way.

A notebook I recognized was sticking out of the top.

I bent down and pulled it free, and only then realized every bag was stuffed with my things.

College textbooks, award certificates, books my teachers had given me, and the little cloth pouch my grandmother had sewn for me before she died.

All of it crammed in together.

Plenty of the pages were already creased.

I pushed the door open.

Mom was directing the workers to clear out my boxes from the balcony.

"Why is all my stuff out there?"

She didn't even turn her head.

"Your sister's getting engaged."

"His family's coming in three days. The new place has to look decent."

"Those old books and notebooks are just sitting there useless anyway, so we might as well get rid of them all at once."

I stayed where I was.

"Those are my things."

Dad frowned at me.

"You work away from home. What do you need to keep so much stuff here taking up space for?"

"Leila's got a lot to get ready for the wedding. Of course the balcony goes to her dowry first."

My sister, Leila Fox, came out of her room carrying a set of jewelry she'd just bought.

She saw the trash bags out in the hall, and guilt washed over her face at once.

"Veronica, don't blame Mom and Dad."

"How about I move your things back into my room? It'll be a little tight, but that's okay."

Mom cut in immediately.

"You're about to get married. How could you put up with something like that?"

She turned to look at me.

"Veronica's been able to rough it since she was little. Her stuff can just as well go in storage."

I didn't argue anymore.

I just went out into the hall and dug through the trash bags one by one.

The file envelope I needed to report for my assignment was gone.

Inside were a copy of my diploma, my medical report, and the onboarding paperwork stamped by my employer.

If even one piece was missing, I might not be able to report on time.

I asked Mom, "Where's the manila envelope from my desk drawer?"

She thought about it for a long time.

"What envelope?"

My brother, Harvey Fox, sat on the couch playing a game, not looking up.

"You mean the one with a bunch of papers in it?"

"I took that to sell as scrap this afternoon."

My head snapped toward him.

"Where did you sell it?"

My tone startled him, but he got righteous again fast.

"The recycling depot by the back gate."

"It was all wastepaper anyway. I even got thirty-six bucks for it."

By the time I ran downstairs, it had started raining again.

The depot owner was loading bundled cardboard onto a truck.

I didn't care about the dirty water all over the ground. I knelt in the pile of scrap paper and dug through it.

The edge of a box sliced open the back of my hand.

Broken glass drove into my palm.

Blood mixed with rain, dripping one drop at a time onto the pulped, waterlogged pages.

I don't know how long I searched, but I finally found the file envelope at the very bottom.

The seal had already split open.

One corner of the medical report was wet, and the water had blurred the spot where my employer's stamp had been.

I ran back home clutching it.

But the living room was already filled with things for my sister's engagement.

Gold jewelry, a gown, wedding candy.

Mom and Dad stood around Leila, discussing the dowry.

Nobody noticed my hands were covered in blood.

Leila was the first to see the envelope in my arms.

"Veronica, you found it?"

I nodded.

But Mom's face darkened.

"So you found it. Who's this show for?"

"Leila's in-laws are coming tomorrow. You're covered in filth. Don't hang around the living room."

I looked down at my palm, still oozing blood.

And I thought of the year I got into college.

I'd wanted to buy a suitcase that cost two hundred.

But Mom said the family was putting three kids through school at once, so we had to save every dollar.

In the end, she gave me the old case my sister had worn out.

The handle only pulled out halfway.

One of the wheels was missing.

When I dragged it into the college campus, the bottom scraped against the ground with an awful screech.

And now, two brand-new suitcases sat at my sister's feet.

One for the dowry.

One for the honeymoon.

Leila followed my gaze, as if she'd just remembered something.

"Veronica, that white case has gotten dusty."

"Wipe it clean for me in a bit, and don't scuff it. It was expensive."

Dad stood in the middle of the living room, directing the moving company to carry Leila's dowry cabinet onto the balcony.

He pointed at my two remaining boxes.

"Take these away too."

"Don't leave them cluttering up the new place."

I looked at the boxes of my sister's gold jewelry, her gown, her wedding candy.

Then I looked at the reporting documents in my arms, the ones that had almost been sold off as scrap.

And suddenly I found it funny.

That night, I taped the file envelope back together.

Then I took the old suitcase with the broken wheel out of its box.

I didn't wipe down my sister's new case.

I just packed my own clothes into the old one, piece by piece.

Three days from now.

I would move out of this big house I had paid for, for good.

4: 4

4

The day I left for the project site happened to be my sister's engagement.

Mom had me stand at the hotel entrance to log the gift money.

"Your sister has to look after the groom's relatives, and Harvey's too young to keep the numbers straight."

"There's no one for this but you."

I wore my plainest white shirt and sat behind the welcome table.

The relatives came through the doors one after another.

Someone recognized me and asked with a smile, "Why's Veronica sitting by the door?"

Mom was greeting the guests and answered without a second thought.

"She doesn't like crowds. She's happier keeping busy."

As if it hadn't been them who put me there.

As if it were my own choice not to walk into the banquet hall.

At two in the afternoon, hotel staff wheeled in the engagement cake.

Mom and Dad stood with my sister in front of the flower wall.

Harvey had changed into a new suit too, squeezing in beside her.

Dad handed me his phone.

"Veronica, take a family photo for us."

