Aunt Grace sent Stella abroad early to polish her credentials, despite Stella's grades being abysmal. When I got accepted to a top university, my mother blocked me from going. "Degrees are worthless these days. You'd be better off working a factory line."
If it weren't for the school principal and my teachers showing up one after another to talk sense into her, I'd have dropped out long ago.
So no—her reaching this level of cruelty didn't surprise me. Not one bit.
I was tired. Numb. Done fighting.
I turned and walked into my room.
She followed me to the doorway.
"Sweetheart, I'm doing this for your own good."
"Why would a girl like you want to kill herself working at some big company? Better to find an honest man and settle into a real life."
"Your cousin snagged a rich boy—sure, looks glamorous on the surface. But playboys get bored. Sooner or later, he'll toss her aside."
She said this with an easy smile. Perfectly at peace.
And me? I felt like a fishbone had lodged in my throat.
Couldn't cough it up. Couldn't swallow it down.
She was the only family I had in this world.