All Chapters of The Only One Left Behind: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1 Fake Family

"Don't just hide in your room, Theodora! Come out here and help Claire pack!" Clement Gray, my brother, banged on my door.The second I came out, he shoved a pink suitcase over to me. "She's weak, and Syldan's sun will hurt her skin. Give her your sunscreen. It's not like you'd ever use it. Heck, it's still sealed."I looked at my sunscreen. I bought those with my part-time wages because I was anticipating a surprise trip. "The sunscreen's mine.""You're going to stay at home anyway. It's not like you'll need them. They'll just expire." Claire put two bottles of new makeup stuff into the suitcase. "She has sensitive skin. Cheap stuff makes her itchy. Don't be so stingy."Back in the living room, Claire was leaning on my mother's shoulder, eating cherries. My father had his spectacles on, verifying the IDs on the tickets. I went and checked the tickets.The tickets were printed three days ago. On that very day, I'd brought up the wish of going to Syldan to see the sea and celebrate

Chapter 2 Demands

"Enough, Clement." My father waved him down and slid the tickets into an envelope. "You're a college graduate, Theodora. Be the bigger person. Claire's only been with us for five years and hasn't had a lot of worldly experience. "You're the older sister. Be more gracious."Oh, yes. She'd just joined our household in five years. Yet, this girl managed to take my room, my recommendation letter, and now, my birthday trip at that time. To add insult to injury, my father would always say, "You're the older sister. Just let her have it" whenever she did.I said nothing more and went back to my damp, 80-square-feet store room. I dragged my canvas bag out from under the bed and stuffed my ID and my degree in it.I could hear Claire's muffled laughter coming from outside my room. "Does this sun hat look good, Clement?""Yes. You look gorgeous no matter what you wear, Claire. I'll buy a bag for you in Syldan tomorrow."The living room was already in a slight state of chaos the next morn

Chapter 3 To the Sands

Clement's face was thunderous as he parted his lips to retort, but my father stopped him after checking the time."Enough. We'll be late for the safety check." My father left the house. "Make sure you clean the floor, Theodora. I don't want to come home to mold."My mother took Claire's hand and went past me. Claire looked at me and said, "Happy birthday, Theodora."The security door swung shut with a final click. I was alone. Just then, my phone buzzed.Professor Zlensky texted, "Our ride's already here at the campus' north gate. Our personal profile will be under lockdown in half an hour. We'll be setting off right after that, Theodora."…A bus stood outside the campus' north gate. Professor Zlensky was standing by the entrance, holding an NDA. "This is my last time asking you for confirmation." He looked at me solemnly."This project is national top-secret stuff. Once you enter the base, all your social media accounts will be deleted, and all your communication devices will

Chapter 4 No One Home

"Do you think Theodora is eating well? She's alone, so maybe we should get her delivery?""Forget about her." Clement tossed the lobster's shell onto the table. "Dad left her money. She will eat if she wants to. Besides, she was so nasty to us before we left. It's all because we spoiled her too much."My mother opened up WhatsApp. "I'll need to ask her if she's dealt with the basement's water. Don't want the stuff to be soaked. She opened up the group chat, and her finger froze. "Wait, she left the group."Dad raised his head from his beer. "Left the group? What's she up to this time?"Clement snickered and took his phone out. "She's probably upset we posted the VIP room photo. Ignore her. Give her the cold shoulder for a bit, and she'll fall in line. She still cooks and waits for us every time she's mad anyway.""True." My mother put her phone down and kept filling Claire's plate with food. "She's getting pettier. It's just a trip to Syldan. I can't believe she'd leave the group

Chapter 5 Not a Student Anymore

There was also a diary sitting beside the money. Clement walked over and picked it up. "What's this?" He flipped through the pages.That was the diary that I'd used to keep tabs on the events and payments for everything over the last five years.The first page dated back to the tenth of September five years ago. "The first day Claire moved in, she broke Mom's favorite cup. Mom slapped me and blamed me for not keeping an eye on her. She made me pay for it and docked 80 dollars from my monthly allowance."The second page dated back to the winter months four years ago. "Clement crashed into someone's motorbike. They asked for 3,000 to settle the matter out of court. Dad took the money meant for my TOEFL test. "He said I was a girl, so I didn't need to take that test and should focus on working and supporting the family instead."The third page detailed summer three years ago. "I spun the roulette to change bedrooms. My luck was rotten. I got the store room, and that's a little sad.

