Chapter 2

"So, I'm the only one who doesn't get any?" I pressed, holding her gaze.

"Your dad and I work ourselves to the bone to support this family," Klara argued. "Are we not entitled to eat the heart of the watermelon?"

I shook my head. "I never said that."

Klara pressed on. "Ever since you and Evie were born, Calvin was already forced to share our affection, so we couldn't let him feel neglected. And Evie is a picky eater. I have to beg her just to get her to swallow a bite."

It sounded like everyone had a compelling reason why they had to eat the heart of the watermelon.

"What about the dog?" I asked slowly. "The heart of the watermelon is so small, yet there's enough to give to a dog, but not enough for me?"

Klara's face flushed red with guilt and embarrassment.

"I paid your way through college so you could come home and pick fights over food?" she stammered. "Someone has to eat the watermelon rinds."

I was unimpressed. "Does it always have to be me?"

She insisted, "You don't even like watermelon."

She was twisting cause and effect, making me almost laugh out of pure exasperation. Taking a deep breath, I shifted my question.

"When I'm not home, how do you handle the rinds?"

Klara fell silent, but I quickly caught on. When I wasn't home, the rinds went straight into the trash. So, it was never true that someone had to eat them.

After a long pause, Klara slammed the tray onto the counter.

"Always so aggressive and argumentative," she sulked. "You act just like that unpleasant Martha, and you've got her nasty personality."

I knew how much they despised my aunt, Martha Sellers.

Because she had refused to bail them out financially when they wanted to buy a house, purchase cars, and raise their kids, they branded her an ungrateful creature every time her name came up.

Now, in their eyes, I was just as repulsive as her.

I forced back the tears that were threatening to spill over. Coming home this time, I had intended to ask my parents for their blessing to join the Mistolstone Research Institution.

Once I went there, I would only be allowed to contact them once every five years. Looking back now, I realized that they had never seen me as worth more than the leftovers they gave me, so they probably wouldn't have cared where I went in the first place.

Sniffling, I pulled out my phone and sent a message to my advisor.

[Professor, I'm ready to sign the electronic agreement.]

My phone vibrated as Henry Leroy's reply came almost immediately.

[Wonderful! Meet you at Mistolstone Airport in three days!]

Just as I was about to put my phone away, Evie, who had been busy playing with Buster, leaned over and caught sight of my screen.

She let out a shriek. "Vivian, are you using an iPhone 16?"

She turned to Klara and shouted, "An iPhone 16 costs at least a thousand dollars! Look at her, Mom! Vivian is squandering your hard-earned money on such an expensive phone."

Klara looked over, stunned by the price, and glared at me with fiery accusation.

"Wasn't your old phone working just fine?" she huffed. "Throwing away a thousand dollars on a phone like it's nothing. Robert and I aren't billionaires, and we certainly can't afford to spoil a princess like you."

I heard the harsh bite in her words, yet this time, I somehow didn't feel hurt anymore.

"That old phone was Calvin's hand-me-down," I said slowly. "It lagged so severely it could barely even turn on, and it stopped working a long time ago."

I paused. "Besides, neither you nor Dad have given me a cent in two years."

Two years ago, after taking endless private tutoring classes, Evie barely scored enough on her SATs to scrape into a private vocational college. The school was terrible, yet the tuition was outrageously expensive, costing over 40,000 dollars a year.

With three kids in school, our parents were at their wits' end. After thinking it over, they decided to stop funding me—the top student in the household who had earned a full acceptance into Harvard University.

I still vividly remembered that summer break.

I worked as a private tutor to buy Klara a gold necklace. In return, she cut off my tuition and living allowance entirely.