03
Watching them, the tension in me finally eased a little.
If they wanted to charge ahead like this, I wasn't going to waste any more breath trying to stop them.
So I picked up the pen and wrote, without a moment's hesitation:
I voluntarily give up reclaiming my birthright with the Henson family, and I will never interfere with Carly Fox taking my place.
But my foster father turned the paper over in his hands again and again, still not satisfied.
"This isn't enough."
"Who's to say you're not just pretending to give in, planning to sneak back to the Hensons behind our backs?"
My foster mother nodded along.
"Exactly. Lucy's the best at putting on an act. Nobody schemes quieter than she does."
Carly kept her eyes lowered, playing the sweet one, her voice soft.
"Right, it's not that I don't want to trust you, sis."
"It's just that a chance at a family like that is too precious. I really can't afford to gamble on it!"
"If she changes her mind in the night and slips off to Metropolis, I'm finished."
The very idea broke my foster father out in a cold sweat. He said, in a tone that left no room for argument,
"Lucy, you're moving up to the attic. You don't set one foot out of there without our permission!"
My eyes snapped up.
I could hardly believe what I'd heard.
"There's no need for that!"
"I've already signed the statement. I won't go back on it."
My foster mother let out a sneer and shoved me hard.
"Still putting on airs! Even now you've got that dead-fish look on your face!"
"Who's going to believe you'd just hand a chance like this to your sister?"
"Get up there, now! Don't make me hit you!"
And so they dragged me up to the attic and locked me in.
The cramped space was hot and airless.
It was crammed with everything the family didn't use anymore.
I curled up in the corner, close enough to watch dust drift through the air.
From dusk into the dead of night, not one of them came up with food.
I pressed a hand to my stomach, that familiar hunger burning in my gut.
But I was used to being treated this way by now. It hardly felt worth resenting.
Downstairs, meanwhile, the mood couldn't have been livelier.
My foster parents dug out the family's savings and took Carly out shopping through the night.
They were getting ready for the wealthy family, fussing over Carly, the hope in their eyes impossible to hide.
"My Carly's just born lucky. She was made for the good life."
My foster mother held an expensive silk dress up against Carly, beaming.
"Not like some people. Hand them a gift and they spit on it, turn their nose up at a fortune just to act all high and mighty."
My foster father sat off to the side, nodding, full of feeling.
"Once Carly's in with the Hensons, this family turns everything around. No more scraping by."
Carly studied herself in the mirror, greed all over her eyes, but her voice stayed gentle.
"It's all thanks to how well you raised me, Mom, Dad. I'd never be so ungrateful as my sister and throw a chance like this away."
"Sis is just too greedy. She wants everyone to flatter her, to beg her, before she'll accept anything."
"I'm different. I only want to hold on to this and take good care of you both from now on."
The little speech left my foster parents glowing, doting on her more than ever.
Leaning against the wall, I listened quietly to the laughter downstairs.
The pop-ups scrolled through my mind again.
【Dying, looks like the whole Fox family treats Carly like a walking jackpot, waiting to strike it rich overnight.】
【They have no idea the Hensons want a perfectly obedient tool. They're not giving Carly a cent!】
【The more smug Carly is now, the more miserable she'll be later.】
I closed my eyes, calm all the way through.
She chose this road herself.
I'd warned her, I'd tried to stop her. I'd done everything I could.
Early the next morning, the Henson family butler called.
He got straight to the point.
"Miss Carly Fox, the Hensons have agreed to let you go back and reclaim the birthright in Miss Lucy Fox's place."
"You may come to the old Henson estate on your own. The exact location has already been sent to you."
