Biological Family 단편 소설 & 소설

While we're applying to colleges, everyone gathers around my younger twin brother, Kevin Winslow, and launches into a discussion. Our older sister, Natasha Winslow, points at a brochure. "Of course, you're going to Whetford University. Come to my school, and I'll look out for you." Our childhood friend, Claire Linwood, shoves an Ellerby College brochure at him. "Don't listen to Natasha. Let's go to Ellerby together and be classmates for four more years." Our parents smile in agreement. "Yes, you should go to the capital. We can sleep better at night knowing someone's looking out for you." A long while later, they finally remember that I'm about to go to college as well. "Kyle, with your bad grades, you can just apply to any college in Valefront." Natasha doesn't even look up when she replies, "That's right. All four of us will be in the same city, so we can meet up on weekends." Claire nags out of habit, "Applications won't stay open forever. Make sure you don't get left behind." I slowly tighten my grip on the mouse. The computer screen is still displaying my application draft. In the make-believe sessions in our childhood, Kevin has always played the prince everyone adored. Natasha has been the loyal holy maiden, while Claire has been the brave princess. But I can only ever be the evil dragon everyone hates. Turns out, even now when we're grown up, things haven't changed. Since no one likes me anyway, I decide to apply to a college that's furthest away from home. From now on, I have a whole life ahead of me, so I won't dwell on the past anymore.

Ever since Mom loses the baby, Dad has been spending his time keeping his late classmate's wife company. So I take scissors to our family photos, cutting him out of every single one. When Mom receives a call from my school, she overhears me telling a classmate that my dad is dead and asking if I can borrow theirs instead. Mom freezes for a moment before admitting, "Yeah, he died young." When family sports day rolls around, Mom catches me slipping a ten-dollar bill to the school guard, begging him to pretend to be my dad for the day. Instead of stopping me, she quietly hands the guard 200 dollars, making sure he attends the parent-teacher conference with me. Whenever an event requires a father figure, Mom simply lets me rent one. Eventually, it dawns on Dad that he hasn't heard anything from us in a long time. He clears his entire schedule for the afternoon to pick me up from school, but my teacher stops him at the school gate. Dad heads back home in confusion. The second he steps through the front door, he overhears me speaking to the maintenance guy. "My dad's dead," I tell him. "Do you want to be my new dad?"

The day my wealthy biological parents finally took me home, my eight godmothers stood at the gate with tears in their eyes as they watched me leave. I had barely been back for two days when everything changed. It was all because I scored one hundred points higher than the fake heir on our final exam mock test. My own parents took me to an underground black market hospital. They were going to cut out my brain and transplant it into the fake heir. "You've already taken Braxton's place as the center of the family," my mother said coldly. "Giving him your brilliant brain is the least you can do to make it up to him." "Don't worry," my father added with a smile. "We'll find you an ordinary brain afterward. We'll take care of you for the rest of your life." Braxton grinned as he leaned close. "Let me tell you a little secret. I bribed the surgeon. The brain they're putting in your head belongs to an idiot. "Your life is over." I struggled with everything I had, refusing to give up. Then they dragged me out of the car. The moment I looked up at the building, I almost laughed. Was this not the hospital owned by my eight godmothers? When I left home, my eldest godmother — the CEO — had sent me off with red-rimmed eyes. She vowed back then, "If anyone in the Long family dares lay a finger on you, I'll bankrupt them before they know what hit them." My second godmother, a renowned surgeon, had said nothing at all. She had simply continued wiping down her scalpel. It seemed like Braxton and the Long family had walked straight into a trap they would never escape from.

My older brother, Connor Hollis, wanted to be the only child in our family. So Mom changed my surname, moved my registered address to Grandma's, and made me pay to live in their home. My allowance was whatever Connor saved with coupons and cash-back deals. If he saved thirty dollars, I got thirty dollars the next month. Today was the last day to submit the college application. I begged Connor to let me use the computer. He held out his hand. "Twenty bucks." I emptied every pocket and clutched the only nineteen dollars I had. "I'm just one dollar short. Please, Connor!" He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Not a cent less! "Can't afford it? Then don't use it. Nobody's forcing you to go to college!" Mom had watched the whole thing coldly. Now she chimed in. "Your brother's right. Nothing in this house is free. Rules are rules." As the seconds ticked away, I tore through my room and finally found a coin wedged in the gap beside my bed. Ignoring Connor's scowl, I ran to the computer. But the words on the screen froze me in place. "The application system is now closed." The deadline had passed one minute earlier. I stared at the screen, cold to the bone. Through the door, I could hear Mom comforting Connor. "He's just a relative staying with us. He's not worth getting upset over." A bitter ache spread through my chest. I opened my messages. "Dr. Redmond, I'll go to Landorll." Just a relative? Then I won't trouble you any longer.

