“Want some?”

Howard held the bag of chips in front of me and gave it a little shake.

I swallowed and nodded.

“Then bark like a dog. If you sound convincing, I’ll give you some.”

My stomach cramped from hunger.

I closed my eyes and forced out a humiliating little bark.

“Woof.”

“Louder. I didn’t hear you.”

“Woof!”

Howard grinned.

He picked up a chip and held it out to me.

Just as I reached for it, the chip slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.

His slipper came down on it perfectly, crushing it under his foot.

“Oops. Sorry.”

He tilted his head, still smiling.

“It fell on the floor, but you can still eat it. Dogs like eating things off the floor, don’t they?”

My whole body burned with shame.

I didn’t know where the courage came from. I lunged at him and grabbed the bag of chips from his hands.

Then, like I was starving, I poured the chips into my mouth as fast as I could.

Howard just stood there, smiling sweetly as he let me take them.

Then, in the next second, he burst into tears.

“Mom, Dad, Caleb stole my food!”

Tears clung to his long lashes, making him look pitiful and innocent.

So Mom called me a thief.

Dad slapped me so hard my ears rang.

Even then, I forced myself to swallow the chips in my mouth.

Because I never wanted to feel that hungry again.

In the end, just like every other time, Mom and Dad locked me in the dark storage room.

They didn’t give me breakfast the next morning either.

The next day in gym class, the sun was glaringly bright.

When I collapsed, the back of my head hit the concrete with a dull thud.

I was bleeding before anyone even reacted.

Mrs. Zimmer was still stammering through the lines she’d memorized.

“When I gave birth to you, I planned to switch you with Howard. But I got caught. Mr. and Mrs. Moore took pity on you and still raised you as their younger son…”

Halfway through, she forgot the rest.

Her face turned bright red from embarrassment.

I looked at her and said calmly, “Mom.”

Then I took Mrs. Zimmer’s arm and went home with her.

When Mom saw us, she frowned.

Still, she smiled and said, “Oh? Caleb found his real mother?”

I nodded calmly.

Dad played along too.

“In that case, shouldn’t he move out of our house and go back to his real parents?”

Before I could say anything, Howard eagerly packed my things for me.

He threw my suitcase down the stairs.

“No need to thank me.”

I looked at the suitcase.

“This is all I have?”

“Mm-hmm.” Howard shrugged. “Your clothes and everything else were bought with our family’s money. You didn’t think you could take them with you, did you?”

I opened the suitcase.

The important things were still inside.

So I closed it again.

“I have one more request.”

Howard immediately shouted, “What request? If you’re asking for money, we’re not giving you any.”

“I want my name removed from anything that ties me to this family.”

Mom froze for a second.

She looked at Dad. After he gave a small nod, she went upstairs to get the paperwork.

And just like that, the Moores cut me loose.

When I saw my name on that single, separate document, the first thing I felt wasn’t sadness.

It was relief.

I was about to leave when Howard blocked my way.

“Wait. What about the allowance Mom and Dad gave you? Hand it over.”

I paused and looked at Mom and Dad.

They both avoided my eyes.

Howard urged, “Hurry up. I get two thousand a month. You must have gotten plenty too.”

“Howard.”

My voice was light.

“If Mom and Dad had ever given me an allowance, I wouldn’t have been so hungry that I couldn’t even buy breakfast. I wouldn’t have collapsed in gym class.”

After saying that, I walked around him and headed for the door.

The moment the front door closed behind me, I heard Howard say regretfully, “Aw, why didn’t he get on his knees and beg us? That was boring.”

Mom sounded a little worried.

“Honey, what if Caleb really doesn’t come back?”

Dad flipped through his newspaper and said carelessly, “He will. Once Howard gets tired of playing, we’ll just tell him the truth. After all, would he rather be the housekeeper’s son or the son of a vice president? Even an idiot knows which one to choose.”

How ridiculous.

After tearing me apart so completely, how could they still think I’d stay right where they left me and wait for them?

Maybe because she knew the whole thing was an act, Mrs. Zimmer didn’t make things too hard for me.

She cleaned out a small room and let me stay there.

Without Howard around to torment me, I actually slept better at night. My grades improved too.

One day, our teacher told us there would be a parent-teacher conference.

My classmates looked at me and started teasing.

“Oh, Caleb, is your housekeeper mom coming?”

I didn’t say anything.

I just lowered my head and kept working through one practice test after another.

It didn’t matter anyway.

Ever since I was little, there had never been a parent sitting in my seat at those conferences.

Once, I got first place in my class and begged Mom and Dad to attend the parent-teacher meeting for me.

But they only said, “Caleb, you’re so sensible. You don’t need us to worry about you, right?”

Then they both rushed to attend Howard’s meeting, even though his grades were at the bottom of the class.

I wanted Mom and Dad to worry about me too.

So on the next exam, I deliberately filled in the wrong answers and scored even lower than Howard.

What waited for me afterward was both of them beating me.

On the day of the parent-teacher conference, I passed by Howard’s classroom and heard his teacher speaking earnestly.

“College entrance exams are coming up soon. With Howard’s grades, he won’t even get into community college.”

“I know you’re planning to send Howard abroad, but he only scored three points on his foreign language exam.”

Three points?

I couldn’t help it. A laugh slipped out.

Howard immediately looked at me, his eyes full of hatred and calculation.

His revenge always came fast.

