Chapter 2

Mom stood up without hesitation.

I instinctively grabbed her sleeve.

"Mom, I'm scared. Can you stay with me?"

Her voice was full of reproach.

"Wren, don't make a fuss. We came here without telling your sister. Don't upset her."

Before she left, she still remembered to refill my water cup.

The warmth beneath my fingers disappeared.

I had prepared myself for disappointment long ago, but when it finally happened, my heart still ached.

The next morning, Mom brought me breakfast.

She placed a shrimp omelet on my plate.

"Try it. I specifically asked your sister for half an hour to visit you last night, and I got up early to make this."

I stared at the omelet and the bagel with a bite already taken out of it. I didn't touch either one.

Mom frowned.

"Don't be picky."

Ione liked shrimp, but I was severely allergic to shellfish.

Once, I accidentally ate a shrimp from Ione's bowl and had to be rushed to the emergency room.

After that, Mom strictly forbade me from eating seafood.

She had even stuck a note on the refrigerator that read: Wren is allergic to seafood.

But now, she had forgotten.

"Mom, I'm allergic to seafood."

"And the bagel? Do you really think I only deserve whatever my sister leaves behind?"

Mom froze. Guilt immediately surfaced in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to forget."

After a pause, she asked carefully, "What would you like to eat? I'll make it for you tomorrow."

Before I could answer, Ione appeared at the hospital-room door.

Her face was pale. When she saw Mom, she pointed at her watch.

Thirty minutes and one second.

She had been waiting outside the entire time.

Mom knew Ione's temper and hurried to apologize.

Ione walked around her, came to my bedside, and threw a stack of bills in front of me.

"Wren, you've eaten and lived in our house for free for three years. Now you expect my parents to pay your medical expenses too?"

Not only had she waited outside for thirty minutes, she had also printed out every cent my surgery had cost during that time.

She smoothly pulled out a promissory note and made me sign it.

Every dollar I had spent over the past three years had been listed in painstaking detail.

She had gone to a lot of trouble.

Mom wanted to stop her, but she was afraid Ione would have another episode.

I hesitated for only a second before she began screaming and dragged me out of bed.

My head struck the corner of the cabinet. I hissed in pain.

The woman in the next bed couldn't stand by and watch.

"How can you hit someone like that? If there's a problem, talk it out."

Mom and Dad were about to help me up, but when Ione heard someone defending me, she became even more agitated.

"What do you know? Sisters should keep their accounts clear. Besides, she isn't even really part of our family."

The moment she finished speaking, she fainted again.

Mom and Dad hurriedly gathered her into their arms and left without even looking at me.

With the nurse's help, I climbed back into bed. The doctor said my wound had reopened and needed to be stitched again.

When the needle pierced my flesh, I was in so much pain that I almost cried.

But once it was over, that pain was nothing compared to what I felt inside.