Chapter 1

The year I start 7th grade, my parents sit my brother and me down and hand us each a bank card.

"This is your college fund. We've put 100,000 dollars in each account.

"The PIN is your birthday. Don't touch it unless you absolutely have to."

I listen to them, treating that card like something sacred. I never even buy a single new outfit. When my canvas shoes wear through, I glue the soles back together and keep wearing them.

I tell myself that as long as I'm responsible enough, I'll deserve the "fairness" my parents promise us.

Then senior year ends, and I decide to use the money for a graduation trip with my classmates. Yet the ATM screen displays, "Available Balance: 0.00".

At that exact moment, my brother posts a picture of a first-class ticket to Velmark on Instagram.

It hits me all at once. There are two identical cards, but only my brother's has ever had real money in it. My parents have used a worthless card to fool me for six whole years, buying my obedience and my entire adolescence for nothing.

If they refuse to keep things fair, then I'll smash the whole facade apart myself.

Chapter 1

When my scores came back, I found out I'd placed in the top ten across the whole district.

Our class president organized a graduation trip to Pinehaven, which worked out to about 3,000 dollars a person. It was the first time in my life I'd ever felt the urge to go out and see something of the world.

So, I carefully took out the bank card I'd kept in perfect condition all these years. My parents gave it to my brother and me back in 7th grade, right in front of all our relatives. They called them our "college fund" cards.

"100,000 dollars each. We're being completely fair!

"Boys need to learn about the world. Once you're in college, this money will keep you from getting tempted by all the material stuff out there."

My brother, Joseph Steele, took his card and immediately went out and bought the newest phone and a pair of designer shoes.

Meanwhile, I hid mine away.

Growing up, my parents always told me how hard they worked for their money, how I'd been a sickly kid who cost them a fortune in medical bills. I felt guilty about that, so I never touched a cent on that card.

All three years of high school, I ate the cheapest option in the cafeteria and wore my brother's hand-me-downs. Even when a fever hit so hard that my head felt like it was splitting open, I couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of Tylenol.

But today, I wanted to treat myself just this once. It was only 3,000 dollars. I'd save the remaining 97,000 dollars for four years of college tuition.

I walked to the ATM on the corner with my heart racing and slid the card in. I typed in my birthday as the PIN. The screen loaded, and I pressed "Check Balance".

I expected to see a reassuring number. Instead, the screen read, "Available Balance: $0.00".

I froze, sure my eyes were playing tricks on me, and rubbed them hard. It still read zero.

I fumbled to take the card out, moved to a different machine, and inserted it again. I typed in the PIN and checked the balance.

It still said, "Available Balance: $0.00".

How was this possible? I hadn't touched this card once in six years. Had someone stolen the money?

But that was 100,000 dollars of my parents' hard-earned savings!

I broke into a cold sweat, yanked the card out, and rushed straight into the bank next door.

"Excuse me, could you check the transaction history on this card?" I handed the card and my ID to the teller.

"I need to know when the 100,000 dollars was transferred out. I think it might've been stolen."

The teller took the card and typed away at his computer. Then he looked up at me with an odd expression.

"Kid, are you sure you've got the right card?"

"Yes!" I said. "My parents gave me this card six years ago. There's supposed to be 100,000 dollars in it!"

The teller sighed and turned the screen toward me. "See for yourself.

"This card hasn't had a single deposit since it was opened six years ago, aside from the 10-dollar activation fee when the account was set up. Even that 10 dollars was withdrawn the very next day.

"So for the past six years, this has been a completely empty card."

My mind went blank.

Joseph's card had real money in it, so why was mine empty?

In a daze, my mind drifted back to the winter of sophomore year. The old puffer jacket I'd been wearing—something Joseph had thrown out—had a huge hole in it, and the cold wind cut straight through.

Freezing and unable to take it anymore, I asked Dad to buy me a winter coat. He yelled at me for wasting money and told me to just patch the jacket up.

I remembered feeling so wronged. Joseph asked them for spending money all the time—50 dollars here, 100 dollars there, yet they never even blinked before handing it over. Why was it different when it came to me?

But I didn't dare talk back. I turned to go to my room, planning to withdraw 200 dollars from the card instead. The second Dad saw what I was doing, his expression shifted, and he let out a scoff.

"Let me remind you that 100,000 in your card is everything you'll have for college, tuition, living expenses, all of it.

"If you blow it now just to live it up and then can't afford school later on, don't come crying to us. We won't be giving you a single cent more."

Chapter 2

I was young then, and Dad's words scared me into believing I'd have no money for school if I weren't careful.

So I wore that torn puffer jacket through the entire winter, surviving on nothing but sheer stubbornness. My hands broke out in chilblains so bad that even holding a pen sent a stabbing pain through them.

