Chapter 1

Once the confirmation page showed that my ticket had gone through, I backed out of the interface and returned to the family group chat.

Only two minutes had passed, yet there were already more than 99 unread messages.

My younger sister, Avery Ashford, excitedly dropped a screenshot into the chat.

"Got them! Four tickets!" she wrote. "I don't care what anyone has going on that day. Clear your schedules because you're all coming to the concert with me."

Mom and Dad responded almost immediately.

"Reporting for duty! We've rescheduled everything and are officially at our princess' command."

Even my younger brother, Clarence Ashford, chimed in with a quick, "Count me in."

No matter who posted in that group, everyone else always responded except when it was me.

I thought about the message I'd sent the day before, which had sat unanswered for an entire day, and my gaze drifted to the group chat's name, "Welcome Home, Clary."

Mom and Dad had created it specifically for me three years ago, after they finally brought me home.

They told me that whenever I needed anything, I only had to send a text on the chat and everyone would be there to help.

Yet, when I asked for the Wi-Fi password, no one answered, and when I asked which bus I needed to take to my new school, no one answered that, either.

Their excuse was always that the four of them had been a family for so long that they were used to their routine. Suddenly adding another person meant they needed time to adjust.

But shouldn't I have been the one who needed time to adjust?

Three years had passed. And somehow, whenever they talked about family, there was no place for me. Even my name had been treated like an inconvenience.

When I enrolled in high school, the school registrar repeatedly reminded Mom and Dad that they needed to rush the paperwork to correct the name on my birth certificate.

Grandma couldn't read or write, so when my birth was originally registered, she'd simply given them the nickname everyone called me at home.

Mom and Dad didn't want to make the process complicated, so they pieced my new legal name together from Clarence and Avery's names.

Clary Ashford.

They might as well have left it alone.

While I was lost in thought, Clarence sent another message to the group. "KFC for dinner?"

Three "Count me in" replies appeared almost instantly.

The restaurant was on the street beside our neighborhood, less than a ten-minute walk away.

I rubbed my empty stomach and was just about to get up when a private message from Mom popped onto my screen.

"Your dad and I are taking Clarence and Avery out for fried chickens tonight. There's food in the fridge. Heat something up for yourself."

But when I opened the refrigerator, the only thing inside was a bowl of stew that had been sitting there for two days.

I took a picture and sent it to her. Half an hour passed without a response.

An hour later, I finally heard the front door open. They were back.

Clarence walked straight to his room without looking up from his new phone.

Meanwhile, Avery had shopping bags hanging from both arms and immediately disappeared into her bedroom to try on her new clothes.

I turned back toward the television and didn't move.

Mom glanced at me and frowned. "What's with you? Your brother and sister just came home, and you can't even say hi?"

My gaze dropped to the phone she'd casually placed on the coffee table, and my throat tightened.

"You didn't exactly say anything to me when all of you went to Stonby," I countered.

Mom's expression stiffened, and confusion flashed across her face before she turned toward Dad. "Didn't you tell her?"

Dad frowned as though he were trying to remember. "Didn't she come with us?"

My fingers tightened around my phone before slowly loosening again.

I'd spent more than a month of summer vacation waiting for that trip.

Every time I brought up the graduation vacation they'd promised me, Mom and Dad said work was too busy and told me to wait a little longer. So, I waited and waited until the trip was over and I realized I was the only person they'd forgotten.

I looked at Mom's phone, opened our chat, and sent her a sticker. Several seconds passed, yet her screen remained dark and completely silent.

Mom and Dad had priority alerts set up for both Clarence and Avery. Whenever either of them sent a message, their phones would keep ringing and vibrating until they checked it.

Mom waved me off impatiently. "So you missed one trip. Big deal. There'll be plenty of other chances."

At that, Dad immediately backed her up. "Clary, you're the oldest. Stop keeping score with Clarence and Avery over every little thing. You're old enough to know better than to make everything harder for us."

I stared at them. "I'm not keeping score," I said. "You promised me that graduation trip."

They'd told me that if I scored above the goal they'd set for me on my college entrance exams, the whole family would go together. All five of us would be on the trip, and no one would be left behind.

Mom bent down to pick up the jacket Avery had tossed onto the floor and carefully brushed it off without even looking at me.

"And what did you score?" she retorted.

The words caught in my throat.

The moment my results came out, I'd taken a screenshot and sent it to the group chat. Afraid they might miss it, I'd even privately messaged my parents.

At that moment, Dad glanced at me dismissively. "Cat got your tongue, huh? With grades like yours, the fact that none of us asked about your score was us trying to spare your feelings."