After deleting the message.
I looked at the wall plastered with awards and certificates. Nothing stirred inside me.
Two years ago, my grades had earned me a full scholarship to college.
The talent I'd demonstrated caught the attention of a professor.
He broke protocol and brought me onto the university's research team.
After that.
I single-handedly solved a critical problem that had stumped the team for five years. It took me a few months.
To protect me, the professor kept the truth from the public.
Then, later.
He recommended me for a mysterious research team.
But joining meant severing all contact with family.
I refused without hesitation.
I wanted greater achievements, yes, but my family was the reason I pushed myself. If the price was giving them up, I couldn't pay it.
Now I had no such reservations.
They didn't love me.
I was nothing to them.
So I would disappear.
The next day.
Mom and Dad woke me before work, same as always, told me to make breakfast. I showed them nothing unusual. I cooked for them the way I always did.
They saw nothing off about me and left reassured.
Before heading out, Dad reminded me：“If I find out you've been playing video games, I'll break your legs.”
Then they left.
I didn't go to school that day.
I followed them instead.
They left the apartment on a beaten-up old bicycle. But less than two hundred yards from the complex, they stopped.
They tossed the bicycle aside and climbed into a Rolls-Royce.
My sister got in too.
I followed the whole way.
They said they were dropping my sister off at school. They'd always told me she attended some public elementary school on government aid. But now I saw the truth. She went to an elite private academy.
Tuition alone ran hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
I watched my sister change into an expensive school uniform and wave goodbye to Mom and Dad with a bright smile on her face.
My resolve to leave hardened into something final.
After the Rolls-Royce pulled away and disappeared down the road.
I turned around and went home.
I packed light.
The agent called. He was waiting for me in a car by the curb.
Before I left, I took one long look at this home I had studied so hard for, worked so hard to deserve.
“Mom. Dad. Letitia.”
“Goodbye.”
“No.”
“It should be……goodbye forever.”
I set the house key on the table, eyes steady, and shut the door.
I walked away without looking back.
From now on.
They'd never have to pretend to be poor in front of me again.
