Chapter 1

"Cassian, what do you mean by this? Over just a million dollars, you're going to cut ties with me?"

Mother's eyes were red, her voice trembling.

"Mom, I'm not cutting ties," I said calmly. "It's just that from now on, the three of us will split all your expenses—living costs, medical bills, medication, everything.

"From now on, we'll take turns looking after you. You are a treasure for all three of us. I can't possibly keep all that blessing to myself."

The reflection from the coins on the floor stabbed at my eyes as I spoke.

Mother grew anxious.

"How can that work?! Your brother and sister would be exhausted!"

"What's so exhausting about it? I'll bring your luggage over tomorrow. Four months at each house—that makes a full year."

When she realized I wasn't joking, Mother became even more flustered.

"They're still young. How would they know how to take care of someone?"

Logan was thirty this year, and Sienna twenty-eight. Yet in Mother's eyes, they were still children. But the year Father died, I had already been treated like an adult.

Mother continued anxiously, "My stomach isn't good. I need soup every morning. Sienna has to take care of her husband and children—how would she have time to cook for me?

"And I have a brace in my leg. I have to go for a checkup every Monday. What if that makes Logan late for work?

"And there's my diabetes. I have to inject insulin every day. How would they know how to do that?"

"Besides, which part of medicine and doctor visits doesn't cost money? Their salaries aren't as high as yours—how could they afford it?"

…

A mocking smile curled at the corner of my lips.

So Mother had always known everything my wife and I had done for her.

But because it was us, it simply didn't matter.

"If they don't know, they can learn," I said. "Now that they each have 500 thousand dollars, they won't mind spending a little of it."

My brother, Logan Harper, immediately slammed the table in protest.

"Why should we, Cassian?! Mom's been living perfectly fine at your house. What right do you have to make the two of us support her?!"

I looked at him coldly.

"Because you're her children too."

Logan's face flushed red, but he still refused to back down.

"That's different! You're the eldest—you're supposed to shoulder more responsibility! Cassian, you're just jealous. Jealous that Mom gave the prize money to us! It's Mom's money. She can give it to whoever she wants. You have no say in it!"

I let out a cold laugh.

"Where do you think the money for Mom's lottery tickets came from?"

Mother had no pension. Ever since I started working, I'd given her $2,500 a month for living expenses.

She used that money to buy lottery tickets almost every day. Whatever was left, she would occasionally pass on to the two of them. Everyone knew it, even if no one said it aloud.

"S-So what?" Logan stammered. "Once you give it to Mom, it's hers! She can spend it however she likes!"

The two coins on the floor seemed even more glaring now, as if they were mocking everything I had once given.

What I cared about was never the money. It was this naked favoritism—and the humiliation that came with it.

"Cassian, you're really being stingy," my younger sister, Sienna Harper, said with a pout, her face full of dissatisfaction.

"You earn a lot, so money isn't a problem for you. It's not like Logan and me—we only make a few thousand a month. You and Vivian could earn a million dollars back in a year. Why bother arguing with us over it?

"Besides, you have money. What's wrong with spending a little more on Mom? You're the eldest, after all!"

I was so angry I almost laughed.

"I'm the eldest—not the family's sucker! If you don't like it, we can settle this in court!"

Smack!

Before the words had even faded, a sharp slap rang out.