I took the phone.

In the frame, Mom and Dad stood in the middle.

Leila had her arm through Mom's.

Harvey had a hand on Dad's shoulder.

The four of them leaned in close, smiling like nothing could be happier.

A relative asked, puzzled, "Isn't Veronica getting in it too?"

Mom paused, then quickly laughed.

"She's never liked having her picture taken."

I didn't explain.

I just pressed the shutter for them.

That was when my sister suddenly cried out.

"My gold bracelet is gone!"

That bracelet was one Mom had custom-made just for her.

Ninety-nine grams of gold.

For a love that lasts.

Everyone crowded around.

Leila turned her jewelry box inside out, and her eyes went red fast.

Harvey suddenly looked at me.

"Just now Veronica was the only one who went into the lounge."

I froze.

"I went in to put the gift-money ledger away."

Mom's eyes went straight to my old suitcase.

To catch the project team's car at four, I'd brought all my luggage to the hotel.

She asked, "Why do you have your suitcase?"

"After the banquet I'm staying at a friend's for a few days."

Mom didn't question it. She just reached a hand toward the case.

"Open it. Let's have a look."

I gripped the handle tight.

"You think I stole Leila's bracelet?"

Dad's face darkened.

"We're family. We just clear it up, that's all."

"If you didn't take it, what's there to be afraid of?"

Relatives stood all around.

Their eyes landed on me, then on that battered suitcase.

Some had already started murmuring.

"She always seemed so honest."

"Maybe she can't stand that her sister's marrying well."

Before I could stop him, Dad had already snatched the suitcase.

The zipper was yanked open.

Clothes, underwear, toiletries, all of it dumped onto the lounge floor.

That file envelope, the one soaked in dirty water, tumbled out too.

The medical report and onboarding papers inside scattered across the ground.

Dad went through every piece of clothing.

He found nothing.

The lounge went quiet.

Leila bit her lip and said softly, "Looks like it wasn't Veronica after all."

But Mom only let out a breath of relief.

"Good thing it wasn't."

I crouched down and picked up the papers off the floor, one by one.

"Shouldn't you be apologizing to me?"

Dad's brow knit tight.

"We only checked. You have to make an issue of it today of all days?"

"Your sister's bracelet went missing. Of course we were anxious."

Mom lowered her voice and warned me too.

"There are so many relatives out there."

"Don't make it look like we wronged you and give everyone something to laugh about."

So searching my luggage in front of everyone, that wasn't something to laugh about.

But my asking for an apology, that was airing the family's dirty laundry.

I said nothing more.

As I was gathering my things, a small slip fell out of Harvey's suit pocket.

I picked it up and looked.

It was a gold-buyback receipt from a jeweler nearby.

Dated this morning.

Harvey saw the slip, and the color drained from his face.

I handed it to Dad.

"Here's the bracelet."

Once Mom read what was on it, her first reaction wasn't to scold Harvey.

It was to turn around and shut the lounge door.

"Harvey, what were you doing taking your sister's bracelet?"

Harvey stammered.

"I wanted a new computer."

"Leila's getting married soon anyway. Her fiancé will just buy her another one."

Leila's face was hard.

But seeing how panicked Harvey looked, she finally sighed.

"Forget it."

"The computer's already bought. Don't return it."

Mom immediately pulled Harvey behind her.

"Leila's always been the reasonable one."

"Harvey's still young. He just wasn't thinking."

I looked at them.

"Then what about just now?"

"In front of everyone, why did you decide it was me?"

Dad looked at me, out of patience.

"You didn't take it, so what's the problem?"

"Harvey's your own brother. If this gets out, how's he supposed to face anyone?"

I suddenly laughed.

"So my name doesn't matter?"

No one answered.

Mom shoved the gift-money ledger back into my arms.

"Enough. Today is your sister's big day."

"After the banquet, you stay and total the gift money and count the drinks."

"Don't make any more trouble."

Applause rose in the banquet hall.

The host invited both families up for a photo.

Mom and Dad straightened their clothes at once.

Leila touched up her lipstick.

Harvey followed them out as if nothing had happened.

The four of them walked into the light.

Soon Mom posted that family photo in the family group chat.

The caption read: 【Happy engagement to our Leila. May our family be happy forever.】

The photo was still the one I'd taken.

Four people.

Not one missing.

That was exactly when the project lead's message came in.

【The car's at the hotel's back entrance. We leave in ten minutes.】

I handed the gift-money ledger to the hotel manager.

I stuffed the scattered clothes back into the suitcase.

The case was missing a wheel.

Dragged across the polished marble floor, it kept scraping out a harsh screech.

But the music in the banquet hall was too loud.

Not one person looked back.

When I reached the hotel's back entrance, Mom sent another message in the group.

【The photo you took is a little blurry. Take us another one after the banquet.】

【Also, that mess on the floor is all your stuff. Remember to clean it up before you go.】

I didn't reply.

Once I got in the car, the staff collected my phone.

Before the screen went dark, I took one last look at that photo of the four of them.

Then I pressed the power button off.

In the photo, Mom and Dad, Leila and Harvey stood together, smiling, so happy.

The home I'd worked five years to earn had finally taken a family photo without me in it.

And the one who never got a room of her own.

She wouldn't be coming back.