After Losing Us Both

I was alone in a strange city. When I opened the door at eleven in the morning, I wasn't prepared at all.

But the moment I saw that couple standing outside, my heart dropped.

My first instinct was to run.

Run, fast.

Otherwise, they'd send me back to that godforsaken mountain valley again.

I didn't think about anything else. I turned to grab my sister's ashes.

But I had barely taken one step before someone seized my arm.

I was wrenched around, and the next second, a slap landed hard across my face.

"You're running now? Now you know fear? Where was that fear when you and your sister skipped school together?

"I sent you to a hard place on purpose, so you could lose that arrogance, work hard, and prepare for your exams. If I hadn't seen your comment on Jenna's post, I'd have thought you two had finally gone quiet because you'd learned to try!"

Looking at that man's flushed, furious face, a chill rose inside me.

He was my father.

But it was exactly that title that gave him the nerve to hurt us without restraint.

"Where's your sister? Call her back.

"I went to so much trouble for both of you, and this is how you repay me? By skipping school? Claire always had even more tricks than you. You never picked up a single good habit, only the bad ones!"

He could hit me and curse me all he wanted.

But the second he mentioned my sister, I stiffened my neck and lifted my head.

If they hadn't been insane enough to believe my sister and I would turn into gold diggers just because we were born rich, my sister never would have died.

"What are you looking at me like that for?"

My stare enraged him. His hand rose again.

"So I can't keep you in line anymore? Go apologize to Jenna right now, or I'll make sure you feel real pain today.

"I'll teach you that sparing the rod only spoils the child!"

Hit. Apologize.

The first half of Claire's life and mine had almost been buried under those two words.

Seeing my temper flare, my mother finally stepped in to smooth things over.

"Clara, listen to your father. Call Claire out and apologize to Jenna, both of you. Then this whole thing is over.

"Your father and I are truly disappointed in you this time. If we hadn't looked into it, we still wouldn't know you never even took the exams and ran off in secret!"

Ha.

Was it that we didn't want to take the exams?

It was clearly because we'd been kidnapped by traffickers.

My chest rose and fell violently, and I couldn't hold back anymore.

"You want me to apologize? Never. I'd rather die than apologize!"

My father's eyes widened, and his slap came down at once.

"I'll ask you one last time. Are you apologizing or not?"

His eyes were sharp, the pressure suffocating.

My face had gone numb from the beating, but I forced myself up. I walked into the kitchen and came back with a knife.

My father narrowed his eyes in disbelief. The finger he pointed at me trembled slightly.

"Are you trying to kill your mother and me?

"Good thing Jenna suggested we send you somewhere hard enough to straighten you out. Otherwise you'd really grow up to turn on your own parents for the family fortune!"

I looked at him calmly.

"When Claire and I were little, you were both busy with the business. We grew up on instant noodles.

"What luxury did we ever enjoy in this family? What terrible thing did we ever do, to make the two of you imagine your own daughters this way?"

My father's voice rose. "You bullied Jenna! She's your cousin, you're family!"

"That was all a lie! Jenna framed Claire and me on purpose, because she wanted you to love her best!"

For so long, Claire's death had been the boulder pressing on my heart.

My father's next words came out cold through clenched teeth.

"You still don't see what you did wrong."

I pointed at my own head.

"Then beat me to death.

"You were going to beat me to death, weren't you? Go ahead."

Claire was gone anyway.

I had no reason to live then.