All Chapters of Done Waiting to Be Seen: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

Willa's POVThe girl in front of me vanished.I gripped the acceptance letter until my knuckles ached, and pain twisted through my chest.Working myself to the bone to prove I was worth something was never going to earn their love, so I was done wanting anything from them....When I got home, Mom was in the living room packing Tessa's suitcase.She tucked a carefully organized bag of medication inside, murmuring as she went."Your stomach's delicate. Don't leave the backup meds behind."Tessa hung off Mom's arm."Mom, my acceptance letter hasn't even come yet. Isn't it way too early to pack?"Mom smoothed her hair, doting."Too early? If we wait until move-in week, we'll forget half of it."Dad couldn't help with the packing, so he pulled out his phone and sent money instead."Buy whatever you want. Don't go without anything."Tessa opened the notification, saw the number, and nearly came out of her chair."Five thousand? Dad, you're the best."Then something occurred

Chapter 2

Mom's face darkened. Before she could get a word out, Tessa caught her arm."Mom, it really isn't fair to make Willa look after me. I'll do my best to manage on my own."I won't make any of you worry."Mom cupped her cheek, aching with tenderness."That's my Tessa. Always knows how to make me feel better."Then she cut a glance at me, her voice thinning with irritation."You're the only one. Your grades are worse than hers, and all you do is upset me."My eyes stung, hot and wet.It was true that on our regular exams I usually finished one rank below Tessa.But I'd fought to close that gap in the final stretch.Looking at Mom's angry face, something bitter churned in me.I really did want to know what would happen if I told her Aldercrest had taken me.Would she still tear into me for Tessa's sake, drag me on that trip, and then stand by while I died?I opened my mouth, but Tessa cut in before I got a sound out."Mom, Dad, I'm starving. Can we eat first?"Smiling, she to

Chapter 3

"Thank you, Mom and Dad, for bringing me home and paying for my education."Thank you, Cameron and Evan, for helping me with my schoolwork."When I stopped there, everyone froze.Next to Tessa's speech, mine was so thin it sounded like a brush-off.But I'd dug through my memory for a long time, and those were the only gracious things I could honestly come up with.Even the tutoring only happened because Cameron and Evan were already bringing Tessa's grades up and let me sit in.The room went cold again.Mom wouldn't look at me.Cameron and Evan wore complicated expressions.Tessa sat quietly with a faint smile on her lips.Only Dad cleared his throat and lifted his head to look at me."Willa, are you blaming your mother and me for overlooking you?"We're both so busy with work. You've got a right to be upset."I'll send you three hundred dollars. Buy whatever you like."That was how he did it.The moment it finally registered that he'd hurt me, he'd play the good father

Chapter 4

"What did you just say?" Evan stared at me, stunned.I had no interest in arguing anymore, so I got up and went to my room.I started packing, and I'd just gotten my suitcase closed when Cameron walked in without knocking."Evan says the two of you got into it over Tessa.""We did." I looked up at him.He scoffed. "You applied to the same school as Tessa because you wanted to stick to them."And now you're saying all this just to make her feel awful."I stared at him, not following.Then he said, "Tessa heard about your fight. She's been crying at the hospital."To smooth things over, Mom and Dad decided the whole family's taking a trip to the Pineglass Highlands as soon as she's discharged."My mind went blank.The Pineglass Highlands. Wasn't that where I was supposed to die?I'd already dropped the whole thing about my acceptance letter. Why were they still dragging me on this trip?My hands started shaking, and my voice came out unsteady."I'm not going."That area ge

Chapter 5

The moment I sent it, I blocked him.Then I blocked everyone else in the family.Cameron stood in the living room staring at his phone, disbelief all over his face."Aldercrest?"Willa's grades were never as good as Tessa's. There's no way Aldercrest took her."Mom was hauling luggage toward the door. His words stopped her mid-step.Then, impatient, "Just call her and tell her to get home. She's been gone since dawn."Cameron dialed Willa's number.All he got was a recording telling him the call couldn't go through.He didn't believe it and sent a message instead. Only a gray check mark was there.He stood there a long moment before it finally sank in that something was wrong.He pushed open Willa's bedroom door again.Only then did he notice how bare the room was.He stepped inside and looked around.His eyes landed on two sheets of paper pinned under the desk lamp.He walked over, picked them up, read them, and stopped breathing."Mom! Dad!"He made it back to the li

