I Was Sent Out Of The Country のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 10

My comment had been up for less than ten seconds.The comment section, which had been full of [Need a sugar baby?] and [Please adopt me!], suddenly went quiet.Then came a flood of question marks.[???][Her older sister? Seriously?][One sister gets $20,000 for the week, and the other gets $32? Guess we know who the favorite is.]Some people even tagged my sister and demanded an explanation.As I stared at the comments, the page suddenly refreshed itself.When I tried to open the post again, all I got was, [This post has been deleted.]Less than two minutes later, over a dozen new messages popped up in the family group chat.Tracey Darrow sent the first one.[Helen, I’ll cancel the trip. Please don’t be mad.]Then came four screenshots confirming the refunds.She had sent back every cent of the $5,000 each of our parents, our brother, Barney Darrow, and Ethan Colbert had given her.Her willingness to give up the trip only made everyone feel worse for her.Mom was the fi

I opened the conversation and found a reply beneath it.[No, thank you.]It had been sent three days earlier.I thought back to that day and remembered running into Ethan at the campus store.I had been standing in front of a shelf, comparing the prices of two packs of pads.The store had been crowded. My phone had been knocked out of my hand. Ethan had picked it up for me.Later, he saw me pick up one pack, then put it back because it cost $3 more than the other. “Get both,” he said. “I’ll pay.”At the time, I was actually happy.For one thing, he had saved me more than $20.For another, I thought that he still cared about me after all.I realized that during those few minutes, he had turned down the exchange offer on my behalf.Then, perhaps out of guilt, he had bought me two packs of pads that cost less than $30 combined.What a bargain.After hesitating for a long time, I messaged my academic advisor.[Hi, is the exchange spot still available?][Someone else sent tha

We landed just after dawn.I cleared immigration with the program coordinator, then took a bus to the host university. Nearly an hour passed before I finally had a chance to check my phone.There were dozens of unread messages in the family group chat.The first was from Barney.[Helen, wasn’t your train supposed to be in by now?]A few minutes later, he had sent another.[The hotel says you haven’t checked in. Where are you?]Ethan’s message came next.[Helen, stop sulking. Everyone’s waiting for you so we can have dinner. You’re ruining the mood.]Then Mom and Dad joined in.[Your sister’s been asking about you all day. Don’t make her worry.][We’re family. Why can’t we just talk this out?]Reading their messages, I suddenly felt drained.The exhaustion from more than ten hours in the air seemed to catch up with me all at once.I leaned against the door frame of my new dorm room and typed a reply.[Don’t wait for me. I’m overseas with the university’s exchange program.

The next few months flew by.I settled in faster than I had expected.At first, I struggled to follow some of the terms in my lectures. I read ahead before class, then replayed the recordings late into the night.One day in physics class, the professor filled the board with equations and asked if anyone could work out the final step.The room stayed quiet for a few seconds.I raised my hand and carefully walked the class through my solution in halting English. He smiled at me.“Helen, could you stay behind after class?”When everyone else had left, he handed me an application for a lab assistant position.“That was an elegant solution. Would you be interested in working in my lab?”I wanted to jump for joy, but I managed to nod calmly.“Absolutely.”My scholarship and lab stipend came through soon after.Even so, rent, transportation, and insurance added up fast.I kept working outside of class.Nobody wanted the late shifts at the convenience store, so I took them and wo

Mom stared at the scholarship email. It took her a while to speak.“But research is such hard work.”Dad frowned, clearly unconvinced.“You could make money much faster online. Audiences move on. Now’s the time to make the most of yours.”Barney tried to reason with me.“Helen, we’re looking out for you. Stop assuming the worst of your own family.”I looked at them and smiled.“Research has never made me as miserable as being your family.”The smiles vanished from their faces.I turned away and wheeled my suitcase toward the airport exit.I had almost reached the doors when Ethan hurried after me and stepped into my path.“Helen, I’m not like them. They came because of your account. I came because of you.”I stopped and looked at the face I had loved for more than ten years.In the past, I thought he was a perfect guy. But his sincerity at present looked like an act. The sight of him made my stomach turn.Ethan seemed to think I still saw him the way I used to.He moved