พันธนาการรักมาเฟียร้าย

After Ethan deleted the photo, he handed Emma’s phone back to her.

“Go through the rest and delete any you don’t want.”

Before Emma could open the album, an email notification appeared across the screen.

Thank you for your interest. After careful consideration...

She had not gotten the job.

Emma’s eyes filled instantly.

“Maybe I’m just not good enough,” she whispered. “I’ve applied everywhere, and nobody wants me.”

Mom pulled her into her arms.

“That’s not true. You did everything right. The job market is terrible right now.”

Then she glanced at me.

“Natalie chose such a specialized degree that we expected her job search to be difficult. But you? You have the personality companies are looking for. That recruiter clearly didn’t know what he was doing.”

I stood a few feet away, still wearing my graduation gown.

I had said nothing.

Yet somehow, I had once again become the example they used to make Emma feel better.

For years, I had wondered whether Emma was their biological daughter, and I wasn’t.

Unfortunately, we were twins.

We had the same dark hair, the same gray eyes, and nearly identical faces. No DNA test was needed to prove that we belonged to the same family.

So I searched for another explanation.

Maybe I was harder to love.

Maybe I wasn’t smart enough, sweet enough, or charming enough.

I worked harder. I stopped complaining. I became the daughter who never caused trouble and never asked for help.

By the time I had enough achievements to make them proud, I finally understood.

It had never been about what Emma deserved.

Loving Emma first was simply a habit.

So was overlooking me.

Ethan lowered his voice as he comforted her. Dad stepped away from us and pulled out his phone.

He called an old college friend who worked in HR at Westbridge Technologies.

“Hey, Mark. It’s Daniel Bennett,” he said warmly. “My daughter just graduated, and I was hoping you could take a look at her résumé.”

A few minutes later, he ended the call with a satisfied smile.

“Send me your résumé tonight, Emma. Mark said he’ll make sure it gets in front of the right hiring manager. Your first job matters. You shouldn’t have to settle for some tiny company no one’s heard of.”

Emma always had a safety net beneath her.

She only had to stumble, and everyone rushed to catch her.

During our freshman year, she failed a required economics course.

Mom found a senior from the same department to tutor her at a hundred and fifty dollars an hour. She paid for twenty sessions in advance.

That same semester, I earned the highest grade in one of my materials engineering courses.

I sent Mom a screenshot, hoping she might tell me she was proud.

Instead, she called me.

“Emma just told us she failed her midterm,” she said. “Did you really have to send this today?”

“I didn’t know.”

“You’re her sister, Natalie. Try to read the room. Not everything has to be a competition.”

After that, I stopped sending my grades home.

Junior year, I collapsed outside the engineering building with pain so severe I could barely stand.

I called Ethan.

I had never asked him for help before. That day, all I needed was a ride to the emergency room.

He went quiet.

“Emma has a presentation tomorrow,” he finally said. “She’s having a panic attack, and I promised I’d help her rehearse.”

I pressed one hand against my stomach and struggled to breathe.

“Ethan, I can’t walk.”

“Nat, you’ve always been able to take care of yourself. Can you call an Uber? I’ll check on you later.”

In the end, it was my Uber driver who took one look at my pale face and came around to help me out of the car. He walked me into the ER and stayed until a nurse brought me a wheelchair.

A stranger had understood that I needed help.

My boyfriend had decided I could manage alone.

Maybe I had been independent for too long.

Once people became used to your silence, they started believing nothing could hurt you.

Much later, Mom finally remembered to ask about my plans.

“Have you applied anywhere yet, Natalie?”

I opened my mouth, but Dad waved the question away.

“She’ll figure something out. With a degree that specialized, she can’t expect too much right out of college.”

Ryan glanced at me.

“Just take whatever you can get. You don’t want to be living with Mom and Dad six months from now.”

Ethan even offered to ask if his company had any receptionist openings.

He sounded sincere, as though he had truly considered my future.

I lowered my eyes and opened the offer waiting on my phone.

Cascadia Advanced Materials Institute

Aerospace Materials Program — Seattle, Washington

The position was prestigious, the salary was more than I had dared to expect, and the work was exactly what I had spent four years preparing to do.

It was also nearly three thousand miles from home.

The offer had been sitting unsigned for seven days.

I had told myself I needed time to think.

The truth was, I had been waiting.

Waiting for Mom to ask where I wanted to live.

Waiting for Dad to sit down with me and help me plan my future, the way he had with Emma.

Waiting for Ethan to remember that we had promised to build a life in the same city after graduation.

With six hours left before the offer expired, no one had asked me anything.

Worse, they had already decided I had no future worth asking about.

I pressed Accept.

A message appeared on the screen.

Welcome to Cascadia, Natalie Bennett. We’re excited to have you on our team.

Please report to our Seattle campus in three days.

Great.

The first sincere welcome I received on graduation day came from nearly three thousand miles away.

I looked at the happy family gathered around Emma. They looked perfectly complete without me.

I booked a flight to Seattle that left in three days.