The memory brought a wave of angry betrayal flooding through me. I pulled out my phone and called Mom.

The phone rang for a long time with no answer. At that moment, I recalled something.

A week ago, Mom and Dad had left on a trip overseas with Joseph. They'd deliberately chosen to leave on the day Grandma called me over to help her clean, just so I wouldn't tag along. The three of them were probably having the time of their lives right about now.

I called three more times before Mom finally picked up.

"What is it now?" Mom's voice carried a thin edge of irritation.

"Mom," I said, fighting to keep the trembling and the tears out of my voice, "I went to the bank and checked.

"That card has been empty since the day it was opened six years ago. There was never 100,000 dollars in it."

The other end of the line went dead silent. After a long pause, Mom cleared her throat. Her tone turned evasive, tinged with guilt.

"Oh… You went and checked.

"Well, the thing is, back then your dad and I had some business expenses, and we were short on cash. We owed some debts.

"We didn't have a choice, so we used your share first. We were planning to pay it back once things picked up, but then we got busy, and it just slipped our minds."

The moment I heard that, the tears came pouring out, streaming down my cheeks and hitting the ground. I choked out the words, practically begging as I asked her, "Mom, if the family was in debt and you needed money to pay it off, then why did you only take mine?

"Even if you and Dad had taken 50,000 from each of us, even if you'd split it down the middle, I would've accepted that!

"Why did you use an empty card to lie to me for six years? Why does Joseph's card actually have 100,000 dollars in it?"

By the end, I'd completely lost control, and my voice rose to a shout.

They'd lied to me for six years. How could they do that? If they'd just told me the truth back then, I wouldn't be this angry.

Instead, Dad's voice came through, furious.

"Simon Steele! What the hell are you screaming about?

"Your brother has been raised as the one who'll carry this family forward. He needs money for networking and socializing. How's he supposed to get by without it?

"You're tough. You barely spend anything anyway, so we used your share. So what? Are you really going to sit there and feel sorry for yourself?

"We raised you, fed you, and put clothes on your back. Now you have the nerve to nickel-and-dime your own father over some money?"

I cried into the phone, "But you said that was my college fund! You took the money, so how am I supposed to pay for school now?"

"How? Figure it out yourself!" Dad scoffed, his voice dripping with contempt. "You're almost 18 years old, and you still expect this family to carry you forever? You're nothing but a selfish, ungrateful little leech.

"I'm telling you right now, from today on, we're not spending a single cent on you. Go get a job and earn your own tuition."

Then he hung up.

I stood there, frozen in place, cold all the way through.

That was when my phone lit up with a notification. Joseph had posted on Instagram.

In the photos, he was wearing an expensive arctic parka, standing under the Northern Lights in Velmark.

The caption read, "Shoutout to the best parents in the world for giving me my travel fund. 100,000 was enough to see the whole world! Love you guys!"

I looked at Joseph's beaming smile in the photos, then down at the bank card in my hand with its zero balance. I couldn't even cry anymore.

For six years, I'd believed that being good and being frugal meant I was doing my part for this family.

But it turned out my parents never saw me at all.

Chapter 3

I knew my parents. When they said they wouldn't pay for my college tuition, they meant they wouldn't pay a single cent.

So the next morning, I headed out into the sweltering heat.

The semester had just ended, and every student in town was looking for summer work, so the decent gigs were long gone. I went door to door down the main strip, asking at every place I passed.

"Are you guys hiring for the summer? I can do anything, dishes, busing tables, whatever you need."

After more than a dozen rejections, an upscale seafood restaurant finally took me on.

"80 dollars a day, lunch included. Shift runs from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm. Take it or leave it," Rick Weaver, the manager, said as he looked me over.

"I'll take it." I didn't hesitate.

80 dollars a day for two months would barely cover my first year of tuition and housing.

The work was harder than I'd imagined. I was on my feet the entire shift, carrying heavy trays back and forth between private dining rooms. The grease and smoke from the kitchen stung my eyes until I could barely keep them open, and my hands broke out in blisters from the burns.

But I gritted my teeth and pushed through, because I had no other option.

Two weeks later, my acceptance letter arrived. I'd gotten into one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, just like I'd hoped. Joseph, on the other hand, only got into some no-name school nobody had ever heard of.

But when Mom, Dad, and Joseph came back from their trip, they didn't say a single word about my acceptance.

One afternoon, the restaurant was slammed. Rick came rushing into the kitchen and shoved a platter of the house signature, garlic butter king crab, into my hands.

"Simon, hurry! Get this to the main VIP room!

"That's our biggest client today. They booked the whole room for a college acceptance dinner, so don't mess this up!"

I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my shoulder, steadied the heavy tray, and headed down the hallway toward the most expensive room at the far end.

