Chapter 2When the Ashes Were Scattered

My father shoved my mother’s hand away and struck me again with the belt.

“You believe her?” he spat. “These two have been liars since they were children! Faking sick, and now faking dead!”

“Stella was right all along. All they’ve ever wanted was money!”

He glared at me, his face a mask of fury. “If you were half as well-behaved as Stella, your mother and I wouldn’t have to be so hard on you!”

The last of my resolve shattered. “You wouldn’t?” I screamed, the words tearing from my throat. “But Stella is just a tool you found to torture us! You know she bullies and frames us, and you just watch!”

“Haven’t we been good enough? We earned our own tuition! We worked part-time jobs for food! We excelled in school, got scholarships every year! And what did you do? You hired thugs to rob us of the little money we scraped together for food!”

“I’m just asking for two thousand dollars to bury Nina. Is that too much to ask? She was my sister! She was your daughter!”

“Why won’t you believe us, just this once?”

They both froze, a flash of embarrassment crossing their faces. They clearly hadn’t expected me to know about their “tests.”

My mother wrung her hands, her voice a nervous whisper. “Scarlett, when did you find out… and Nina knew too, didn’t she? Is that why you two have been making up stories to get money from us?”

After that raw, desperate confession, that was the conclusion they drew?

I laughed, a hollow, self-mocking sound. “If you still don’t believe me, then take this two thousand dollars and buy our relationship. Consider it severed.”

“From now on, I’m not a Sterling. You won’t have to worry about me tarnishing the family name. Are you satisfied now?”

Two thousand dollars. I wondered if, after they cremated my sister, there would be enough left to cremate me, too. Without Nina, there was no reason to keep living.

Before they could respond, a saccharine female voice cut in from the doorway.

“Scarlett, you’re breaking Mom and Dad’s hearts!”

I turned my head, my face devoid of expression, and looked at Stella. She was dressed in an expensive couture princess dress, a Kelly bag worth tens of thousands dangling from her arm. I glanced down at my own clothes: a t-shirt my neighbor had thrown out, shoes I’d salvaged from a dumpster, and a cloth bag I’d gotten for free during a part-time gig.

These were my parents. They would spend millions coddling their adopted daughter but wouldn't spare two thousand for their biological one.

Even the feed was outraged on my behalf.

Stella’s face was a picture of earnest concern. “Scarlett, I saw you and Nina at the hospital this morning, buying fake medical records. How can you say she’s dead now?”

She turned to my parents. “Since Scarlett wants to cut ties, maybe you should just let her. We can… we can just pretend this is another test.”

I laughed again, this time in weary defeat. How could she lie so effortlessly about things that never happened? I was exhausted. I tried to defend myself one last time.

“You’re so powerful. Why don’t you just check the hospital records? See if a patient named Nina Sterling died there. Then you’ll know who’s lying!”

But my mother’s trust in Stella was absolute. “Stella isn’t like you. Would she lie to us? Nina is your own sister, and you keep talking about her being dead. Are you trying to curse her, or us?”

“You get Nina out here to apologize right now, or she’ll never see another cent of allowance from us again!”

I looked up at the feed scrolling in my vision. They were all angry for me, trying to comfort me, suggesting solutions.

But I was completely numb. I had stopped expecting them to understand a long time ago.

When Nina had the accident, I had begged them for the money. They had turned it into a test and refused to pay. Nina had clung to life for three days on a gurney in a hospital hallway before she finally gave up.

In a way, we were all free now. As soon as I laid Nina to rest, I would go and join her.

I just never imagined I wouldn’t even have the money to say goodbye.

As despair washed over me, my father snorted. “Since you know about the tests, fine. I’ll give you one last chance. Pass this test, and I’ll give you your two thousand dollars.”