My Family Cut Me Off Over $200, I Left

I stood in the cold wind listening to the cheering inside the main house.

I clung to the windowsill, peering in like a thief.

Except I was their daughter by blood.

My own brother, Ethan, and my fiancé, Julian, were both beaming as they slowly wheeled the seven-tier custom cake toward Sophia in the middle of the hall.

I froze.

That cake had cost three hundred twenty thousand dollars. Made in New York, it was decorated with gold leaf and crushed diamonds.

I'd charged $200 to the card linked to my father's account, and they'd screamed at me for it.

With no money, I'd walked more than ten miles and gone a full day without eating.

I was their biological daughter, out there alone. No one even knew whether I was still alive.

Meanwhile, Sophia wore a designer tiara and stood surrounded by old-money guests, smiling like a real little princess.

I'd lost enough blood that my legs went weak under me.

Blood was still soaking through the gauze on my shoulder. I pressed down hard on it and struggled to stay upright in the freezing wind.

I pushed open the door and walked into the main house. Nobody noticed.

Everyone was caught up in the party. No one looked twice at the schoolgirl in ruined clothes.

I started making my way toward my room.

Then Julian turned around in the crowd.

He hurried over without so much as a glance at the blood seeping through the gauze on my shoulder.

"Renee, where have you been? Don't you know it's your sister's 18th birthday?"

He looked down at my ruined clothes and frowned in disgust.

"And you show up dressed like a filthy beggar! You don't have an ounce of the dignity expected of a Bennett. Are you trying to disgrace the marriage that will unite the Carter family and the Bennett family?"