Chapter 4

On the day the Morgans came to visit, my mother brought me a bowl of soup herself.

I had just gotten back from campus, still carrying the case with the resealed prototype.

She stood at the foot of the stairs, and for once her voice was gentle.

"Ophelia, have some soup first."

I paused.

There were short ribs in that bowl.

When I was small, ribs were my favorite thing in the world.

But every time they reached the table, my sister picked out the lean pieces, my brother took the biggest ones, and by my turn there were only bones left.

Yet today my mother handed me the bowl with the most meat in it.

My fingertips tightened a little.

"Thanks, Mom."

She watched me take two spoonfuls before she started talking.

"Your sister has her last partnership meeting today before the engagement."

"The Morgans care a great deal about the technology angle. Let her use your project materials."

The spoon stopped against the rim of the bowl.

The small warmth that had risen in me went cold.

My mother kept at it.

"If Isadora marries well, you'll have someone behind you too."

"You're a girl. However brilliant you are in a lab, how could that beat marrying into the Morgans?"

I set the bowl back on the table.

"So this soup is payment for handing over my project?"

My mother's expression stiffened.

"What kind of way is that to talk?"

In the living room, Mr. Morgan and Lucian were already seated.

My father saw me come in and waved me over immediately.

"Ophelia, bring out that shielding coating proposal of yours."

Lucian stood, polite and smiling.

"Ophelia, I watched the public video from your competition."

"Your project has real commercial potential. The Morgans are willing to move it forward together with the Greenes."

I corrected him.

"It isn't a Greene project."

My father's face darkened.

"The family paid the startup costs. That makes the project a Greene asset."

"That materials payment never went through."

"You used family money before that, didn't you?"

He pushed a document across to me.

"For public presentations, we'll use Isadora's name for now."

"You keep doing the development. The official credit can be sorted out once the process is finished."

I picked the document up and looked at it.

Results Licensing and Joint Development Agreement.

The first party was the Greene family.

In the box for project lead was Isadora's name.

Mine sat below it, after the line for technical assistant.

Isadora sat beside Lucian. Her eyes dodged mine for a second, then her back straightened.

"Ophelia, it's not like I'm stealing from you."

"You don't know how to work a room. That project will never go far in your hands. I'm packaging it for you. You should be thanking me."

I looked at her. "Do you even know what the project does?"

She had nothing to say.

Jasper laughed from the side.

"Sis, anybody can run experiments. Knowing how to use resources, that's real skill."

My father rapped the table.

"Sign."

I put the document back down.

"No."

The temperature in the room dropped.

Mr. Morgan frowned at my father.

"Mr. Greene, it seems your family hasn't settled this among yourselves."

My father couldn't hold his expression together and lowered his voice.

"Ophelia, don't humiliate me in front of guests."

I answered calmly.

"You're using my project as a dowry. I'm not the one humiliating you."

Isadora shot to her feet.

"Who wants your stupid project?"

"If Lucian didn't think well of you, you'd never get into a room like this in your life."

Lucian put out a hand to stop her.

"Isadora."

She threw off his hand, her eyes rimmed red.

"Why are you shouting at me? You think I'm worth less than she is? So she can do research, so what? My whole life, whatever I wanted, I got."

Nobody contradicted her. Every person there thought I should hand her the project.

My father stood and slapped a pen down in front of me.

"I'll ask you one last time. Are you signing?"

I looked at him.

"No."

The next second the document hit me in the face.

The edge of the paper sliced my cheek and it burned.

"Then get out."

My father pointed at the door.

"From now on the Greenes have no such daughter."

My mother's lips moved, but she didn't stop him.

Isadora settled back onto the sofa with a small, satisfied glint in her eyes.

Jasper leaned against the stairs.

"Sis, don't be so stubborn."

"Out there, nobody cooks for you and nobody pays your tuition."

I glanced down at my phone.

Professor Harrison had messaged half an hour earlier.

Your review passed the first screening. Be at the east campus gate before eight tonight. Someone will meet you. Miss it and it is void.

I went upstairs and packed fast. Pitifully little in that house belonged to me.

A few clothes, one hard drive, two lab notebooks, one shockproof case.

Ten minutes and I was done.

When I came back down, everyone in the living room was watching me.

My mother finally looked a little frightened.

"Ophelia, what do you think you're doing?"

I set the house key on the hall cabinet.

Beside it I laid the sleeve of the card they had taken from me.

Those were the last two things on me that belonged to the Greenes.

I looked up at my father, my voice steady. "Everything you ever gave me, I've given back. As of today I owe the Greene family nothing."

My father sneered.

"Walk out and don't come back."

I pulled the door open.

Night air poured in and set the licensing agreement rustling on the table.

Outside, a black government car waited quietly at the curb.

The man beside it checked my identification and handed me a sealed pouch.

One line was printed on it.

Ms. Greene, your security review begins now.

Before I got into the back seat, I took one last look at the brightly lit Greene house.

The children they truly loved lived in there.

And I had finally stopped trying to find a place for myself.

The moment the door shut, I powered down my old phone and dropped it into the pouch along with the SIM card.