Smiling proudly at the corners of his lips, he handed me the phone with a shove. “See? You can’t make it anywhere you go. The only place you can return to is me.”
“Evie, we’re real siblings. The path I set for you is the best one!”
While he talked, he brushed my messy, dirt-covered hair.
His hand came away gray with dust, but he didn’t care at all; instead, he gladly held my hand. “Come on, go home with me. Don’t make me lose you again.”
I stayed still.
Upon turning back in confusion, he saw my gaze, cold and without emotion.
“Jude, what do I have to do for you to stop holding on to me?”
He didn’t think he had done anything wrong. His smile faded with displeasure.
“What do you mean by letting you go? Haven’t I treated you well?”
“I’ve been searching for you for more than twenty days. Do you know how much money I lost not running the company?”
He pulled me hard without asking. “Go home with me!”
He pushed me into the car and dragged me back once again.
On the way, he picked up a phone call.
After dropping me at home, he hurried to the company, telling Rosie to keep me from slipping away.
Once he left, Rosie’s face shifted immediately. “Bitch! Brother actually brought you back again? Even now, he still cares about you?”
I held back the urge to hit her and finally asked the question I had held in for three years.
“Why did you set me up for stealing? I treated you pretty well all these years, didn’t I?”
She let out a cold laugh, her gaze turned cold. “Who told you to tell brother not to spend money on me?”
“He already said the company will be yours later, not mine.”
“You had a brother backing you up, but you wouldn’t let him spend even a bit on me. Why did you get everything?”
I curled my fingers.
“As for how he earned his money, he hadn’t gone to college. Everyone in the company looked down on him, so he pushed himself even more.”
“About those old scumbag, they forced him to drink at every event. He had to vomit until he was shaking and then keep drinking. He even vomited blood.”
“But you? Every time you speak, you ask for hundreds of thousands, millions. What brother wouldn’t feel pained? I only told him not to spend so much on you. What’s wrong with it?”
“So what? He doesn’t make money for me anyway.”
While admiring her freshly done nails, Rosie remained entirely unconcerned.
“If he drinks himself to death, the company wouldn’t be mine. Only if you’re gone will I maybe get something.”
I watched her in disbelief, my whole body going cold. I had thought she framed me because she wanted my brother’s care.
I never imagined that the only thing she valued… was money.
“You really are ungrateful.”
I clenched my teeth and headed toward the bedroom.
Behind me, she smirked. “I framed you once. I can do it a second time, a third time.”
“Just wait, Evie. I’ll drive you out again!”
My steps stopped.
I turned back and looked at her for a long moment, then switched off my phone’s recording.
“No need. I’ll leave on my own.”
I sent the recording to Jude.
With that lesson learned, I stopped letting Rosie frame me over and over.
I had switched on the recorder the moment we got home.
She didn’t know, thinking I was only talking in anger, and she walked off, smirking to her room.
My phone started buzzing nonstop.
Messages from Jude, one after another, urgent, panicked. I glanced once, then ignored them.
Instead, I pulled my father’s belongings from under the bed, slid them into my pocket, and walked out of the house.
Louie would be released soon. I was going to pick him up.
