For an instant, delight flashed in my father's eyes. He hid it fast, but not fast enough. I caught it.
Afraid I'd notice, he rushed into that fake, syrupy tone of his.
"Why give up on the university?"
"Once your legs heal, you can still—"
"Even when they heal, I'll be walking with a limp for the rest of my life."
"I don't want to go anymore."
To protect myself, I had no choice but to make up reasons in front of them, buying whatever time I could.
And since my father hadn't picked up on the fact that I knew their secret, he let his guard down.
"Good girl. You've really had a hard time of it."
"If you don't want to go, then don't. With your grades you can still get into a decent school right here in the city."
I used being hungry as an excuse and sent them out to buy me some food.
Once they left, I checked again and again that they were really gone, then quickly called my boyfriend, Herbert Mason.
The moment the call connected, everything I'd been holding in broke loose.
Hearing me cry, Herbert panicked.
"Vic, what's wrong?"
"Did someone hurt you?"
I cried for a long time before I could steady myself, because Herbert was the last person I could trust.
"My legs are broken. My father hired someone to run me down."
Tears slid down my face and into my mouth, bitter, so bitter it filled me with despair for my whole life.
On the other end, Herbert went quiet for a moment, then spoke with anger in his voice.
"Vic, are you absolutely sure it was him who had someone break your legs?"
"He said it himself."
"Damn it. Even a vicious animal doesn't devour its own young. Why would he destroy you?"
"Because I got into an Ivy League school!"
"What the hell? Getting in like that should've made him proud of the whole family."
"Because my stepsister got eaten up with jealousy. She couldn't even get into college, so she wasn't about to let me go to a place like that."
"So she threatened to kill herself unless my father broke my legs. Once I can't walk, there's no way I'm going to that university."
Herbert cursed, full of fury, then poured out a stream of words about how much it hurt him to see me like this.
But all I wanted was for him to pull me out of this hell. I would go to that university, but only after I made sure my legs were safe.
Herbert said he'd come get me the moment I was discharged, that he wouldn't let me go back to that cold, suffocating house.
After the call ended, Silvia Henson pushed the door open and walked in.
The second she saw me, she put on a mask of fake sympathy. "Oh dear! Sister, whatever will you do now?"
"You worked so hard for so long to finally get in, and who'd have thought, one little celebration and you get hit by a car."
"If you can't walk, you can't go. Just thinking about it, how painful."
"So you see, people really ought to keep a low profile. You mustn't get too full of yourself."
Then she covered her mouth and snickered.
Whenever no one else was around, this was always how she treated me.
In the past I'd have blown up at her on the spot, but it always ended the same way, with my father siding with my stepmother, both of them ganging up to scold me for being immature, for picking on someone younger.
Now I was completely alone. I couldn't afford to go head to head with them anymore.
I said nothing. I closed my eyes and lay back down.
But Silvia wasn't about to pass up such a perfect chance to mock me.
"Tsk, tsk. Are you angry?"
"I'm only telling the truth."
She was about to say more when Herbert arrived.
"What are you two talking about?"
