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Enrolling in the institute's classified partnership program meant the institute covered room, board, and tuition, and paid a one-time buyout of five hundred thousand dollars on top of that.
It was exactly enough to cover the raising costs I owed Mom and Dad, so I could cut ties with this family for good.
The truth was, the moment I learned I'd been swapped at birth, I'd decided to leave.
Back then Mom held onto me tight and wouldn't let me go.
"Eve, you've been my daughter for fifteen years. Blood or no blood, you're still my daughter."
Zachary snatched my suitcase away.
"Evelyn! You're the only sister I've got! You're not going anywhere!"
Dad came in from outside holding the adoption papers he'd had drawn up at the mayor's office.
"Eve, you're a Chilton. You're our daughter."
"I sent someone to track down your birth parents. They're from the next town over. They gave away all three of your older sisters before you, and only kept a son."
"This is your home. Just settle in and stay."
I hadn't wanted to leave in the first place, so I stayed.
But to coax Lesley back into the family, and to keep from putting Mom and Dad in a hard spot, I had to play the unwanted one.
Except three years went by, and by now I could no longer tell where the pretending ended and the truth began.
That night I made a pack of instant ramen for dinner.
In Mom's ledger I wrote: "$3, one pack of instant ramen."
Everything I used in this house had to be logged.
It was the middle of the night before they finally came home.
I was woken by Lesley's excited shrieking.
"Mom, I love you to death, this necklace costs fifteen hundred and you still bought it for me."
Mom's voice was all indulgence.
"Whatever you want, Mom will buy it for you."
"So you love Mom now and not me? And here somebody's feet were sore, and who was it that carried her the whole way?"
"Oh, my sweet brother, I love you too."
Dad laughed out loud.
"Fifi, then what about me?"
"Dad, brother, Mom, I love all of you!"
There was a door between us and I couldn't see a thing, but I still couldn't stop my mind from filling in the cozy, happy scene on the other side of it.
I pulled the blanket over my head and forced myself not to listen, not to think.
A while later there was a knock at my door. Mom.
"Evelyn, are you asleep?"
I pretended to sleep and didn't answer.
A few seconds later the door opened and something was set down beside my pillow.
Mom said softly,
"A present for you. Goodnight."
Only after the door closed again did I open my eyes.
By the moonlight coming through the window, I made out the gift Mom had left me.
It was a simple necklace.
Something in me went warm, and I reached to put it on.
The tag on the clasp slipped into view.
【Clearance item: $2】
My hands froze on the necklace. I hesitated, and in the end I put it on anyway.
After all, it was the first present Mom had given me in three years.
Early the next morning I got up as usual to make breakfast for the whole family.
Lesley passed by the kitchen, caught sight of the necklace at my throat, and suddenly yelped.
"Zach, come look, you lost the bet!"
"Evelyn's wearing the necklace!"
Zachary came out of his room rubbing his eyes, his gaze landed on the necklace, and his mouth twisted.
"You win, a bet's a bet. I'll send you the two thousand right now."
He set his phone down, his whole face full of disgust.
"You'd actually wear a two-dollar necklace? You really are cheap."
Lesley was holding back a laugh.
"It looks pretty good on you, though."
Hearing that, Mom quickly warned Lesley,
"Fifi, your skin is delicate, you can't just go wearing cheap junk like that."
I pretended I needed the bathroom, went in, took off the necklace, and dropped it in the trash.
When it was done, I looked at myself in the mirror.
"Evelyn, time to give up now. There was never a place in this family for you."
