Chapter 2

The next day, Dad transferred a coming-of-age gift to both Lily and me.

The moment Lily saw the amount, she wrapped her arms around Mom’s arm.

“I knew you loved me the most.”

Then she turned to me. “How much did Dad give you?”

I opened my bank account.

“Two hundred dollars.”

The satisfaction in Lily’s eyes became even more obvious, though her voice remained sweet and considerate.

“They must be worried you’ll spend it irresponsibly. That’s probably why they gave me twenty thousand dollars to manage myself. If you ever want to buy something, you can ask me first.”

Mom affectionately tapped the tip of her nose.

“That money is your reward for scoring six hundred and fifty points. Of course you get to decide how to spend it.”

Then she turned to me, and her voice immediately turned cold.

“As for you, there’s hardly anything worth celebrating about a score in the five hundreds. You already fall behind Lily in every way. You’ll need to work even harder once you start college.”

She still hadn’t asked what my actual score was.

Lily tugged at Mom’s arm and pretended to defend me.

“Mom, don’t say that. It wasn’t easy for Evelyn to earn a score high enough to apply to an ordinary college.”

It sounded as though she were standing up for me, but all she had really done was remind everyone that an ordinary college was supposedly the best I could hope for.

Lily had always been like this.

She resented every scrap of attention our parents gave me, yet whenever they put me down, she would offer a few meaningless words in my defense.

That way, she always looked like the sweet, considerate sister. And if I refused to appreciate her support, I became the ungrateful one.

Damian didn’t notice anything wrong.

Smiling, he brought out two gift boxes. He handed the gray one to me and saved the silver-white one for Lily.

I opened mine and found the most basic model of an e-reader inside.

Then Lily let out a delighted squeal.

She pulled the latest laptop from her box and threw herself into Damian’s arms.

“I knew you loved me the most!”

Noah glanced at the model.

“That thing costs at least twenty-eight hundred dollars. Damian, did you spend your entire Beta stipend from last month on it?”

Damian ruffled Lily’s hair without the slightest trace of regret.

“She’s my sister. Of course she’s worth it.”

I put the e-reader back into its box.

I didn’t ask why, when I was his sister too, there was always such an enormous difference between what we received.

I had asked that question too many times as a child.

No one noticed when I left the room. Only Lily called after me casually.

“Evelyn, what’s wrong?”

“I’m a little tired.”

The moment I answered, Damian complained, “She’s always like this. Whenever everyone else is having a good time, she has to walk around with that miserable expression.”

Noah glanced at me, without the slightest instinct to defend his own girlfriend.

“Leave her alone. She knows I’m going to Blackthorn with Lily, so she’s deliberately sulking.”

Damian gave a cold laugh.

“She’s been competing with Lily since we were kids.”

Noah didn’t disagree. His silence confirmed that he believed the same thing.

Two years ago, Noah had told me he loved how honest and independent I was.

Now, whenever my feelings made Lily uncomfortable, my honesty suddenly became jealousy.

I didn’t explain myself.

I stayed in my room until dinner.

Mom had prepared a table full of food: honey-roasted chicken, ribs glazed with sweet sauce, and pineapple ham. Every dish had the sugary flavor Lily loved.

For eighteen years, nearly every family dinner had been like this.

Lily didn’t like spicy food, so nothing I enjoyed was ever served at our table.

In the past, I had always eaten quietly because I didn’t want to ruin the mood. But I would be leaving soon, and I no longer wanted to pretend I didn’t have preferences of my own.

“Mom, could you make a spicy stew next time?”

She froze for a moment, then frowned.

“You’ve been a picky eater since you were little. Why are you still so difficult now that you’re grown? Why can’t you be more like Lily? She never complains about anything I cook.”

“Because everything you cook is something she likes.”

The table went silent.

Mom’s expression darkened. Damian frowned at me as though I had said something unforgivable.

I stopped eating, went into the kitchen, and made myself a bowl of spicy pasta.

Damian stared at me in irritation.

“Everyone was having a good time. Why do you always have to ruin the mood?”

“I only wanted to eat something I liked. Lily hasn’t eaten spicy food for eighteen years, so nothing spicy has ever appeared on this table. Now I’m making one bowl of pasta for myself, and somehow I’m still the one in the wrong?”

Silence fell over the dining room again.

Mom’s face quickly turned cold.

“It’s one meal. Do you really have to make it sound so serious?”

“Of course it doesn’t seem serious to you. Lily has never been the one forced to go without.”

I carried my pasta back to my room and shut the door on their angry voices.

In two days, I would be gone.

And once I arrived at Coastal Werewolf University, no one would ever demand that I surrender even my own tastes to Lily again.