When I returned to my classroom, I saw Mrs. Zimmer rushing in.

“I’m sorry, teacher. I’m late.”

She had probably just come back from grocery shopping. There was still a strong fishy smell clinging to her clothes.

My classmates covered their noses and looked at me with disgust.

But when the teacher saw her, he casually praised me.

“Caleb has improved a lot. He went from the top ten in class to third place…”

It was clearly a compliment.

But Mrs. Zimmer slapped me across the face.

Then she shouted viciously, “How could you score so low? I raised you for nothing!”

A snicker came from outside the window.

I looked over and saw Howard holding up his phone, waving at me with contempt.

That night, the video was posted at the top of the school gossip page.

I became famous across the whole school.

Wherever I went, people pointed and whispered. Even during lunch, someone would “accidentally” bump into me for no reason, sending my food spilling all over the floor.

When I got home, I saw a blanket laid out on the balcony.

Mrs. Zimmer stammered, “You little brat. From now on, you sleep out here.”

In the middle of the night, I woke up freezing.

Only then did I realize there was a gap under the balcony door. Cold air had been pouring in all night.

By morning, my head was pounding.

I looked at Mrs. Zimmer and called out weakly, “Mrs. Zimmer, I think I have a fever. Can you take me to the hospital?”

She snapped, “Sleep it off. You expect me to waste money over a little fever?”

Through the blur of my fever, I heard her call my parents.

“Mr. Moore, Caleb has a fever.”

“Mm. I know.”

“But Howard said not to take him to the hospital.”

“Then listen to Howard. It’s just a cold. He’ll be fine.”

Tears slid down my face.

So to Mom and Dad, a fever of 104 was just a cold.

If I died like this, would they even be sad?

No.

They would only be relieved that they had one less burden.

I forced myself out of bed and took some cold medicine.

Mrs. Zimmer didn’t stop me.

She only quietly called someone to seal the gap.

The next day, Howard came to Mrs. Zimmer’s place looking for me.

When he saw I didn’t even have a proper bedroom, he nodded, clearly pleased.

“Caleb, why don’t you get on your knees and beg me? Maybe I’ll put in a good word with Mom and Dad and let you be a Moore again.”

He had always been like this.

He would take something I loved, then make me beg for it.

When I was little, Grandma gave me a stuffed animal. Howard snatched it from me and held it in his hands.

I cried so hard I could barely breathe. I dropped to my knees almost immediately.

But that still wasn’t enough for him.

He made me press my forehead to the floor and beg properly.

By the time my forehead was red and swollen, he was still smiling. Then he cut the stuffed animal in half and handed it back to me, enjoying every second of my breakdown.

I cried and told Mom and Dad.

But they always brushed it off with the same careless excuse.

“Howard was just joking.”

Thinking of that, I said calmly, “No thanks.”

To me, that house had never been a home.

It was hell.

Howard didn’t get the reaction he wanted, so he stomped off in frustration.

But I never expected Howard to stoop so low. He actually bribed Mrs. Zimmer’s daughter, Lily, to secretly take naked photos of me while I was in the shower.

I grabbed Lily by the wrist and went straight back to the Moore house.

When I walked in, there was a huge cake sitting on the table.

Mom was smiling.

“Howard moved up one spot on his exam this time. That’s wonderful.”

Howard gave an embarrassed little laugh.

“Mom, Dad, you’re being so nice to me. You’re making me feel bad.”

“You’re our son,” Mom said warmly. “Why would you feel bad?”

They were laughing as they cut the cake.

I stepped forward and shoved the whole thing off the table.

The cake crashed to the floor.

“Caleb, are you insane?” Howard screamed.

I slapped him across the face without a word.

Then I grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked hard.

Mom and Dad both froze in shock. Then they rushed over, digging their fingers into my hand and trying to pry me off him.

Mrs. Zimmer came out and froze when she saw us.

Then she looked at her daughter and asked in a panic, “Lily, what happened?”

Lily burst into tears.

“Howard told me he’d buy me a hair clip if I took pictures of Caleb in the shower.”

Mom and Dad clearly froze for a second.

They looked at Howard.

“Howard, did you really…”

Howard didn’t deny it.

He only clutched his scalp where I’d yanked his hair and started crying.

“Mom, Dad, it hurts…”

Even the way he cried looked perfect.

I stood there coldly as Mom pulled Howard into her arms. Then she looked at me with accusation in her eyes.

“Caleb! Maybe there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. Howard is so good-looking. Why would he need to take naked pictures of you?”

Apparently, being good-looking was Howard’s get-out-of-jail-free card.

I was so furious I almost laughed.

“A misunderstanding? His messages with Lily are still there, and you’re telling me this is a misunderstanding?”

Mom kept making excuses for him.

“What do a few messages prove? Besides, it’s not like we haven’t seen every part of you before. So what if a few naked pictures were taken?”

“Howard was only joking with you. Why are you taking it so seriously? You’re a guy. How can you be so petty?”

I never thought my parents’ favoritism could go so far that they couldn’t tell right from wrong anymore.

I had come here for an explanation.

I had wanted to expose Howard for who he really was.

But now I realized something.

Maybe Mom and Dad had known exactly what he was like all along.

They had simply chosen not to see it.

Maybe they had me just so I could become Howard’s toy.

It felt like all the blood in my body had turned cold.

With trembling hands, I picked up my phone.

“Hello… I need to report a crime.”