"Excuse me, your garlic butter king crab is—"

I put on a smile and started to announce the dish, but the words died in my throat the moment I saw who was inside.

The room was lit up and packed with two full tables of people, every single one of them a relative I knew by heart. Mom and Dad sat at the head of the table with Joseph between them, dressed up like some young heir.

It turned out they'd thrown Joseph a college acceptance dinner. They'd invited all these relatives, and the only person they hadn't told was their own son.

My uncle, Robert Banks, was the first to notice me. His eyes went wide as he blurted out, "Simon? It's your brother's celebration dinner. What are you doing here serving plates?"

The laughter and chatter in the room cut off instantly. Every pair of eyes locked onto me.

There I stood in an ill-fitting server's uniform, my hair plastered to my face with sweat. The contrast between me and Joseph, who was polished and gleaming, was brutal.

Still, I clenched my jaw and forced myself to walk to the table, setting the platter of king crab down with steady hands.

Before I could say a word, Dad shot to his feet. "You ungrateful little bastard! You dressed up like some beggar and came here on purpose to humiliate us, didn't you!"

Then he turned to face the relatives, wearing the look of a man bitterly disappointed in his own son.

"Everyone here knows we gave each of our boys a 100,000-dollar education fund. We were completely fair!

"Joseph took his money and went overseas, broadened his horizons, and came back a better man. But this one?

"He took his 100,000 dollars and blew every cent of it running around with lowlifes, wasting his time at pool halls and clubs!

"Now that he's burned through all of it, he's here busing tables and playing the victim, trying to make us look bad in front of all of you!"

Chapter 4

The room erupted into murmurs, and every relative turned to stare at me with open contempt.

"My God, he blew through 100,000 dollars? He looks so well-behaved, but he's rotten to the core!"

"So what if he got into a good school? With character like that, who'd ever trust him with anything?"

I was shaking with anger as I shouted, "I didn't! There was never any money on that card! It was empty the whole time!"

"Enough!" Mom slammed her hand on the table.

"You do something wrong, then have the nerve to lie about it? How did this family raise such a shameless bastard?"

Joseph stood up and walked over to me, putting on the act of a concerned older brother. "Come on, just stop making Mom and Dad angry.

"They worked really hard to save that 100,000 dollars, and you burned through every cent. Can you blame them for being upset?

"Besides, you've never worked a day in your life. You're probably just getting in the boss' way."

As he spoke, he stepped in close, blocking most of the relatives' view with his body, and dropped his voice so only I could hear.

"You idiot. You still don't get it? Mom and Dad don't love you.

"Those two cards only exist because I asked for my own savings account when I was a kid, and they put on that whole show so nobody could say they were playing favorites.

"They lied to you so it'd look fair. It's been six years, and you're only figuring this out now."

Then he reached down and dug his fingers into the soft flesh at my waist, twisting hard.

The sharp stab of pain made me gasp and flinch backward. The instant the gap opened between us, Joseph threw himself to the ground in an exaggerated fall.

"Joseph!" Mom cried out and rushed over, dropping to her knees to help him up.

Before I could even open my mouth to explain, Dad's palm cracked across my face.

"You animal! Your brother tries to talk some sense into you, and you put your hands on him?"

I held my stinging cheek, my ears ringing.

"Where's the manager? Get your boss out here right now!" Mom propped up Joseph, who was still putting on his act, and screamed toward the door.

Rick came running in at the commotion.

"What kind of people are you hiring? A server who assaults your guests? I want him fired immediately!

"And the bill for tonight, plus my son's medical expenses, all of it comes out of his paycheck! Don't you dare pay him a single cent!"

Rick looked terrified. He apologized over and over, then turned and glared at me. "Simon! I'm so disappointed in you. Do you have any idea what it means to offend a VIP client like this?

"Take off that uniform and get out! Your entire month's pay is gone. Every cent of it goes toward compensating the guests."

I didn't say a word. I just stared at my parents.

They were truly ruthless. Not only had they strung me along for six years with an empty card, but they'd also smeared my name in front of every relative we had. And now they were hitting me and taking the wages I'd been killing myself to earn for tuition, without even bothering to hear my side.

Whatever attachment I'd still had to this family vanished completely.

I slowly straightened up, reached into my pocket, and pulled out the empty bank card along with a printed transaction statement from the bank.

"Before I go, let's settle this six-year tab once and for all."

My calm demeanor threw Mom off. Her face tightened, and she snapped at me, trying to keep her composure. "What are you waving an empty card around for? You already spent all the money! Stop embarrassing yourself!"

I let out a cold laugh, walked right past her, and handed the statement to Great-Aunt Martha, the most respected person in the room.

"Great-Aunt Martha, would you read this bank statement out loud for everyone?

"Let them all hear exactly how much money was ever deposited into this card over the past six years."