Chapter 3

At nine that night, the house was loud again.

Ella burst through the door with a designer shopping bag.

"Nora, look at the graduation dress Dad got me!"

Everyone behind her was carrying something. Only Mom handed me a canvas tote.

The bag was printed with a department store logo, a freebie given with purchases over a certain amount.

"You're always lugging books around. This will come in handy," Mom said.

Dad patted my shoulder approvingly.

"That's our Nora. You don't care about brands, and you don't need us wasting money."

I turned the canvas bag inside out. A receipt was still stuffed at the bottom.

The designer bag: twenty-four hundred dollars. The freebie line read zero.

I folded the receipt and slipped it back in. The word "why" stuck in my throat and wouldn't come out.

Ella looked at me and put on a worried expression.

"Nora, are you upset because of my presents?"

She knew perfectly well Mom and Dad were in the dining room, yet she deliberately raised her voice.

"How about I give you all my clothes? Mom and Dad already put eighty thousand dollars in my 529 account, and Derek promised to cover my twenty-thousand-dollar apartment deposit. I have everything I need."

The dining room went silent.

It was the first time I'd heard those numbers.

Mom walked out. The smile was gone.

"That's because Ella needs a social life in Newland, and she has medical expenses. Your life is simple. Less money is enough."

"How much is in my 529 account?"

Dad frowned, as if I'd asked something shameful.

"A little over eight thousand. You've never been into activities, and you don't have extra expenses."

Ten times as much.

I stared at the new bag at Ella's feet.

Its price tag was almost equal to everything they'd saved for me in eighteen years.

Mom was still talking about how I didn't like to spend money.

I opened my hands and realized my nails had dug into my palms.

Derek crossed his arms.

"You got into Newland. The family's already supported you for eighteen years. Plenty of students in this country take out loans on their own. Don't act like you've suffered some massive injustice."

"I'm not asking for your money."

"Then what's with the attitude?"

Ella immediately grabbed Mom's arm and spoke up on my behalf, her voice soft.

"Mom, don't blame Nora. She's just always had to compare herself to me."

Mom's gaze shifted the way I knew it would.

"You see what your sister has and suddenly you want the same thing. When are you going to grow out of this?"

Ella lowered her head, but her fingers slowly traced the gold clasp on the new bag.

In the living room mirror, she was watching me.

I unclenched my fists.

One more word and it would become fresh evidence that I was jealous of my sister.

Her gaze drifted past me and landed on the wooden music box on my desk.

"Nora, if you're really unhappy, I'll trade you my clothes for that music box. It would look so vintage in a dorm room."

That was the only thing my grandmother, Rose Whitmore, had left me.

When I was ten, the whole family took Ella to a theme park in Florida and dropped me off at Grandma Rose's.

the music box with money she'd saved from running a flea-market booth. She told me, "Whatever other people have, our Nora should have it too."Grandma had bought

Mom had already reached for the music box.

"It's just an old wooden box. Ella rarely asks for anything. Just let her have it."

Shane nodded.

"Once you get to Newland, I'll buy you a Bluetooth speaker."

Mom's finger pressed the winding key. The familiar melody played two notes.

The day Grandma was buried, I sat holding it all night.

Now everyone was waiting for me to nod, like they were waiting for me to finish something that had already been decided.

"Okay."

Ella let out a cheer and hugged the music box to her chest.

The melody cut off.

No one noticed that once I was back in my room, I opened a resale app.

I listed the pale-yellow dress, the old camera, the bookshelf, and everything else I could sell, one item at a time.

Sale notifications lit up the screen one after another.

I placed the acceptance letter from Lakecrest Tech on the top layer of my suitcase and slowly zipped it shut.