My sister and I got into a car crash. My heart was ruptured, and I needed immediate surgery if I were to live. My mother, being the director of her hospital, sent all the doctors to my sister instead, all just to check on her. She barely got hurt. I pleaded and begged for my mother to save me, but impatience got the better of her. She roared, "This isn't the time to take any attention away from your sister! She almost had a bone fracture!" And I died. I remember where it was. It was a freezing operating theater.

My brother Raymond hated me for seven years. After a bitter fight on a freezing winter night, I stormed out and drove away. I never expected a blizzard to fall so suddenly. It blinded my vision. I was attacked by a rogue, injected with a poison that could erase memories and sever blood bonds. My memories became fragmented. When I woke up in the pack’s infirmary, Raymond stood there with a cold expression and casually pointed at a gravely ill male werewolf lying in bed. “He’s your brother. Stop bothering me.” I was stunned. The male werewolf pushed himself up and took my freezing hand, his eyes gentle.
“Come on. I’ll take you home.” After that, I no longer saw Raymond as my brother—just as he wished. So why was he suddenly begging for my acknowledgement after casting me aside so eagerly?

My father, Daniel Jacobson, teams up with the elders in my family to launch the Family app. Every child's behavior is converted into points, and those points determine who inherits the family's wealth. As the least favored daughter in the family, I am one of the first people forced to use it. "You earn one point for greeting your parents. Massaging shoulders or washing feet gives you ten points. Handing over your entire paycheck gets you 1,000 points. This is my original digital system for measuring good behavior." If I dare complain even once, or if I rank last on the scoreboard, Dad humiliates me relentlessly in the family group chat. He even forces me to kneel and wash the feet of whoever has the highest score as an apology. He looks at my hands that are red and scalded from the hot water and sighs. Then, his expression turns resolute again as he says, "I know it hurts now, but this is for your own good. A rough diamond has to be cut and polished before it can sparkle. I'm helping to smooth away your rough edges so your future will be smoother. "The points system is my greatest achievement. It's the deepest expression of a father's love." Today is Independence Day. It's also our family's annual scoreboard finalizing day. Dad invites all our relatives over. In front of everyone, he plans to announce that I, the child who ranks last, will be disowned. He wants everyone to see what happens to anyone who dares challenge his authority. "I'm doing this for the good of our family. Without rules, there can be no order. And without a strict upbringing, you won't build up the perfect character. One day, you'll understand my good intentions." But, Dad... I have already ended my own life by overdosing on some medicine. Right now, my lifeless body lies cold in the room upstairs, waiting for you to uncover it with your own hands.

Before our mating ceremony, my mate, Pavel Blackwell, took me and my older sister, Vivienne, out for seafood. The server recognized them and came over smiling. "The usual for you two?" Pavel nodded. He slid into the seat beside Vivienne without a second thought. The crab came out of the steamer, and he cracked the shell open piece by piece and passed the meat to her. I had been put at a spare chair shoved into the aisle, without so much as a dish of sauce in front of me. Halfway through the meal, the server appeared with a couples' silverware set. "Pavel, Vivienne, this is your hundredth visit to us. That means you get your custom set." A line was engraved on the back of each piece. "Pavel and Vivienne. Never apart." The earliest date on the record was three years ago today. It took me a moment to place the date. That was the day a severe allergic reaction sent me into surgery and I nearly didn't make it out. So for the three hours my life hung in the balance, Pavel had not been waiting outside that door at all. Vivienne ran a finger over the engraving and gave a mischievous smile. "Pavel, once you and my little sister are mated, she won't stop you from going out with me, will she?" Pavel ruffled her hair and turned to look at me. "Of course not. She's always been reasonable. "Besides, you and I have known each other for ten years. Ashlyn and I have only known we were fated mates for four. If it bothers her, she can learn to live with it." On the way back, I got into the back seat on my own. The front seat had always belonged to Vivienne. Then the car's voice assistant chimed in. "Welcome aboard, Vivienne! Pavel will get you home safely!" I watched the scenery stream past the window, and suddenly I was tired of all of it. So I took out my phone and sent my father a message. "I agree to the pack's arranged mating." Ten years of closeness had turned the two of them into a habit. Then let me be the one to quit mine. Four years of it.

