“Isn’t that the girl who was brought back later? Leaving her own father passed out at the banquet? No wonder children who weren’t raised by their parents don’t feel close to them, even if they share blood.”
“Poor President Hopkins, drinking himself half-dead for that ungrateful child.”
I glanced at Brielle.
“He drank himself sick for us, or only for you?”
Brielle went frozen. “Sister!”
She held onto me. “Why can’t you see Dad’s thoughts?”
“I ranked in the top fifty thousand in the state. My future chances are naturally better than yours, so of course I can support you later!”
“Support me?”
I lifted the school’s honor roll.
“You think a Western Meridian University admit like me needs your support for anything?”
Brielle’s breath caught. She opened the school page with shaking hands.
Seeing my name on the honor roll, her voice trembled. “You’re… eighth in the state?”
“That can’t be…”
“You studied in a small-town school your whole life, you couldn’t even pay for tutors…”
I gave a cold laugh.
Maybe Mom and Dad thought the same way. They never even checked the school’s honor roll.
They simply believed I couldn’t ever outscore Brielle.
I turned and walked off, ignoring her yelling behind me.