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Chapter 2

Author: Eternity
When I got home that evening, the kitchen smelled of roast chicken and creamy mashed potatoes.

Mom had changed out of her suit and was sitting at the table in an old sweater. Two places had been set, and my favorite childhood apple pie sat between them.

“You’re home.”

Her eyes flicked to the lunch detention notice in my hand.

“Sit down and eat.”

I took the seat across from her without a word.

When I was younger, Mom always made one of my favorite meals after punishing me publicly at school. She never apologized. This was her way of telling me that Dean Hart at school and Mom at home were two different people.

But I was the same person she had humiliated.

Halfway through dinner, she finally spoke.

“Don’t take what happened today personally.”

“Which part?”

She frowned.

“Sophie, I know you’re upset. But I’m the grade dean. Everyone is watching me. I have to be harder on you to protect both of us.”

I set down my fork.

“You heard them say I knew what would be on the test.”

“It was a joke.”

“You didn’t correct them.”

Mom rubbed her forehead wearily.

“If I had rushed to defend you, they would have assumed the rumor was true. You’re seventeen. You should be old enough to understand that.”

No matter what she did, it always came back to me not being understanding enough.

I looked at the slice of apple pie and lost my appetite.

“Why did you believe Olivia when she cheated?”

“She said she forgot the formulas were on her bottle.”

“So you believed her, but you couldn’t believe that I overlooked one condition?”

Mom’s expression darkened.

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“Of course it isn’t. She got an eighty-seven, and you felt sorry for her because she was stressed. I got a ninety-eight, and you displayed my mistake for everyone to see.”

“That’s enough.”

Her voice turned cold.

“Olivia told me what happened this afternoon. You mocked her because her mother left her. Is that true?”

I did not deny it.

“She told me I was nothing but a tool you use to make an example.”

“So you attacked the most painful part of her life?”

Mom looked at me with open disappointment.

“Her mother abandoned her when she was four. She has struggled with that insecurity ever since. She only wants a little approval from me. Why can’t you show her that much compassion?”

Something tightened in my chest.

“Because she doesn’t have a mother, you get to treat her better?”

“Sophie—”

“What about me?”

My voice trembled despite my effort to control it.

“She gets your patience because her mother abandoned her. What has to happen to me before I deserve the same?”

Mom went still.

For one brief moment, I thought she finally understood.

Then she stood and took my plate away.

“You’re jealous of a girl whose mother abandoned her.”

Her voice was so cold that I barely recognized it.

“I never thought you could be this selfish.”

I watched her carry my plate into the kitchen, and the last of my hope sank with it.

Mom returned with a sheet of paper and a pen and placed them in front of me.

“You’ll write Olivia an apology tonight. Tomorrow morning, you’ll read it to her in front of the class.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Then you’ll be suspended from the Honor Council until you learn to take responsibility for your words.”

She went upstairs without looking at me again.

The food on the table slowly went cold.

I took out the notebook containing ninety-nine punishments but did not open it.

This one did not count.

I was keeping track of the times Mom had sacrificed me publicly to prove she was impartial.

Choosing Olivia over me in our own home was not a punishment.

It was simply a choice made by a mother.

My phone lit up.

Olivia had sent me a message.

[I hear you’re apologizing to me tomorrow.]

Another appeared a moment later.

[I told you she would believe me.]

I stared at the screen for a long time.

Then I picked up the pen and wrote the first line of the apology.

I’m sorr—

I couldn’t finish the word. Tears fell onto the paper, smearing the ink.

I crumpled the paper and threw it in the trash.
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