My parents believed the best way to instill independence in a child was to split everything fifty-fifty. If breakfast cost ten dollars, I paid five. I owed half of the six hundred dollars in school fees. Even when I had to go to the ER for running a high fever, my parents covered the bill and reminded me, “Get a summer job. Don’t get into the habit of owing money.” For years, I thought they were simply raising me to stand on my own. Then, my little sister, Millie, was born. Mom’s face beamed when Millie kissed her on the cheek once. “There. Now we’re even.” Millie made Dad breakfast one morning, wanting to get piano lessons. Dad happily signed her up right away. Meanwhile, every dime I spent was written down in my parents’ ledger. On my eighteenth birthday, I asked Mom, “Mom, can I get a birthday cake by giving you a massage?” Mom furrowed her brows. “Meadow, you have to pay what you owe. Stop looking for shortcuts “You’re still $1,700.48 behind from last month. When are you going to pay us back?” Holding back my tongue, I clutched the scholarship offer from a university abroad inside my pocket. It wouldn’t be long now. Once I cleared my debt of $1,700.48, I’d owe the family nothing. From then on, she would be no mother of mine.

My sister, Nancy Wood, wanted to be the family's only child, so my mother had my name changed and handed my identification documents over to my grandmother. She even told me I had to pay for everything if I wanted to live under their roof. The change and coupons Nancy got from her shopping were the sole source of allowance I'd get. If she saved 30 dollars from her shopping trips, I would get 30 dollars next month. It was the last day for all students to enter their applications for college. I begged my sister to let me use her computer. She extended her hand. "You have to pay me 20 bucks." I fished all the money out of my pocket. I only had 19 dollars. So, I hastily blurted in a panic, "I'm only one dollar short. Please!" Nancy arched her eyebrow at me and shook her head. "Don't even think about it! It's 20 bucks and not a penny less! If you can't afford it, then don't use it! It's not as if someone's pointing a gun at you for you to go to college!" My mother watched at the sidelines impassively. Then, she took Nancy's side. "She's right. You remember the rules. You can't use our stuff for free!" Time was running out. I barged into my room to scrounge for money. Fortunately, I finally found a dollar in the corner of my bed. Then, I charged right at the computer, ignoring Nancy's sullen mood. The notification froze me to my bones. "Application time is up." It expired just a minute ago. My eyes were glued to the screen, my blood turning to ice under my skin. I could distantly hear my mother comforting Nancy. "She's just some distant relative. You shouldn't get worked up over her." A surge of bitterness welled up inside me as I sent a message to my teacher, "I'll go to Lorantia." After all, I was nothing but a relative. So, I should know my place and stop troubling them any further.

I was a ghost hunter. My client had bought a haunted manor. Everyone who moved inside ended up losing their minds, so they paid me a huge sum to exorcise the place. However, I had a feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew. After moving in and fighting against the evil ghost for half a year, I could not handle it anymore and decided to move out to rest for a bit. Before my mind even cleared up completely, Ronald Durkin, my uncle, called me. “Apollo, Jessica just finished sitting for her SATs. I want the entire family to go with her on her graduation trip, but hotels are just too expensive. I heard that you rented a huge manor in the capital. Why don’t you let us stay there?” He then gave me some money, saying that it was rent. When I checked, I found that he had only given me a single cent. My mouth twitched, but I still patiently explained the situation to him. “Uncle Ronald, the manor is haunted. No one can move inside. Why don’t I give you three thousand dollars so that you could book a hotel?” I certainly did not expect him to hang up on me without another word and tag everyone in the family group chat. [Guys, everyone will be going dutch for the trip this time. Apollo will be providing us free lodgings in a ten thousand square feet manor in the capital.] The family group chat went wild, and everyone praised me for being a good boy. I simply could not laugh along with them. That place was uninhabitable!

