Chapter 4

For a moment, I thought the vendor was trying to scam me. However, he slapped the bills down on the counter, and a crowd gathered fast. Someone held them up to the light. Someone else rubbed the paper between their fingers. They all shook their heads.

"They're fake."

That night, I sat outside the mall entrance with a stack of counterfeit bills in my arms and did not move until morning.

The moment the milkshake shop opened the next day, I stormed in and threw the money on the counter. "You paid me with counterfeit money? This is fraud. I'm calling the police."

The owner did not look worried at all. "I didn't put that money together. Your mother came in yesterday and collected your pay before you did. She left me these to give you instead. She said it was to teach you a lesson, to make you understand that earning money isn't easy."

My head rang like a bell had gone off inside it.

I rode the bus home with numb hands and feet. The second I walked through the door, I looked at her with red-rimmed eyes. "Did you take my paycheck?"

Mom did not look guilty in the slightest. If anything, she looked pleased with herself.

"Now you know money doesn't come easy, don't you? Remember, your parents are the ones who are always going to be there for you. When something goes wrong, the first thing you should do is come home to your family. Or go to Callum. That works too."

I was shaking all over, and the tears would not stop.

It was not as if I had never tried.

When I was followed home by a group of thugs, I hid inside a convenience store and called them in a panic.

Dad only said, "Why would they follow you and nobody else? What did you do?"

When the air conditioner in the apartment only blew hot air and I could not sleep through the heat, I begged them to replace it. Mom said, "Don't be so delicate. If you can't handle a little discomfort, how are you ever going to amount to anything?"

The week before exams, I came down with a fever of 103 and called Gary in a haze. All he said was, "Blythe's in a bad mood today. Just take some medicine and stop being so dramatic."

Another time, the power went out in the middle of the night. I pressed myself into the corner of the wall and sent Callum dozens of messages. He did not reply for a long time.

When he did, it was: [Lock the door. I'm tutoring Blythe tonight. Stop messaging me.]

Every single time I needed them, where had any of them been?

I could not hold it in anymore. "Give me my money back! That's my paycheck! I earned it myself!"

Dad's expression went dark. He crossed the room in two strides, grabbed me by the arm, and shoved me toward the door.

"All you ever care about is money! That's all you ever talk about when you come home! Do you have any idea how much we've spent raising you? Forget 300 dollars. We've spent ten times that and more!

"I used to think you were smart, but now, I see you're just calculating. All you see is dollar signs!"

The door slammed shut in my face.

I turned around with tears streaming down my cheeks. The elevator doors opened right then, and Gary, Callum, and Blythe stepped out together.

Blythe held up a small hair clip between her fingers, wrinkling her nose. "Something this tiny costs 300 dollars?"

Gary laughed. "If you like it, it's worth every cent. Even 3,000 dollars wouldn't be too much."

Callum added gently, "Didn't your mom just give you 50,000 dollars as a reward? She gave it to you so that you'd spend it. Don't hold back."

I stood in the shadows, and the tears fell harder.

I woke up before dawn every morning. I stood under the blazing sun for eight hours a day in that mascot suit. The 300 dollars I earned for an entire month of that was how much Blythe had spent on a single hair clip without thinking twice.

I did not want them to see me like this. I fled down the emergency stairwell, and by the time I reached the ground floor, my tears had finally run dry.

After my exam results came out, a few parents tracked me down and asked me to tutor their children. I agreed, but I had one request. "Can you pay me by bank transfer?"

They seemed puzzled, but they said yes.

After that blowup, my parents, Gary, and Callum all seemed to have silently agreed not to reach out to me. I did not reach out either.

I stopped being sad about it. I just prepared my lessons, taught my students, and saved my money, day after day.

The day my acceptance letter arrived, I cooked two dishes for myself. Then, for the first time in a while, I took the four little dolls back out and set them across the table from me, the way I used to.

"Let's call this my farewell party before I start university," I said to them. "It'll be the last meal we share."

I looked into their round, stitched eyes and smiled softly. "You don't have to keep me company anymore. From here on out, I'll walk the rest of the way on my own."

After dinner, I cleaned the apartment until it was spotless. Then, I pulled my suitcase behind me and left the place I had been living in alone for an entire year.

I did not go to Kingsgate, but I did not go to Crestfield, which was where they had planned for me, either.

Instead, I went further south, to Halford University.

Just before the train pulled out of the station, a message popped up in the family group chat that had been silent for weeks. Mom had sent a photo of Blythe's acceptance letter.

[Blythe got into a school in Kingsgate! Darcy, you got your Crestfield letter too, right? Let's find a time to have a celebratory dinner together.]

Gary followed up right away: [Stop sulking already. The whole family needs to be there.]

Then, Callum sent: [I'll come pick you up.]

I stared at the messages for a long time. I did not reply. I left the group chat.

Outside the window, the platform began to slide slowly backward. I turned off my phone and leaned back in my seat.

From here, the road stretched on for a thousand miles, and I would not be turning back.