Chapter 2

The house was silent when I got home.

A bowl of instant noodles sat on the coffee table with a note beside it.

[I made these for you. Don't forget to eat.]

I recognized Ethan's handwriting immediately.

Maybe it had simply been too long since anyone had thought of me, because something as small as a bowl of instant noodles made warmth spread through my chest.

Whenever Mom and Dad took Grant and Rosie out to eat, I usually stayed home and filled up on bread.

At first, Mom used to ask what I wanted her to bring back.

Every time she returned, I'd excitedly take the shopping bag from her hands.

There would only be clothes and shoes inside.

"Mom, where's my dinner?"

She would blink at me in surprise.

"You haven't eaten yet? It's so late. We all thought you'd already had something."

I peeled back the lid of the noodles. They had been sitting long enough to turn soft and soggy.

After one bite, something felt wrong.

I spat it out and stared.

Tiny pieces of crushed peanut were mixed through the noodles.

Everyone knew I had a severe peanut allergy.

Why would Ethan put peanuts in my food?

My body reacted faster than I expected.

By the time Ethan answered my call, red welts had spread across my skin and the itching was almost unbearable.

"Vivi? What's wrong?"

"Ethan, why did you put peanuts in the noodles? You know I'm allergic."

He paused. "Of course I know. Why would I put peanuts in them?"

I was about to ask who else could have done it when Rosie snatched the phone from him.

Her irritated voice came through the speaker.

"Vivian, are you pretending to be sick again?

"Every time Mom and Dad go somewhere with me, you call and try to make them come home. When you were sick and they spent all their time with you, I never kept calling and demanding they come back to me."

"I'm not pretending." I fought the urge to claw at my skin. "There really were peanuts in the noodles. I'm having an allergic reaction."

"Stop making excuses. If there were peanuts in there, couldn't you see them? Or did you put them in yourself so you'd have a reaction and ruin my dinner?"

Then she turned on Ethan.

"I told you not to be so nice. You gave my sister the noodles you were going to eat, and now she's turning around and accusing you of trying to hurt her."

When Ethan took the phone back, his voice had gone cold.

"I regret leaving them for you. I should've just thrown the noodles away.

"So what if they went to waste?"

The call ended.

Only then did I finally understand.

The noodles hadn't been made for me at all.

Ethan had just prepared them for himself when Rosie invited him out to dinner. He left them behind for me because he didn't want them to go to waste.

I sat numb on the couch and messaged Mom.

[Mom, I'm having an allergic reaction. Can you take me to the hospital?]

I knew she might think I was lying, so I took a photo of the welts and sent it too.

Half a minute later, her reply appeared.

[Vivian, you're using AI-generated pictures to lie to your own mother now?]

Panicking, I tried to video call her.

She declined it.

I sent another message asking if she could at least transfer me enough money to get to the hospital myself.

A red warning symbol appeared beside the message.

She had blocked me.

So had Dad.

So had Grant.

Every member of my family had apparently reached the same conclusion: I was trying to ruin Rosie's celebration, so the easiest solution was to shut me out completely.

My hands fell uselessly into my lap.

As tears spilled down my face, one terrible thought crossed my mind.

If I died right here, would Mom and Dad finally regret it?