When I was ten, I transmigrated back in time and became the child of a poor farming family. My mother had an old injury, and my father had an eye condition, so the whole family depended on my labor to survive. When I was sixteen, there was a locust plague that summer. Our fall harvest was cut in half, and by deep winter, we had no grain left. I faced the wind and snow wearing a threadbare cotton coat just to find food. Halfway home, I froze to death, still clutching half a loaf of bread against my chest. After I died, though, my soul suddenly returned to the modern world. I saw my biological parents gathered around my older twin brother, laughing and chatting. There had never been any transmigration. The medieval city was a prison they had built for me. It had all been a controlled experiment run by my brilliant scientist parents.

My brother died, so my parents forced me to undergo plastic surgery to look exactly like him and live his life in his place. "Your brother was a genius. You can't just leave his fiancée and research project behind. You have to take over." "You've accomplished nothing with your life anyway. Getting to live his life is a lucky break for you." They seemed to have forgotten that I had my own name and that I had a life of my own. My identity records were canceled, and my parents acted as though they had every right to do it. "If you really care about our family, then you should understand why we're doing this." "We're doing this for your own good. Don't be so ungrateful." Everyone thought I would break down and run away. Instead, I smiled. "He was a genius? Fine. I will take his place." I later signed a high-stakes wager agreement with his former rival and even carried out increasingly reckless experiments in his name whilst wearing his face. "Don't go too far. You'll destroy our family…" I looked at them calmly. "I see." I tightened my grip on the letters my brother had left behind before quietly feeding them into the shredder.

After fifteen years away, I was finally brought back to the DeLuca family. I thought I was returning to my real home. Instead, I walked into a house where the adopted daughter wanted me dead, my father treated me like a burden, and my brothers would rather watch me bleed than make her cry. On my first day back, she set dogs on me. That night, I was dragged to the top of the observatory and forced to apologize to her. When I fell from the tower covered in blood, they still called me a liar. Because in the DeLuca family, I may have been the real daughter by blood— but she was the daughter they loved. She thought she could bully me, poison me, and freeze me to death without consequence. She was wrong. Because the night I nearly died, my mother finally chose me—and turned a gun on the whole DeLuca family.

In my sophomore year of college, my family went bankrupt. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, while my father was diagnosed with depression. Without hesitation, I dropped out of college and took on the responsibility of supporting them. I went from being the privileged heir to the Lawson family fortune to an exhausted laborer barely scraping by almost overnight. My skin grew tan from working under the sun. My hands became covered in calluses. Eventually, prolonged exposure to toxic levels of formaldehyde at one of my jobs gave me leukemia. I refused treatment and kept the diagnosis from my parents. Instead, I worked harder than ever. I was not afraid of dying. I was only afraid that I would die before I had saved enough for their surgeries. One morning, after coughing up a mouthful of blood, I took a cab straight to work. Just as I had intended, I died at my desk, leaving my parents with a strong claim for compensation from the company. However, after my death, I saw them living happily in a luxury home downtown, doting on a little girl who looked about ten years old. It turned out that my family had never gone bankrupt and that neither of my parents had ever been sick. The entire ordeal had been nothing more than a test they had devised for me.

My father, Don Vincenzo Cassano, added me to a private group chat. "La Famiglia." It was an accident. There were only three other people in it. My father. My mother. And a strange woman he had saved as "Our Treasure." They were planning a party for her. A lavish birthday party. And tomorrow? Tomorrow was my birthday. The tenth one in a row they’d forgotten. My mother’s text: "The ballroom must be draped in crystal. Make her a real princess." My father sent a wire. "Money is no object. Just don't let Aurelia find out. We don't need the drama." I screenshotted everything. A bitter sting in my chest. Fine. If they don’t love me, I'll burn their little stage to the ground. Just then, my brother Nico messaged me. The golden boy. The heir to the throne. He sent a screenshot of his own chat. Nico to Dad: "Is the 'surprise' for Aurelia ready? You promised me. This is the last time you lie to her like this."

