Chapter 2

Celia's POV

"And you'd better give Jill the money she deserves," Chayce continued. "Or I'll make sure you regret it!"

With that, he wrapped an arm around the sobbing Jill and walked away without even a glance back.

I collapsed onto the ground, staring at their retreating figures. Around me, students leaving the exam site and their parents cast strange looks at me. Their hushed whispers pierced my ears like needles.

The sunlight was blindingly bright, yet my entire body felt icy cold.

This was the little brother I'd given everything to raise. This was the little brother I'd been willing to sacrifice everything for.

I sat there on the ground, laughing and crying at the same time. Tears mixed with the blood on my scraped palm until I could no longer tell which pain was worse.

…

I walked home in a daze. Along the way, Chayce's words kept replaying in my mind.

He said he'd handed in blank exams. He said he was going to spend the next four years just hanging around with Jill. He said if I didn't give Jill the money, he'd make me regret it.

Every sentence felt like a knife that repeatedly carved into my heart.

It wasn't until I reached our apartment that I finally understood what he meant by making me regret it.

My clothes, shoes, and toiletries had all been thrown into the hallway. Even the family portrait that I'd always treasured above everything else had been smashed onto the floor, the frame shattered into pieces.

That was the last photograph of our family of four.

These past years, when I felt like I couldn't carry on anymore, that was the only keepsake I had that I could look at.

But now, it lay broken, discarded in the hallway like trash.

The sight made my blood freeze solid with anger.

I raised my hand and pounded heavily on the door.

After a moment, the door swung open. "Who is it?"

The person who opened the door was none other than Jill. She didn't look guilty in the slightest when she saw me. Instead, her gaze was filled with disdain.

"Oh? What are you doing here?"

I stared at her, doing everything I could to keep my emotions under control. But my hands wouldn't stop shaking.

"This is my home. What? I need to let you know before I come home? And who gave you the right to throw my things out?"

Jill leaned casually against the doorframe, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"Oh, I told Chayce to throw them out," she said flippantly. "After all, it's not appropriate for an outsider like you to keep living here."

Outsider? She was calling me an outsider? This was my home. This was the apartment my parents had left behind, the home where Chayce and I had lived together for all these years.

She, a girlfriend he'd only known for a short while, was actually standing in my doorway, calling me an outsider?

My whole body trembled. I tried to push past her and go inside, but she shoved me hard. Caught off guard, I stumbled backward and slammed into the hallway wall. The back of my head cracked against the wall, and a buzz rang in my ears.

For a split second, everything went black.

"You—"

I'd barely opened my mouth when a familiar voice came from inside.

"Stop making a scene, Celia."

Chayce walked out. He wrapped an arm around Jill's waist and looked down at me from above, as if I were some stranger who'd come to their doorstep to cause trouble.

"This is my apartment. And in the future, it'll be mine and Jill's home. So of course she can do whatever she wants."

I froze. It felt as though something heavy had slammed into my chest. The pain was so sharp I could barely stay on my feet.

But he wasn't finished.

"Besides, the assets our parents left behind after they died are supposed to go to me anyway. After all, I'm the son—the pillar of the family.

"I've already been generous enough to let you stay here for free all these years."

He said those words completely unapologetically, as though I'd truly taken massive advantage of him.

I opened my mouth, wanting to say something, but my throat felt as if something had been lodged inside, and I couldn't squeeze out even a single word.

I couldn't believe my little brother—the boy I had raised since he was ten years old, the same child who used to cling to me and cry, saying, "You're all I have, Celia"—was actually saying those words.

Now, he was standing in front of me, basically saying that I'd been freeloading off him, and how he'd already been more than generous to me.

Jill picked up right where he left off, raising her fingers as she started calculating.

"You've lived here for seven years. Let's say the rent is 3,000 dollars a month. That's 36,000 dollars a year, which brings us to 252,000 dollars for seven years. And that's not even including utilities or property management fees."

She looked up at me with a smug smile.

"So, when do you plan to pay us for that?"