3: 3
Seeing that I really meant to leave, my mother stepped in front of me again. "What is wrong with you? You throw a fit over a few words and now you want to walk out?"
"We already agreed to pay you the tutoring money, so why are you still making a scene?"
I gave a cold laugh. "The money you're offering isn't tutoring money."
"Two months for fifteen hundred dollars, like your sister-in-law said, that's a plain homework club. Dozens of kids in one class, they just make sure the students finish their assignments. There's no real teaching at all."
"I'm a top-earning tutor. Coming back to tutor her means one-on-one, math, English, everything, plus a study plan built just for her. Do you honestly think those two things are worth the same?"
Guilt flickered across my mother's face. "We're all family. Splitting hairs over this makes you look like an outsider."
"That's your own niece. She's the one who'll take care of you when you're old. Are you really going to nickel-and-dime a child?"
Whenever she had no ground to stand on, she'd fall back on the child. It was my mother's go-to move, and it always worked.
Not this time. I was about to speak when the sound of the front door opening came from the entryway.
"Auntie, you're back."
A small figure rushed over and threw her arms around me, and my heart went soft.
My mother saw it, and something calculating crossed her eyes. "Look how close Vicky is with you. You're going to tutor her and still argue over money? Think how much it'll hurt her to hear that."
I looked down at the child, and just as I hesitated, Victoria Pruitt shoved me away.
"Auntie, what does Grandma mean? You're charging me money to tutor me?"
"Didn't my mom say you still owe us twelve thousand in living expenses? She said we'd use that to buy me a tablet. If you take the money back, how am I supposed to get my tablet?"
"Auntie, if you want money, then when I grow up I won't take care of you in your old age. Let's see what you do then."
Looking at this child, not even twelve years old, watching her face slowly become her mother's face, I woke up all at once.
I'm a committed single woman. I'd said I would never marry, never have kids in this life, and my mother said fine, then treat Vicky like your own child and let her take care of you when you're old.
I only smiled at the time. But I did love her like my own.
Looking at her now, she was just another ingrate.
Seeing that I said nothing, my mother rushed to clap a hand over Victoria's mouth. "She's just a kid, she likes to run her mouth. June, you wouldn't hold it against your own niece."
"Vicky, hurry up and apologize to your aunt."
Victoria shoved my mother's hand away, planted her hands on her hips, and shouted at me. "I didn't say anything wrong. My mom said she has no kids, so when she's old she'll have to depend on me for everything, which means all her money is mine someday. I didn't say anything wrong. Isn't that what you said too?"
I turned to look at my mother. "You said that too?"
She gave an awkward little laugh. "I was just talking. But is it not true? You won't have children, so who else will you depend on when you're old but Vicky? All your money and everything will go to her in the end, obviously."
I was still young, and the whole family already had their eyes on my money.
I looked at Victoria and smiled. "You're not my child, and none of what I own will ever be yours."
"As for tutoring over summer break, I don't have time to tutor you."
Then I took out my phone and sent a message to the parent from before. "I can take your summer tutoring job now."
