Chapter 3

My senior year of high school, Lydia finally showed her fangs.

"Emma, honey, it's not that I don't want to help you."

"It's just that compensation money... your uncle lost it in a business deal."

At the dinner table, Lydia cut a piece of cake for my cousin without even glancing at me.

"Girls don't need that much education anyway."

"There's a widower in the next town looking for a young wife. He's offering eighty thousand dollars."

"Go meet him. If it works out, we can even help your cousin with a down payment."

I slammed my bowl down hard on the table.

"That's MY money! That's money Mom traded her LIFE for!"

"That's my tuition!"

"Smack!"

Uncle Robert slapped me across the face.

"We feed you and house you, and you dare talk back?"

"You don't get a say in this! You're going on that date tomorrow!"

I clutched my face and ran out the door.

The world was vast, yet I had nowhere to go.

I sat on the stone steps by the river, staring at the pitch-black water, thinking about jumping in and ending it all.

Suddenly, a jacket reeking of tobacco was draped over my shoulders.

I whirled around in fear.

It was Jake.

His face was bruised, his mouth still swollen, like he'd just been in a fight.

I shrank back in terror.

"What do you want?!"

Jake didn't say anything. He pulled an envelope from his jacket and tossed it in my lap.

The envelope was thick and heavy.

"Take it."

His voice was rough, like he was speaking through hot coals.

"What for? Trying to buy me off?"

I threw the envelope back at him, disgust all over my face.

"You two are disgusting. Done selling the sister, now you want to buy the other one?"

A vein throbbed at Jake's temple.

He took a deep breath, as if suppressing his rage.

"This is from your sister."

"She heard you needed tuition money, so she sold..."

He stopped, his eyes flickering.

"Sold what?"

I laughed coldly.

"Her body?"

Jake actually slapped me too.

This slap was even harder than Uncle Robert's. My ears rang.

"Emma, you're an ungrateful piece of garbage!"

Jake pointed at my nose and cursed.

"Your sister nearly killed herself for you, and you're acting all high and mighty?"

"What did she sell? She sold her blood! Her hair! She worked in sweatshops folding boxes until her fingers rotted!"

"All to scrape together your tuition money!"

I froze.

Looking at the envelope on the ground, an inexplicable sourness welled up in my heart.

But I quickly pushed it down.

"I don't need it."

I stood up and kicked the envelope into the river.

"I'd rather starve to death than spend a murderer's money."

The envelope floated on the water's surface for a moment, then sank.

Jake stared at the river, his eyes frighteningly red.

He didn't hit me. He just looked at me with the gaze one gives a corpse.

"Fine. Emma, remember what you said today."

"Even if you get on your knees and beg me later, I'll never let your sister lay eyes on you again."

He turned and walked away.

His silhouette melted into the night like a wounded lone wolf.

I stood by the river, the cold wind cutting through me.

I thought I'd won.

I thought I'd held my ground.

Until the next day, when Uncle Robert forcibly dragged me into a van outside the school gates.