Chapter 6

Third-Person POVNeither of them had imagined that the biological daughter they'd never paid attention to could do something like this.She'd gotten into Aldercrest.Mom's hands wouldn't stop shaking."She scored that high. Why wouldn't she tell us?"Why would she hide it?"Cameron said nothing.Tessa had gone quiet the moment she learned Aldercrest had taken Willa and that Willa was already gone.Evan's voice came out hoarse."Because not one of us cared enough to ask."Mom opened her mouth, but her throat had closed up, and nothing came out.Then she remembered.Once the acceptance letters started arriving, every one of them had orbited Tessa.The moment Maplehurst State took Tessa, close to home, they'd happily booked a celebration dinner.Not a single person asked where Willa had applied.They'd all assumed she'd end up somewhere near Tessa and told her to put Maplehurst State down too.The same program, too, so she'd be positioned to look after Tessa.Every one of

Chapter 7

Willa's POVOnce Aldercrest's first-year orientation wrapped up, I didn't go home for fall break either.My parents, Cameron, and Evan all tried to see me.I turned every one of them down and blamed my orientation schedule.When they couldn't reach me, they started transferring money into my account.I sent all of it back.Once I'd decided to draw a line, I wasn't going to keep taking their money.By the same logic, I meant to pay back the fifteen thousand I owed them as fast as I could.So I got a part-time job.Back at the house, Cameron and Evan used to practice conversational English with Tessa to bring her grades up.I picked up a lot just listening.My spoken English was strong enough to get me hired at a publicly traded tutoring company.Whenever I didn't have class, I taught English to the handful of elementary schoolers assigned to me.I'd only just saved up fifteen hundred dollars when my faculty adviser found out about the job.Once she understood my situation,

Chapter 8

My parents were waiting for me at a coffee shop.Just the two of them, sitting side by side, glancing toward the entrance every few seconds.Watching for me, apparently.A few months, and they looked ten years older.Mom had always been meticulous about her appearance, and now there were lines at the corners of her eyes.A lot of Dad's hair had gone gray.They both stood when I came through the door.Mom's eyes went red. She hurried over and grabbed my hands."Willa, you finally came."I've missed you so much."Her voice cracked, and the tears kept coming.I pulled my hands free. "Let's just sit down."She blinked, then produced a stiff smile."Right. Right. Let's sit."We'd barely settled before she started crying again."Willa, your father and I know we were wrong. Please don't cut us out of your life."We've done a lot of thinking these last few months."We were greedy as parents. Tessa isn't ours by blood, but we raised her from a baby, and we wanted to keep her cl

Chapter 9

I got one week of quiet.The next weekend, Cameron and Evan turned up.Seeing them made me want to roll my eyes.At least Cameron hadn't come to apologize.He came at me furious the second he saw me."Willa, you really do think you're above all of us now."Mom and Dad came all this way, and you upset them badly enough to make them sick."You're coming home with me. Right now."He grabbed my wrist hard enough that I thought the bones might give.I wrenched free and slapped him across the face.He clapped a hand to his cheek and stared at me."I'm your brother! Have you lost your mind? You actually hit me?"I shook out my wrist. "You're exactly who I meant to hit."I cut ties with all of you and I paid back every dollar. What gives you the right to keep coming after me?"Cameron was shaking with anger."You think fifteen thousand dollars buys you out of a family? You're a Carver."I looked at him coldly, my voice low and every word clear."I didn't want fifteen thousand

Chapter 10

I never noticed when the two of them left.After that day, neither Evan nor anyone in the Carver family came looking for me again.After my bachelor's, I was accepted into Aldercrest's fully funded graduate research track.Seven years went by, and I became Dr. Fenwick's most accomplished student.I traveled with her regularly, city to city, for research partnerships and academic exchanges.I ran into Evan and Tessa again on a trip back to Maplehurst for a project.Once the meetings were done, I wandered over to my old high school and found the two of them arguing on the sidewalk."He's still a baby. Can't you pay attention to him for five minutes?"Why are you on your phone the whole time?"It was Evan going at Tessa. They'd clearly gotten married.I didn't want to run into them and had already turned to go when someone called out."Willa?"I had to hand it to Evan. Mid-argument and he still spotted me.I turned around and answered flatly. "It's been a while."Seven years

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