4: 4

My head buzzed, and my eyes stung and went hot with panic.

"Counterfeit?"

"That's impossible. This is my paycheck. I just got it!"

I fumbled all three hundred dollars out onto the counter.

The clerk said flatly that every bill was fake.

The guard's face went cold, and he marched me straight out the door.

"You're young, so we'll let it go this once."

"Do it again, and we'll turn it over to the police."

I ran back to the restaurant, pale with anger, and found the owner.

He just shrugged like it was nothing.

"Your parents swapped the money out. Said it was to toughen up your life skills."

Toughen up?

I started to laugh, and my whole face was wet with tears.

Their idea of toughening me up was to destroy everything I'd worked for, and I was supposed to be grateful for it?

I walked home like something that had already died.

The second Mom saw me, her face twisted into a sneer.

"Well, look who deigned to come back. Our little independent gentleman."

She smiled wide, gloating. "Now you see how dangerous the world out there really is."

"You're only safe when you're here with your family."

I put out my hand, numb.

"Give me my money back."

Dad slammed the table and shot to his feet.

"Money, money, money, that's all you think about."

"How did I ever raise such a greedy, ungrateful animal?"

"You ruined Cec's birthday party, come home without one word of apology, and open your mouth only to demand money."

With that, he shoved me straight out the door.

"Get out there and think about what you did. Don't come back until you know you were wrong."

"And in three days we're throwing Cec his party for acing the SATs. You are going to apologize to him in front of everyone."

"Otherwise, don't ever set foot through this door again."

I walked down the stairs with no expression on my face.

And there were Cecil and Maya, wrapped in each other's arms.

"Maya, that idea of yours was genius."

"Getting Mom to swap Will's paycheck for counterfeit bills like that."

Maya laughed, doting on him.

"That's our little secret. Don't tell William, or he'll throw another fit."

So it had been her idea.

The pain of it took my breath away.

Because she knew me, she knew exactly where to stick the knife to make it hurt most.

I held back the tears and left without a sound.

Passing the trash can, I snapped the red string off my wrist and threw it in.

Once I was out of the complex, I opened my hand.

The ID I'd taken back.

I logged in to the application page one more time, just before the deadline.

My finger hovered over the elite university, then paused. Without hesitating, I changed it to Northgate University.

More than a thousand miles away.

From now on, this family and Maya, I never wanted to see any of them again.

Once the submission went through, I let out a breath.

It felt like I'd come back to life.

At that same moment, a text came in from Maya.

【Don't be angry anymore. From now on I'll take time off to come see you and Cec all the time.】

【You've always been so capable, ever since you were little. You need to look out for your brother more.】

【For the party in three days, buy him a gift to smooth things over. If you're short on cash, I'll pay you back.】

I didn't answer. I opened the ticketing app instead.

I borrowed five hundred dollars from a classmate.

Dragging my suitcase, I headed straight for the station.

And in the exact instant the train began to move,

my phone lit up, message after message from Maya pouring in.