Chapter 2
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“Yeah, Rhea’s amazing. Good thing we adopted her back then. Who knows where we’d be without her now?
“Don’t mention Jessica. Ever since that incident, we haven’t had a single good night’s sleep. Rhea was heartbroken, and kept saying she should’ve taken the blame for her sister.”
That’s when I knocked on the door.
The moment my mom saw me, her smile vanished.
“What are you doing here now? Go wait outside. We have guests. Don’t embarrass us.”
She shut the door without hesitation. Just before it closed, I heard her tell the relatives inside, “Don’t worry, just some trash collector from downstairs.”
That night, I was finally allowed back into the house, only for my dad to slap me to the ground.
“You knew today was important for Rhea, but you just had to come back and ruin it. Would it have killed you to stay one more day? If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be a joke!”
My mom looked at me with disgust, then hurried to put Rhea’s trophy away, like she was afraid I might taint it just by being near.
“She clearly came back today on purpose. Rhea’s life has already been hard enough, and she still has to deal with her bullying. Why didn’t they lock her up a few more years?”
Since Rhea was adopted by my parents, I had lost count of how many times I had heard that kind of thing. I was used to it by now.
I looked at my parents coldly. “Are you trying to deceive yourselves? Don’t forget. It was Rhea who killed them!”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I heard a heavy object hit the floor behind me.
My parents rushed to Rhea’s side, immediately comforting her. “Don’t listen to her nonsense, Rhea. That incident was just an accident. It has nothing to do with you,
“And if Jessica had warned you how dangerous mountaineering was, would you have taken those three kids? I think Jessica just wanted to see you get hurt. She’s done it before, hasn’t she?
“Why don’t you hurry up and apologize to Rhea?”
Henry shot me an annoyed look and said coldly, “Jessica, what you just said was completely out of line.”
When Henry started walking toward me, Rhea quickly grabbed his hand, giving him a hurt look.
“Mom, Dad, Henry, don’t blame her. She’s probably just upset after getting out of there and seeing me win. But I real-
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Chapter 2
ly earned this award on my own, not because of the things you left behind.
288 Vouchers
“If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll throw this trophy away! I can leave this house, so you don’t have to be bothered by me.”
With that, Rhea snatched the trophy from Mom’s hands and slammed it onto the floor before rushing out of the house.
“Rhea!”
Henry shoved me aside in a panic and rushed out after Rhea. I fell onto the shattered pieces of the trophy, the broken glass cutting into my skin, making me gasp in pain.
The floor quickly turned red with blood, but my parents acted like they didn’t even see it. Instead of showing any con- cern, they tossed me some glue.
“When you’re done gluing that trophy back together, you can get up. Otherwise, just pretend we never had a daughter like you.”
Hearing those words didn’t stir anything in my heart, because ever since Rhea entered this house, their whole world. had tilted toward her.
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