Chapter 1

“Edwin, if you really didn’t want me to go, you could have just said so. Why did you pour that stuff into my water...?”

Evan Lowe trembled from head to toe, sobbing so hard he could barely catch his breath.

“Mom, Dad, if Edwin can’t stand having me around, then I won’t go on this trip. I don’t want to be an eyesore.”

The more pitifully he cried, the more distressed Mom became. Her eyes reddened as she snatched up a bottle of disinfectant from the entryway cabinet and hurled it at my face.

“Look how considerate Evan is! Then look at you! You’re so vicious! How did I ever give birth to something like you?”

The plastic bottle struck my cheek hard enough to make it throb. I clenched my teeth as the metallic taste of blood spread through my mouth.

Whenever I opened my cursed mouth, someone was bound to bleed.

Yet during the six months since I returned to the Lowe family, they had treated me well.

I had always been sensitive to the cold, so Mom knitted sweaters for me herself and piled extra blankets onto my bed.

Whenever Dad came home from work, he would bring me a warm cinnamon roll from the bakery around the corner, saying it had been my favorite when I was little.

Even my sister, Sharon Lowe, with her fiery temper, slipped me a bank card on payday and told me to spend whatever I wanted.

To hold on to this hard-won family affection, I kept my mouth firmly shut.

I was afraid that if I said a word, this family would fall apart.

Sharon came out of the bathroom, snatched my train ticket from my hand, and tore it to pieces.

“Evan can barely bring himself to step on an ant, yet you were vicious enough to try to poison him with disinfectant!”

She flung the scraps in my face. “Since you can’t stand seeing anyone else happy, you can stay home over the weekend! You’re not going anywhere!”

She turned to Mom and Dad. “Dad, change the flight bookings. We’ll take Evan with us and leave this country bumpkin at home to reflect on himself!”

Dad shoved me into the spare bedroom with a stony expression, then locked the door from the outside.

“Without my permission, no one is to give him anything to eat. Let him go hungry for a few days so he’ll learn his lesson.”

As I listened to their cheerful voices fade away outside the door, I sank onto the cold floor.

For the entire long weekend, I was locked inside the windowless spare bedroom.