My brother and I were twins. When his acceptance letter from Trinity University of Sports Science arrived, no one in our family could even smile. My mom pressed the letter to her chest, sobbing too hard to speak. On the balcony, my dad crouched with a cigarette in his mouth, his hands shaking too much to light it. Even my brother quietly tucked the train tickets for the graduation trip my childhood friend had planned into his pocket. None of them could bring themselves to offer their congratulations. I had been sick with kidney disease for eighteen years, and I wasn't even healthy enough to take the SATs while my brother was preparing for college. I glanced at the birthday cake on the coffee table and instinctively tried to tuck it behind my back. "I only had one bite..." Usually, my mom would've pulled me into her arms and reassured me that everything was okay. She would've told me not to be afraid. But this time, she snatched the cake from my hands and threw it onto the floor. "We've spent eighteen years fighting to keep you alive, and all you care about is eating cake! Do you know what that could do to your kidneys?" "Your brother couldn't run around like other kids. He couldn't play sports or hang out with his friends, and he hasn't played basketball in ten years! Do you even know why? Because we've spent his whole life making sure he'd be a good kidney donor for you!" Her voice grew louder with each word. "And your father? He's worked so hard making deliveries! He's gone through five scooters just to pay your medical bills! And I've spent every day cooking special meals for you, measuring all the ingredients and making sure you eat exactly what the doctors prescribe! Do you know how much we've given up for you?" The room fell silent. For three long seconds, I stood there, searching for something to say. But when I tried to speak, nothing came out. My mom stared at me, her eyes red and tears streaming down her face. "Do you know how long you've been holding this family back? What more do you want from us? Haven't we done enough?" She paused, her voice catching in her throat. "If you're going to keep acting so selfish and ungrateful, then maybe..." At first, she couldn't get the words out. Tears streamed down her cheeks, hitting the back of her hands. "Maybe you'd be better off dead." Surprisingly, hearing those words didn't hurt as much as I expected. Instead, the heavy feeling I'd carried for eighteen years seemed to vanish all at once. I thought, 'Alright, Mom. You got your wish. I'll stop being a burden to this family.'

My sister is diagnosed with leukemia after a medical checkup at the hospital where I work. My bone marrow is a match for her. Out of curiosity, I tell my family I'm the one who's sick. They vehemently oppose to her donating her bone marrow to me. "A bone marrow donation is risky! We can't let your sister put herself in danger." "Don't drag your sister into this just because you're sick. Everyone's life and death is fated—you have to accept your destiny." My sister also refuses to help me, brushing me off with the excuse that she's preparing to conceive. My relationship with my family is strained, so their behavior thoroughly destroys it. When I realize this, I leave the diagnosis report behind and walk out on them.

My dad was obsessed with getting me into Kingsbridge University or Central University, the two best universities in the country and two of the top universities in the world. He claimed it was for my own good as he made me retake the SAT, time after time. The first time I took the SAT, I scored 1360 points, more than enough to get into a highly ranked college. He tore up my offer letter and made me repeat the SAT. The second time, I scored 1440 points, enough to guarantee a spot at an elite college. He wouldn't even let me apply. I had to repeat the SAT. This time, I had scored over 1520 during all three practice exams. He was certain I would get into Kingsbridge University or Central University. But during the actual exam, my fever had climbed to 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit and my vision blurred. With my eyes red, I told my dad, "I really can't do this anymore..." He looked at me coldly, without a hint of concern. "It's just a fever! Everyone else can push through, why can't you? Stop acting so weak! "Be a man and tough it out! Even if you die, you better die in that exam room!" I gritted my teeth and went inside. After I filled in the last answer, I fainted and never got up again.

To avoid any suspicion of favoritism, my father, Myron Bradshaw, forces me to participate in the group blood donation. The only problem is I'm severely anemic. When the nurse, Lorna Ritter, draws 100 milliliters, my vision suddenly goes dark. I've just put my hand on the needle tube, about to call for a stop, when Ms. Ritter holds my wrist down. "You're calling it quits after only 100 milliliters? All the other students are donating 400 milliliters." She glances at my bloodless face, her eyes full of disgust. "Donating blood is such an honorable thing to do. Selfish fakers like you who pretend to be sick really deserve to be penalized with a double draw." Beside me, Dad looks at me coldly and says with disappointment, "Ronnie Bradshaw, is this how I raised you? Everyone else has donated, so don't think you can be an exception. You'll draw 400 milliliters of blood today even if it kills you." I gasp for air, my heart racing so fast it feels like it's about to burst. By the third tube, my vision blurs completely, and I collapse heavily to the ground. My soul slowly rises into the air as I gaze at Dad guiltily. I'm sorry, Dad, I'm really not lying. This time, I truly can't hold on any longer.