Chapter 06

Estelle's POV

"You have a mouth, don't you? And a brain?"

My mother blinked at me, confused. "No, honey, I didn't mean..."

"I'm not talking to you, Mom." Cassius stepped forward, his arms crossed. He looked at me like I was a stain on his white shirt. "Estelle, you have a mouth and a brain. If you needed money, you could have just asked."

"Cassius is right," my mother said quickly, holding onto his arm. "You should have said something, sweetheart."

"We have billions," Cassius went on. "Do you honestly think we're so heartless that we wouldn't give you a little cash if you needed it?"

I looked at him for a long moment.

"I did ask," I said. "You just didn't care enough to listen."

---

*Three and a half years ago...*

"Mom? Dad? Can I have two hundred dollars?"

I stood at the door of the dining room, holding a crumpled paper in my hand. My whole family was having dinner. Nobody had called me to the table.

"It's for school," I said. "It's the registration f*e for the National Math Olympiad. My teacher says I have a real chance to win. But I have to pay by Friday."

My father didn't even look up from his steak.

"Money," he muttered. "It's always money with you."

Cassius laughed and put down his fork.

"You know what I think?" he said. "I think you only came here because we're rich. If we were poor, you would have stayed in your little village."

I squeezed the paper tighter.

"Honestly," Cassius said, "sometimes I wonder why Mom and Dad even brought you back."

"Look at Delilah," my mother said, smiling at the girl beside her. "She never asks us for money. And she just entered the National Math Olympiad too. She came tenth in the whole state! Why can't you be more like her?"

Delilah lowered her eyes shyly. "Mom, stop. It's nothing."

I swallowed hard.

Two months later, I found the money myself. I washed dishes at a restaurant every weekend, until my hands were cracked and red. I paid the f*e. I took the test.

And I won.

---

*Three years ago...*

"I came first," I said.

I stood in the living room holding a gold medal on a blue ribbon. My hands were shaking with excitement. "In the whole country. First place. In the National Math Olympiad."

Nobody said anything.

Then Cassius snorted. "Yeah. Sure you did."

"What? I really did! Look, here's the medal!"

But Delilah had already jumped up from the sofa and wrapped her arms around Cassius.

"Cassius! You promised you would get me something if I placed in the Olympiad. Remember?"

He smiled down at her, soft and warm. He never smiled at me like that.

"I remember. What do you want, princess?"

"There's this diamond bracelet I've been looking at." She bit her lip. "But it's ten thousand dollars. Is that too much?"

"Ten thousand?" He laughed and kissed the top of her head. "If it makes my baby sister happy, it could be a hundred thousand. I don't care."

Then he turned to me. The smile disappeared.

"Why are you still standing there? Go to your room and think about why you keep lying."

As I walked away, my medal hanging from my hand, I heard my father's voice.

"That girl is out of control. If only she had half of Delilah's manners."

---

*Present...*

"Remember that?" I asked. "Remember the medal?"

Cassius's face turned red. "That's because you never did anything we could be proud of! And you were always a liar!"

"I never lied," I said. "Not once. I came first in the Olympiad. You just didn't want to believe me."

"Whatever," he muttered.

"You didn't even know what school I went to," I said. "So why would you care if I won a math competition?"

Cassius frowned.

"What are you talking about? You went to Kingsley Academy. With Delilah."

I said nothing.

He turned to our father. "Dad? She went to Kingsley Academy, right? That's what you told me."

My father's mouth opened. Then closed. He looked at my mother. My mother looked at the floor.

Slowly, Cassius turned back to me. For the first time all night, his voice was quiet.

"Estelle," he said. "What school did you go to?"