Chapter 6 No Feeling

Professor Zlensky hung up on my father right after that. My father stood there, frozen in place as he held his phone."How'd it go, Neil?" My mother quickly huddled closer. "Where is she? Did she rent a place somewhere?"My father said nothing. His eyes fell on the untouched money sitting on the coffee table. Then, he looked at the black mold in the storeroom. For the first time, he felt scared. More specifically, he was scared that he no longer controlled me.The daughter who would quietly do anything for them, no matter how much she was pushed around and treated unfairly, was… gone.…Winter always came early in the base due to our location. It was only October, but the sands' winds were already cutting. I trudged out of the lab in the wind tunnel wearing a heavy and thick protective suit, gripping the clipboard filled with data."I've got a letter for you, Ms. Gray." Gary, our messenger, was waiting for me at the end of the corridor. When he saw me, he handed me a letter witho

Chapter 7 Their End

My father even hired private investigators to search for me, but the authorities swiftly detained them for 15 days the moment they investigated Professor Zlensky. After they came out, the private investigators refunded my father."Your daughter didn't go missing, Mr. Gray. She just got promoted. Stop looking into the matter, or your family's going to go to prison.""Say something, Neil!" My crying mother grabbed my father's sleeve. "Where is Theodora? Has she abandoned us?"My father took out that diary from his briefcase and tossed it onto the bed. The cover was already in tatters from getting flipped too much."She abandoned us a long time ago," said my father raspily. "She stopped considering us her parents the moment we sent her into that storage room three years ago.""No! I'm her mother! I gave birth to her! I raised her!" my mother screamed hysterically. "She will forever be my daughter no matter where she goes! Clement, get us the deed! We'll sell the house and go to Imper

Chapter 8 Begging

That basement was darker and damper than the storeroom I used to live in. My mother's legs were now both paralyzed, and she spent her days in a wheelchair. They barely scraped by with my father's scavenging and retirement money.The last page of the report had a photo that had been taken surreptitiously. It was a picture of my father wearing an old, tattered garbage collector uniform. The man was sitting by the road, munching on a piece of bread, and a pendant hung from his neck.I recognized the pendant. I'd bought it for him with my first scholarship fund in my freshman year. However, he tossed it into the coffee table's drawer without even sparing it a glance. "I don't want something this cheap hanging in my car. It's embarrassing."Now, he was hanging it where it was closest to his heart. I closed the report and tossed it into the shredder. The machine buzzed and shredded every word regarding the Grays."Gary." I opened the door."What do you need, Ms. Gray?""Get me the appl

Chapter 9 Cut Off

"Back off! Don't get any closer to Ms. Gray!" Two burly guards quickly stepped between us, and Neil was shoved to the ground.It looked like it hurt, but he didn't let it stop him. Neil grabbed the guard's pants leg and looked at me. "You're back. I'm sorry, Theodora. I'm sorry!" He pointed at his chest, where that old keychain hung."Look, it's your present for me. I've been wearing it! Your mother's in Mercy Hospital's ER department. She's dying. She's been apologizing every day! Your brother is serving his time, and he's been writing repentance letters every day."Come home, Theodora. I'll give you the main bedroom. No, the whole house! Let's become a family again, please."The people who were here for business turned to look at us. They probably thought this was just a family drama where an ungrateful daughter had abandoned her terminally ill mother and bankrupt father.I watched Neil cry, but I felt nothing. "Mr. Gray," I said calmly.Neil was stunned. "What did you just cal

Chapter 10 Blue Skies

Tears fell from the corner of that woman's eye as she clenched the sheets tightly with her bony fingers. She had once used those hands to help Claire wear a watch, but now they looked like gnarly dead branches.I knew why she was crying, and it wasn't out of love for me. She was crying because she realized she'd lost something precious after Claire took off with their money, when Clement was in prison, and when Neil couldn't even afford some good bread from the bakery.She realized that she had thrown away the only person who would endure sleeping in the dark and dank storeroom. She realized that she'd discarded that one person who would work two jobs and give everything she had for her. She had tossed her biological daughter aside for one who wasn't of her blood."Let's go." I looked away."You're not going in?" the officer asked."Why should I?" I turned around and went toward the elevator at the end of the corridor. "She wants to see the Theodora, who would follow her every c

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